Chinese Kelp.

October 11, 2002

Dear All

Today I bought some kelp from a Chinese supermarket

in Brussels. It was not refrigerated and came in

polythene bags with seemingly fresh water.

Having been caught on cashew nuts and Brazil nuts, I

am fishing to know whether I risk being duped again.

The packet say a few encouraging words in English and

there is a fair amount of Chinese characters hence

reading the packet does not reveal anything on the

untreated state of the contents..

In the Summer I ate quite a lot of fresh kelp from the

beaches of South Devon in England. Locals say the sea is

polluted by raw sewage and last year indeed, a child caught

typhoid and died. My feeling was that the child was unlucky and that

kelp should be worth the tiny risk. Any thoughts or experience

in these two areas?

Peter

October 17, 2002

I really enjoyed reading this e-mail. Trust me. I can truly relate to this

one. The best environment to be in on a raw food " live-it, " happens to be

the warmest ones. Having lived in Jamaica for the past five years I developed

a raw food lifestyle. A way of living outside of the healthfood stores.

This is truly divine living enabling one to come home to nature. Eating what

you grow can be an extemely rewarding experience for the spirit, mind and

body.

October 17, 2002

Peter;

I found your post #2581 intriguing as I'm sure you remember, here in

Hawaii we have a very prominent Japanese culture. So I can walk into

nearly any store and buy fresh sea vegetables at very low prices. But

I dream of walking down the beach grazing on fresh kelp, or perhaps

doing a little diving. The problem is I don't know what is edible, is

there anything toxic out there?

Getting off the subject, I have a garden and grow all of my veggies.

I started growing lettuce but I found that after a time lettuce

didn't have enough taste. I changed to Kale, Swill Chard, and Collard

greens. In a moderate climate these veggies are perennials, so I can

eat without killing. I found I have formed a relationship with my

plants. I really liked this feeling, so I began foraging through the

forest for wild fruits. I can not express what a great feeling it is

to find food in the wild. I am amazed at the abundance of food

available here. There must be millions of pounds of fruit rotting on

the ground. I have completely gotten away from bananas and papayas

which have to much sugar for my system. Now if I can just forage for

my sea veggies.

Doug

October 17, 2002

Thanks Doug,

In the end I may find a reliable source for seaweed

here. Most fish mongers around here say that they

only offer it around the end of the year. This

Chinese kelp in a bag is great I think.

In the summer, I went to the Net and found images of Kelp.

I then reached the conclusion that most of the seaweed

where I was, was Kelp; there are so many varieties.

Thus I tried the " suck it and see approach "

and found the effects tremendous. I admit I was picky

but with so much around such is only natural. Probably

there are toxic and poisonous sea plants about clearly

I did not find them and I guess such would taste awful.

I seem to recall there was a large University of Hawaii.

They might know a lot about sea culture.

You are lucky to be in a warm climate. As our species

evolved in equatorial latitudes, I am sure that it was

the need to pack in more carbohydrates to go north that

lead to cooking in the first place.

You are never off subject with me when you discuss

gardening. At the start of going raw I thought lettuce

was adequate for sustaining rabbits but mean for a human.

Now I have found some deep green varieties from France

which fill the bill when spinach is not to hand. May

I suggest that with your climate you take up growing

spinach. The leaves soak up the sun and as you pick

the larger leaves so smaller ones grow to replace them.

Thus the plant lives on and will go to seed. With that

volcanic soil, you are certainly on a favoured spot on

the planet. Much like the Rift valley in Africa where

so much of life started.

Peter Gardiner

kauguy [no_reply ]

17 October 2002 15:18

rawfood

[Raw Food] Re: Chinese Kelp.