5 Kelp Facts (& Tasting!)
Coding Social went under the sea with a kelp tasting and fun kelp facts! Foods came from Barnacle Foods and included kelp:
- Pickles
- Salsa
- Hot sauce
- Chili crisp
- Furikake
- Popcorn seasoning
- & more
Check-out below the photos for five fun kelp facts from CRASHer Levi Simons.
5 Kelp Facts
- Kelp aren’t actually plants, they’re in the kingdom chromista versus plantae. Kelp is more closely related to diatoms and some kinds of mildew than true plants.
- Kelp sperm and egg cells will keep multiplying on their own in culture until hit with blue light, at which point they’ll fuse and turn into baby kelps.
- Giant kelp, which is found off of the coast of southern California, can grow up to two feet per day.
- The gel inside of kelp contains sodium alginate. This is often used as a food additive as a thickener, such as being added to ice cream to prevent freezer burn. It is also used in molecular gastronomy to perform spherification (akin to making synthetic caviar).
- Kelp has been used as a fertilizer for centuries, even up to the present day.
Want to learn more about kelp? Check out classes from Maine Seaweed Exchange for a new perspective on the food.