Cascade Naturals

Dulse is a red seaweed with flat, fan-shaped fronds that grows from the temperate to frigid zones of the Atlantic and Pacific. Dulse makes a great addition to salads. This alkaline vegetable is an excellent source of iron and many trace minerals. It also contains iodine and manganese which activate enzyme systems. This seaweed is dry and keeps for many months.

Palmaria palmata, or dulse is reddish brown and is accounted a delicacy by many. It has doubtless been harvested for many, many a century but the earliest recording of it is 1400 years ago; St Columba and the monks of Iona ate it. Icelandic peoples also used it from early times. Now it is being cultivated and sold as a gourmet food. In Nova Scotia it is called Sea Parsley and is sold fresh. The Irish call it "dilisk" or "dillisk" and you can buy it as a snack food in some pubs.

You can just harvest it yourself from rocks where it has dried in the sun. It grows in the inter-tidal regions, so it is relatively easy to access. If you are concerned about salt levels (sodium) you can soak it overnight in a mixture of milk and water.

Dulse is exceptionally nutritious, containing around 10 - 20% protein and a whole slew of vitamins and minerals, including magnesium, iron and beta carotene (which the body uses to manufacture vitamin A.) It is now being farmed in Ireland and elsewhere for its health benefits and for making skin care and cosmetic products.