The Sea Gardener featured on Nationwide recently. 

On Friday March 20th, the spring equinox, solar eclipse and a full moon all aligned to create one of the best tides for seaweed foraging. So we headed to the strand and talked about seaweed uses, seaweed cookery and Hilitetv captured it all on film in the beautiful setting of Kilfarassey Strand, near Fenor, Co.Waterford. On this seaweed workshop, we could all see where the phrase Sea Garden originated - looking at the amazing rock pools and what was growing and living in them, and learn from The Sea Gardener how they could make us more healthy and how to connect fully with the source of our food and experience the living earth.

The piece also included a visit to the kitchen in which The Sea Gardener foods  - snack bars and caponata - are made, and a tasting at the local Supervalu store in Tramore

Click on this link to see the piece:

http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10407838/

http://www.rte.ie/.../#pos=389

Come and see us at the Courtyard, Curraghmore at the inaugral Bluebell Festival on Sunday May 3rd.

https://www.facebook.com/CurraghmoreBluebellFestivalinassociationwithSERT?fref=ts

We'll have lots of seaweed goodies, old Waterford favourites like Dilisk and Sleabhcan, and tips on seaweed uses you might be surprised by! Our book The Sea Garden, now in it's 2nd print run, has everything for the forage and seaweed cookery enthusiast.

The source of our food is something I’ve been interested in for a long time and it seems very topical right now. Food labelling is not as reassuring as people may have thought or so it appears from the horsemeat in beefburgers scandal. Overfishing is depleting stocks of most species worldwide. The energy required to produce one calorie of food is about 12 calories, using intensive farming methods.

We share the elements of all life planet – carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen along with sulphur, phosphorus, calcium, iron etc. These elements cycle through our bodies as we consume them in food and water. We are part of a whole ecosystem and as our numbers increase, we are becoming more aware of shortages in all resources – the ones we use directly in food and those used to grow/process/transport/cook that food.

Some of the comments by participants:

“Thanx to both yourself & Kevin for a marvellous, natural experience. We brought a load of seaweed home & found it very easy to identify each type – once we had stretched it out & used your book as a guide. I loved it but kinda knew that it’d be class. The big thrill for me was seeing the kick that my family got out of it.”