Help researchers track the fascinating history of seaweed eating in Cornwall

Researchers need the help of communities in Cornwall to help trace the fascinating history of seaweed eating.

There has been a seaweed culinary revival in recent years, but people have eaten it for thousands of years.

Seaweed’s historical use as a food seems to be less well remembered in Cornwall compared to Scotland, Wales and Ireland, where there are still living memories of foraging for and cooking with laver, dulse and carrageen.

Now a research team are putting together a new ‘seaweed eating archive’ for Cornwall.

They hope to record information about how people in Cornwall may have eaten seaweed in the past, how seaweed is being consumed today, and how this might be changing.

People can submit stories, memories, recipes and other accounts of everyday seaweed use from around Cornwall. Anonymous submissions are being collected until 31 December 2025. At the end of the project, the archive will be deposited at Kresen Kernow.

The project is a collaboration between Kerry Holbrook and Ruth Klückers from The Seaweed Institute, a social enterprise with the aim of promoting sustainable and joyful engagement with seaweed, and Giulia Nicolini from the University of Exeter. The project is funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Giulia said: “The use of seaweed as a food appears to be largely absent from archives in Cornwall, even though its other uses – for example, as a fertilizer – are comparatively well documented. This contradicts a widespread belief that seaweed would have been eaten by coastal populations throughout history, including in Cornwall.”

“We hope building the archive will act as a ‘conversation starter’ about seaweed, food and the foreshore. Whether you regularly cook with shop-bought seaweed, forage for dulse and sea lettuce at low tide, ate laver as a child, or just tried sushi once – we want to hear from you.” 

The research team will gather recipes, stories, memories and reflections about seaweed eating from around Cornwall via cards people can fill in at pop-up events and online.

There is a pop-up exhibition showcasing seaweed eating in Cornwall at Kresen Kernow, in Redruth, until 30 October. There will be a free event where people can taste and make their own artworks with different species of seaweed on Saturday 18 October.

Anyone with a connection to Cornwall is invited to contribute to the archive. Submitting an entry is quick, easy and free, and all contributions are anonymous.