][1]There’s a lovely story in yesterday’s Scotland On Sunday about an enterprising bloke on the Isle of Bute who has started harvesting and selling seaweed to restaurants.
Made redundant from his job as a milkman, Iain Mckellar took a look around and wondered if there might be a market for the different types of sea vegetables which grow on the island’s shore.
It’s packed with nutrients and vitamins so people have eaten seaweed since the dawn of time but Mckellar has moved the practice into the 21st century with his online seaweed mail service at Just Seaweed.
From Red Tandy to Sea Lettuce via Bladderwrack, Mckellar has been packaging up his local seaweed and selling it to restaurants such as Marcus Wareing at The Berkley in London and L’Enclume in Cumbria.
His website has recipes and tips for the best use of the different sorts of seaweed. If you fancy an egg and seaweed flan then look no further.
It reminds me a bit of Acquamara, the Hebridean company who are filtering, bottling and selling sea water to chefs like Roy Brett at Edinburgh’s Ondine and the J Sheekey restaurant in London.