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Seaweed is Good for You and Can Be Tasty, Too (Video)
When you think of garage-based tech start-ups, hardware makers like Apple or data-manipulators like Google probably spring to mind before biotech, and way before farming. Lewis Weil, though, has for the last several years been perfecting the art of growing seaweed in central Texas, and his Austin Sea Veggies have garnered interest from gourmets and restaurants across the U.S. In large part, that's because seaweed is so useful for industrial purposes, it's getting harder to find eating seaweed these days. Lewis says there's nothing stopping anyone with an interest in aquaculture in emulating his success as an inland ocean farmer, but has some cautions, too -- when small things go wrong, or a record heatwave overcomes humans' puny air conditioning systems, your seaweed harvest can fail just like any other crop. Update: 09/19 16:40 GMT by T : Now with transcript! If video's too slow and linear, click below to read what Lewis had to say.
I make a point to grab a box of "Laver", which is roasted seaweed in salt and oil, every time I go to the local Asian grocer. It's delicious, and way better than corn chips, while still taking care of my need for crunch.
This be an appropriate story for Talk Like a Pirate Day, matey! http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
- Japanese think everything tastes better with seaweed on it.
- Chinese think everything tastes better with green onions on it.
- Indians think everything tastes better with white onions on it.
- Koreans think everything tastes better with garlic and red chilis on it.
- Malaysians think everything tastes better with coconut flakes on it.
- Vietnamese think everything tastes better with spearmint on it.
- Hawaiians think everything tastes better with pineapple on it.
- Thais think everything tastes better with crushed peanuts on it.
- Iranians think everything tastes better with apricots on it.
- Turks think everything tastes better with sumac on it.
- Texans think everything tastes better with jalapenos on it.
- Californians think everything tastes better with avocados on it.
- Wisconsinites think everything tastes better with cheese on it.
- New Englanders think everything tastes better with cream cheese on it.
- English think everything tastes better with malt vinegar on it.
- Canadians think everything tastes better with white vinegar on it.
- Italians think everything tastes better with olive oil and balsamic vinegar on it.
- Russians think everything tastes better with red beets on it.
- Mexicans think everything tastes better with mole on it.
- Calvinists think everything tastes better with nothing on it.
- Southern Baptists think everything tastes better with bbq sauce on it.
- Catholics think everything tastes better with sour cream on it.
- Egyptians think everything tastes better on top of bread.
- Ethiopians think everything tastes better on top of injera.
- Hungarians think everything tastes better with ajvar on it.
- Costa Ricans think everything tastes better with Linzano on it.
- Cameroonians think everything tastes better with Maggie sauce on it.
- Bulgarians think everything tastes better with sunflower oil on it.
- Peruvians think everything tastes better with chili paste on it.
Grown here in Maine, and tastes great. I make a habit to purchase a bag every month. Seaweed is very nutritious, so may call it a super food.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Limited water supply is a problem in central Texas with restrictions and rationing becoming more frequent. Fortunately this seaweed farm is small. There have been other water intensive operations that have been shutdown, like a catfish farm outside of San Antonio that wastefully used tens of millions of gallons each year from the aquifer. It was only shutdown because they were discharging water into the rivers without a permit. The Rice farmers on the coast have been getting large releases every year from the lakes though the Colorado river, but not this year due to drought.
Some places are not suitable for water intensive uses.
I know you're joking, but pot does NOT cause schitzophrenia; it's a cart-and-horse correlation thing. Undiagnosed schitzophrenics are self-medicating; the schitzophrenia comes first. Pot doesn't make you crazy, but crazy people are more likely to smoke pot (it is illegal, after all).
Free Martian Whores!
Woah, a little tense there pal ... did you know that supplements like Natrol (R) 5-HTP can help keep your moods calm?
Precipitates schizophrenia is not the same as causes schizophrenia. For something to be precipitated it has to exist in the first place. The research shows that it MAY precipitate early onset schizophrenia. So if you're over 30 and have never had a schizo break smoking pot won't do anything (except make you stupid :) ).
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
The Japanese eat a heck of a lot of seaweed, which puts an unusually high amount of iodine in their diet, which has some health benefits. The problem for this farmed seaweed is that I can't find any indication that this grower is adding any form of iodine to the under-water soil, let alone a form that is easy to absorb.
I saw a video from one of these "prepper" people who pointed out that you don't need to take multivitamins as long as you eat a balanced diet of vegetables grown in virgin soil. We have to supplement because most farmland is depleated of trace nutrients, and the organics are only marginally better. So maybe his seaweed tastes good, but I doubt it's a good source of iodine.
Don't be fooled by imitations.
Not all the footage shot made the final video, but Lewis said that though he started out at the farmer's market, the demand from restaurants become so great that basically he's outgrown it now. (Between realizing that the seaweed he was already growing was edible and standing in front of a banner at the farmer's market, he says was only about 2 weeks.)
But being at Wheatsville, that's close enough to a farmer's market, eh? ;)
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
This reminds me of Oprah and her ilk with the near-weekly bits about how to eat healthy with organics, garden-fresh veggies, and exotic whatevers over nasty and dangerous store-bought, processed or fast foods.
Somehow, they always gloss over the part that it only works if you're indpendently wealthy and can easily afford both the time and monetary expenditures required. Hell, they can't even do it themselves, but have to rely on a guest with multiple assistants and a Deus Ex Machina uber kitchen that would cost more than an average US home.
For a male context, just think of Norm on New Yankee Workshop in his six-figure setup saying: "All you need is..."
Right, while the rest of us who DO use ad-blockers participate in really intelligent discussions like making some fucking hippy ridiculously wealthy by eating fucking weeds of the sea, because it's trendy.
A reply from Timothy and a front page mention (pokey9000) in one day, I'm honored!
Small scale, high tech agriculture is becoming a big thing in the area. There's a company not far from Austin that recently had a successful Kickstarter for a mostly automated modular greenhouse system (search for Horto Domi).