Parts of the plant used:  leaf

When plant should be gathered:  February through May

Plant applications:  food

Reported Benefits:  food

Preparation/Processing:  Food:  People dry or partially dry seaweed, crumble it, and use it as seasoning in a variety of dishes. They eat it with rice and fish and in soups. It is used fresh or dried, raw or cooked. They also dip it in oil or pour oil over it first softening the dried plant in warm water. Today partially dried laver is commonly frozen for future use.

FYI:  (Digestibility of Algae)  Much has yet to be learned of the digestibility of algae. Apparently, due to their complex carbohydrates, or polysaccharides, they can be difficult to digest. Eidlitz (1969) comments, "It seems ...that algae are ...difficult to digest; extensive processing is required before they can become beneficial to man." However, Madlener (1977) claims the digestibility of "sea vegetables" can be enhanced through conditioning of the digestive tract by successive consumption of seaweeds over a period of about a week. This is borne out by one report on Inuit use: "The Angmagssalik Eskimos state that they get stomach pains from eating large quantities of seaweed after a long period without it. But after a few days' training they can again eat it without stomach pain" (Eidlitz, 1969). On the Arctic coast seaweeds were important as a general famine food: "Both summer and winter they [Inuit of Frobisher Bay] collect kelp and eat it, but only as a sort of luxury, except in cases of great scarcity of food, and then they fall back upon this resource" (Hall, 1865). Similarly, Eidlitz (1969) reported that the Greenland Eskimos "...never starve as long as they have blubber and there is seaweed near the settlement to be gathered and eaten."

Significantly, some traditional techniques of preparation of seaweeds may have increased their digestibility. The Kwakwaka'wakw (Southern Kwakuit1), for example, formerly prepared cakes of red laver (Porphyra perforata) by covering the harvested seaweed and allowing it to decompose for 4-5 days, then pressing it into wood frames and drying it in the sun. The resulting cakes were than placed in cedar-wood boxes in layers alternating with layers of chiton juice (obtained by chewing the chiton and spitting out the saliva) and young boughs of red-cedar (Thuja plicata). When the box was filled, it was weighted with several large rocks, tied down with rope, and left for about a month. Then the entire process was repeated, altogether four times. Finally, the cakes were packed in a box without cedar boughs and stored for winter, when they were eaten with dried salmon at tribal feasts. At this time, they were torn into strips, chopped with adzes, chewed, and put into a large dish. Water was poured over the top, and the seaweed was stirred and allowed to boil for a long time. Then eulachon oil (cf. Kuhnlein et al., 1982) was added and the mixture was served in small dishes and eaten with spoons by the guests (Boas, 1921; Turner and Bell, 1973). This process must surely have aided in the breakdown of the seaweed's polysaccharides into simpler, more digestible sugars.