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Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#51

Post by Cerium »

vjk800 wrote: post #43

I've thought about harvesting and eating seaweed which is basically everywhere near my home village. I've never heard of anyone eating it and I've been wondering why. How would I go about figuring out if a particular species of seaweed is edible or not (Google doesn't seem to help me in this)?

It is my understanding that all seaweed is safe to eat, but many taste bad. Water quality is a greater health concern than species.

Here is some information: https://gallowaywildfoods.com/an-introduction-to-seaweed-for...

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#52

Post by cmrdporcupine »

tecleandor wrote: post #25
HeckFeck wrote: post #17

Some of us still do! In Northern Ireland, we have a lesser-known seaweed dish called Dulce. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180522-the-renaissance-... It's tricky to find it fresh, you usually only get it in small greengrocers or at the Auld Lammas fair. Used to be quite cheap for a bag. Very salty but quite edible and said to be nutrient-dense.

Kind of funny it's salty but it's called dulce/dulse (Spanish for 'sweet'). I'd love to know the pronunciation for 'Duileasg'

The etymology is completely distinct tho, not a cognate.

From Old Irish duilesc (compare Scottish Gaelic duileasg), from Proto-Celtic doliskos, duliskos (compare Welsh delysg), from Proto-Indo-European dʰelh₁- (“to bloom, be green”) (compare duille (“leaf”)).

Whereas Latin 'dulcis' comes from PIE dl̥kús ("sweet")

Actually probably cognate with Latin 'folium' (Italian foglia, French 'feuille'). EDIT: Actually no. Not sure there's a Latin cognate at all; the dʰelh₁ PIE doesn't seem to have evolved to "Leaf" in Latin and the Greek word for "bloom" was borrowed instead? Something like that.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#55

Post by giraffe_lady »

vjk800 wrote: post #43

I've thought about harvesting and eating seaweed which is basically everywhere near my home village. I've never heard of anyone eating it and I've been wondering why. How would I go about figuring out if a particular species of seaweed is edible or not (Google doesn't seem to help me in this)?

You got to find a local foraging group or just knowledgeable individual. If it's edible someone is eating it. But practical foraging is dominated by local concerns like microseasons, regional land/industrial history, soil & water quality etc.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#57

Post by [deleted] »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #52
tecleandor wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of funny it's salty but it's called dulce/dulse (Spanish for 'sweet'). I'd love to know the pronunciation for 'Duileasg'

The etymology is completely distinct tho, not a cognate. From Old Irish duilesc (compare Scottish Gaelic duileasg), from Proto-Celtic doliskos, duliskos (compare Welsh delysg), from Proto-Indo-European dʰelh₁- (“to bloom, be green”) (compare duille (“leaf”)). Whereas Latin 'dulcis' comes from PIE dl̥kús ("sweet") Actually probably cognate with Latin 'folium' (Italian foglia, French 'feuille'). EDIT: Actually no. Not…

[deleted]

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#58

Post by Scoundreller »

adrian_b wrote: post #24
kaycebasques wrote: post #3

Makes a lot of sense. It's packed with vitamins and minerals, is presumably a decent way to get salt, and is captive/passive/non-attacking prey! For Bay Area people, there are companies that teach seaweed foraging: what types to look for, where to look, healthy versus "on the toilet all day", etc. Always nice to have another excuse to go to the beach, especially at unusual hours (such as before dawn to catch a low ti…

The most important benefit might have been the high content of iodine, which is usually insufficient in terrestrial food. Obviously they did not have iodized salt, like us, to provide the required iodine. They might have noticed that eating a little amount of seaweed will prevent illness. For omega-3 fatty acids, they had much better food sources in bone marrow or in fish (the multicellular algae have very low conten…

> Obviously they did not have iodized salt, like us, to provide the required iodine.

Some places still (mostly) don’t. A notable exception (I’m sure there are others but not as well reported) is Israel where iodized salt isn’t a regulatory requirement and not very popular, with (predictable) widespread deficiencies:

https://ijhpr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13584-020-...

https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/2017-03-27/ty-art...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170327083438.h...

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#59

Post by beebeepka »

pstuart wrote: post #32
HeckFeck wrote: post #17

Some of us still do! In Northern Ireland, we have a lesser-known seaweed dish called Dulce. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180522-the-renaissance-... It's tricky to find it fresh, you usually only get it in small greengrocers or at the Auld Lammas fair. Used to be quite cheap for a bag. Very salty but quite edible and said to be nutrient-dense.

Here in Oregon we're farming Dulse and it seems to be taking off: https://www.oregonseaweed.com/ Apparently when prepared right it tastes like bacon.

I love all sorts of green things and gave up on meat a while ago but seaweed with a taste of bacon sounds amazing.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#60

Post by cmrdporcupine »

[deleted] wrote: post #57
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The etymology is completely distinct tho, not a cognate. From Old Irish duilesc (compare Scottish Gaelic duileasg), from Proto-Celtic doliskos, duliskos (compare Welsh delysg), from Proto-Indo-European dʰelh₁- (“to bloom, be green”) (compare duille (“leaf”)). Whereas Latin 'dulcis' comes from PIE dl̥kús ("sweet") Actually probably cognate with Latin 'folium' (Italian foglia, French 'feuille'). EDIT: Actually no. Not…

[deleted]

Yeah see my edit, it seems clear to me that the bʰleh₃- is the origin, and Latin never got the dʰelh₁- derivation.
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