19, June 2025
Culture Forager, Vol. 12
This edition of Culture Forager is dedicated to one of our favourite ingredients: seaweed. This sustainability superhero doesn’t need land, fertiliser or watering to grow, provides habitat for sea creatures and absorbs lots of CO₂. There are over 650 species of seaweed growing around the UK, but most of us know very little about them. Summer’s the perfect season to change that, so here's the seaweed listings guide you didn’t know you needed...
THE FORAGING WALK
Photo: Rachel Lambert
Take a guided walk with a seaweed expert, learn about different species and harvest some ocean-grown goodness for yourself. Organised seaweed foraging walks are happening on beaches all over the UK this summer, so search online to find out what’s on near you. Here are some we foraged earlier:
Seaweed Foraging course with award-winning foraging and cooking author, Rachel Lambert. Trenow, West Cornwall, monthly dates. Adults £55, ‘pay what you can’ places available.
Cowie Shore Seaweeds, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, 14th July. Booking essential, suggested donation £1.
Foraging Seaweeds course with Rewilding and Us, Worthing, West Sussex. 29th June or 24th August, £45.
THE ART WORKSHOP
Photo: Molesworth & Bird
Before photography was a thing, marine botanists recorded seaweed specimens by pressing them on to paper, preserving their wonderful shades and shapes. The results were so beautiful that seaweed pressing became a Victorian art form – and you can try it yourself. Search online for seaweed pressing workshops near you, or try one of these:
Seaweed Pressing Workshop with Molesworth & Bird, various dates (next class: 26th June, September dates coming soon), Lyme Regis, Dorset. £95.
Seaweed Foraging and Pressing Workshop with The Seaweed Institute, 29th June, Cornubian Arts & Science Trust (CAST), Helston, Cornwall. Tickets £27.80.
Seaweed Pressing and Soap Making at Living Seas Centre, 23rd July or 15th August, Flamborough, East Riding of Yorkshire. Tickets £16.31.
THE WELLNESS EXPERIENCE
Photo: Wild Atlantic Sea Baths
When Victorians weren’t pressing seaweed, they were bathing in it. In the elegant seaside resorts along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, people indulged in seaweed baths. This restorative wellness ritual involved soaking in hot ocean water infused with the mineral-rich algae. As people become more aware of the benefits of seaweed, the baths have made a comeback. If you can’t make it to Ireland, try our restorative Seaweed & Citrus Body Wash, made with hand-harvested, organic rock wrack from Scotland. If you can get to Ireland…
Sink into a whiskey barrel seaweed bath with views of the Cliffs of Moher at Wild Atlantic Sea Baths, Doolin Pier, County Clare. From €60.00.
Soak in an Edwardian porcelain seaweed bath at Kilcullen’s Seaweed Baths, est. 1912 in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo. From €30.00.
THE BOOK
Feeling as intrigued by seaweed as we are? MakeThe Seaweed Revolution by Vincent Doumeizel your holiday read. Co-founder of the Global Seaweed Coalition, Doumeizel explores the fascinating potential of marine algae to replace plastic, clean up oceans, cool down the planet and change our world.
‘The Seaweed Revolution: How Seaweed Has Shaped Our Past and Can Save Our Future’ by Vincent Doumeizel, translated from the French by Charlotte Coombe. Hardback, Legend Press, RRP £18.99. Available on Kindle, £8.99.
THE CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT
The Big Seaweed Search at Rottingdean. Photo by Billy Barraclough for the Marine Conservation Society.
Learning where and how seaweed is growing gives scientists crucial information about climate change. Help the Marine Conservation Society and the Natural History Museum with their research by taking part in the Big Seaweed Search. You don’t have to live near the coast to join in, you could just be visiting. It’s the perfect excuse for a trip to the beach to connect with Nature – and a chance to do your bit for the planet.
The Big Seaweed Search, 26th-30th July 2025, UK-wide, FREE. Details on how to take part here.
If you enjoyed this, you might like:
Save the Bees! Protecting Our Precious Pollinators
The Health Benefits of Seaweed
