- This is my dog, Flora Jane.

She is a trained truffle dog.

She's very good at her job.

But in the summertime, she's a seaweed and sea urchin d And one time, I swear, I was trying to find kombu.

And I said, "Flora Jane, go find me Kombu."

And she went and she kind of barked next to it.

I think it was probably a fluke.

I don't think she knows- - Yeah.

- Her seaweeds that well.

But she's out here a lot and she does like it.

(upbeat music) - Today on "Geronimo Eats the Ba we're out here on the foggy Sono I'm here with my friend Maria Fi chef, author of "Forage Gather F and the founder of Flora and Fungi Adventures.

It's a low tide today, and we're going to forge some se And then we're going to do a little taste test.

Ready to go?

- Yeah, let's do it.

- Let's go.

(soothing R&B music) - This is nori.

The nori we normally get in stor has been made into sheets with kind of a papermaking tradi It's one millimeter thick.

It has a really nice mouth feel.

It's super mild too.

- Yeah.

- So it's very versatile.

And these are much more delicious than the sheets.

Okay, that one's kind of sandy.

(pair laughing) - I'm just munching now.

- Yeah, I know.

Everything out here is edible.

Some of it might be thick and ru Some of it might have a weird af But you can literally come out here and taste things, which, you know, you can't do with, say, wild mushrooms.

You really want to go to somewhe that is not close to a city 'cause you don't want runoff pol - Yeah.

- I mean, the best part of foraging seaweed is coming out to a coast like this at sunrise on a low tide.

- Yes.

- The little tide pools are just (soothing R&B music) We're just starting to be able t but Turkish towel- - Oh yeah.

- Is all over here.

- [Geronimo] I mean, I love how they look like a towel.

- [Maria] It's something you don't want to eat.

Like, you think mouth feel.

- Yeah.

- It's too rough and textury.

- Yeah.

- But what I love to do with thi is I dry them- - Yeah.

- And I keep them in my shower.

- Yeah.

- And it works like a loofah.

- It's very abrasive, yeah.

- It's very abrasive, but it has all the yummy mineral The other one that is quite comm in the shallow zone is bladderwr It's also known as fucus.

Some people call it rockweed.

- Yeah.

- It is crunchy and mild.

I'll often pickle this and put it in salads.

- I like the texture.

- Yeah.

We are in seaweed season- - Yeah.

- But we are heading out of it.

What happens is the Pacific storms come in.

And they kind of yank it- - Yeah.

- All out to sea.

Before it goes, it tosses its spores onto the rocks.

So when the springtime comes and we get lots of sunlight, then it starts to grow.

It's a massive sequester of carb This is an incredibly important of the ecosystem as well.

It's kind of filtering everythin coming from the land into the se and then from the sea into the l And it's habitat for many, many (soothing upbeat music) This really bright green is the sea lettuce.

Probably my favorite seaweed, fl Sea lettuce, also known as ulva.

When you dry this, it kind of smells like truffles.

This is a lovely one and it's ve You can legally take 10 wet poun when you're out here foraging.

You do not want to clean 10 pounds of seaweed.

- Yeah, that's a lot of processing to do.

- Because they'll have these little insects on them.

You kind of have to scrape that You have to find a space to dry It's such bounty, but the work really starts when you get home.

- Oh.

Hi.

- Right now, things are looking kind of calm, but this part of the coast is kind of known for sweeper wav First thing you do before you ever go foraging on the coast is check your weather.

How strong are the winds and the How high are the waves?

And how short is the time between the waves?

- Yeah.

- You just always have to have a healthy respect for th - [Geronimo] Yeah.

- The water's coming a little fa to get to the forest of kombu, but there's a lot of kombu in he This is where the whole theory of umami came from.

When this dries, it gets a dusty layer on it.

Don't brush that off 'cause that's your umami.

They're kind of gooey, so.

You can taste it.

- Oh, okay.

Going to take a bite.

- Uh-huh.

Thick, crunchy, mild.

- Yeah, it kind of reminds me of, like, fruit leather.

- Yeah.

- When you dry it out.

- Right?

- Ooh, slimy.

- What, you got a slimy bite?

- Yeah.

Can make some sushi.

- Yeah.

- It's so pretty.

Smells like ocean.

(pair laughing) - Smells like intertidal zone.

- [Geronimo] Yeah.

(upbeat alternative music) - When you're talking about, lik foraged food being healthy.

A big part of that health elemen is being in nature.

The wild food is just sort of th to get you out there.

But the real health benefit is t - [Geronimo] Flora, come here.

- I don't mind.

- Flora.

I've heard people complain.

They're like, "California doesn't have seasons."

And I'm like, "Every two weeks there's a new season."

Everything's shifting all the ti And you get excited.

You get excited about a low tide You get excited 'cause it's rain and there's going to be mushroom - Yeah.

- And you really feel a strong sense of stewardship an and relationship with nature aro And I think it's a lifelong rela - Yeah, I'm kind of shocked, rig Like, look at this abundance of seaweed we have.

And you just don't see it a lot in our food out here.

And you know, with California cu being local and seasonal, I want to see this more on menus So we just finished up some fora and now we're going to taste some delicious seaweed compound that Maria has made.

- So this is actually from seawe that has been dried.

So this has a little bit of this bladderwrack fucus in it It has some nori, and it has som I just use salted butter, and I mix the seaweed into it.

And it is really that simple.

It'll keep infusing it.

It has this really lovely minera - I eat butter like cheese.

That's what I do.

- Yeah.

No, it's delicious.

It is cheese, basically.

- Ooh, this looks so good.

Here we go.

Very good.

There's a bit more umami.

The fat from the butter draws out a lot of the salinity.

- This is very sustainable down the food chain, you know, easy and inexpensive w to get the health benefits of se - Yeah, well, one thing I think the more we normalize eating sea and, like, getting people to learn more about it, the more we can integrate it into our culture.

- Right, and I think that, like, introducing anything, you take what's common- - Yes.

- And known and you put in something- - Yeah.

- A little uncommon.

- Yes.

- And then it's acceptable.

- [Geronimo] Yes.

- [Maria] Stop it.

- [Videographer] She wants seafo - [Maria] Yeah.

- That's it for this episode.

Thank you so much, Maria, for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us.

Because of you and Flora and Fungi Adventures is the whole reason I got into foraging in the first place.

Where can viewers find you?

- Flora and Fungi Adventures web just floraandfungiadventures.com You can join our newsletter.

So follow us and see what's comi And get outside.

- Yeah.

Awesome.

That's a wrap on this episode of "Geronimo Eats the Bay."

From NorCal Public Media, I'm Geronimo Ramos, and I'll see you in the next one (upbeat music) Hi, everyone.

Geronimo here.

This show is supported by Public Media viewers like you.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like and subscribe.

And consider donating to NorCal Public Media so we can keep making quality co and I can continue eating the ba Visit norcalpublicmedia.org/dona And I'll see you out there.

(upbeat music)