A particularly low low tide (-1.862 ft / -56.75 cm) turned this Northern California beach into a special garden with many varieties of seaweeds, some of them edible, like kelp, nori, rockweed and sea lettuce.
I didn't harvest any seaweed the day I took the photos, but I have in the past and have some at hand for use in the kitchen.
There were also tufts of seagrass.
Note the interesting shape of the rock on the top left.
This is my contribution to edition #135 of Black and White Wednesday - A Culinary Photography Event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar, and hosted this week by Sreevalli of Ammaji Recipes.
The photos were shot in color and then converted to black and white (Lightroom preset B&WLook 5).
The gallery of images contributed to the event.
Wonderful perspective, love the idea of a garden of seaweed!
Posted by: diary of a tomato | June 21, 2014 at 05:48 AM
Thank you, Debra. I don't get to see it often, which makes the view even more precious.
Posted by: Simona Carini | June 21, 2014 at 03:41 PM
Beautiful shots!
By the way, I sometimes wonder how they raise/harvest seaweed for culinary purposes...
Posted by: Frank @Memorie di Angelina | June 22, 2014 at 08:21 AM
Hi Frank. Good question! I am not sure about seaweed farming, but I know that one can harvest seaweed along the coast, subject to limits depending on the entity that manages the beach (State, County, etc.) and also to good harvesting practices. I went once with a friend who knows all of the above, so I followed her instructions.
There is a bit of process involved to clean, dry and then prepare the seaweeds for storage, but it is worth it. For example, I always use a piece of kombu when I cook legumes or make certain soups.
Posted by: Simona Carini | June 23, 2014 at 03:22 PM