Seaweed Farming Scotland is taking a vertically integrated approach to making seaweed accessible to consumers, launching a range of speciality food products under the Selkie Seaweed label.
In recent years, there has been lots of hype about seaweed’s potential as a nutritious, sustainable foodstuff, but this hasn’t materialised into products.
The consumer arm of Seaweed Farming Scotland is hoping to succeed where others have failed by translating native seaweed into formats that are familiar, tasty and easy to use, and leading with seaweed’s flavour-enhancing attributes.
“Seaweed is a pretty loaded health food – it contains vitamins, minerals, iodine, antioxidants and fibre, but we’re more about showing how seaweed can make food enjoyable,” founder Lawrie Stove told FFD.
The company grows three seaweed varieties (kombu, dulse and wakame) on ropes in pristine waters off the west coast of Scotland, harvesting them at peak nutrition. It then converts the wet crop into dried seaweed and mills it into flakes and powders for adding to food products.
Stove explained:“If you add the seaweed to a casserole or a soup, the glutamate will really enhance and enrich the flavours of the other ingredients.” Selkie Seaweed has built a range of ‘gourmet’ food products around this quality: two trail mixes – one a mix of five omega-3 seeds, cranberries and goji berries, and the other a blend of almonds, pecans, pistachios, sour cherries, cranberries and 70% cocoa drops. The line-up also includes two seasonings; a seaweed & salt that is a collaboration with Blackthorn Scottish Sea Salt, and a seaweed & cracked black pepper.
Lastly, Selkie Seaweed has teamed up with Glasgow’s Wee Knob of Butter to produce a seaweed butter. The range is currently stocked through a mix of farm shops, food halls and chef-led outlets, alongside D2C sales. Independent retail is a key focus.
This article first appeared in the March issue of Fine Food Digest.
