Photo: Steve Lonhart / NOAA MBNMS, Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
Winged Kelp
Alaria marginata
Also known as Winged Kelp, Ribbed Kelp, American Wakame, Pacific Wakame
Key benefits
✦Traditional uses
✦Along the rocky, surf-pounded shores of the Pacific Northwest, coastal peoples have long gathered Alaria marginata at low tide, eating the tender young blades fresh off the rocks or drying them for the long winter months ahead. Its ribbon-like fronds and pale midrib made it easy to recognize and easy to pack home in baskets, and it became a staple mineral-rich food and a valued item of trade between coastal communities. Because its texture and gentle flavor resemble the wakame of Japanese cuisine, modern foragers often call it American wakame and use it much the same way, softened into soups, broths, and salads. Like other kelps, it has traditionally been used as a way to bring iodine and minerals into the diet during seasons when fresh greens were scarce.
How to grow & use it
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- ✦Kombu
- ✦Miso
- ✦Dulse
- ✦Wakame (Undaria pinnatifida)
- ✦Kombu (Saccharina species)
“When the tide has just pulled back and you want the mineral memory of the sea in a bowl of broth.”
Alaria marginata is one of the fastest-growing seaweeds on the Pacific coast, capable of rebuilding several feet of blade in a single growing season after winter storms have torn its fronds to shreds.
Winged Kelp is naturally very high in iodine, so eating large or regular amounts can disrupt thyroid function, especially if you have a thyroid condition or take thyroid medication. Like other seaweeds it can also accumulate heavy metals from the water it grows in, so buy from a reputable, tested source or harvest only from clean coastline.