A Quick and Easy Guide to Processing Kelps and Seaweeds

In Oregon, our seaweed foraging season is relatively short for live seaweeds (seaweeds still attached to the rocks). Therefore, it’s important to know how to process and store these seaweeds for future use. 

Unless I want a fresh kelp salad right off the beach, most of the seaweeds that I forage during the Oregon seaweed foraging season (March 1 - June 15) are being dried. You don’t need any fancy machinery to dry them!

If you have a dehydrator, that is great, especially for your smaller seaweeds. Simply set smaller seaweeds on trays on one of your lower settings until they’re dry. For large kelps, I cut them into strips to make them more manageable for the dehydrator and the jars you will likely store them in.

If you don’t have a dehydrator, that is also great! For large kelps, I am almost always hanging them from a clothes hanger in my warm living room. Your whole house will smell like low-tide and it is wonderful. Mine happen to go in a sunny window and dry relatively fast if it’s warm. If you’d like them to be in more manageable strips you can cut them before drying. For strips and smaller seaweeds, I use an old clean dish rack and hang the seaweed on it over a tray. They will dry pretty quickly!

Keep in mind seaweeds are really really good at reabsorbing moisture, so if it becomes damp outside and you have a window open while they are hanging, they will become damp. Simply let them dry back out as long as they haven’t been damp and actively rotting. (smell test is great!)

Store them in a sealed glass jar. If you have a silica pack you can throw it in there with them. If you don’t, it’s not a problem just make sure the jar is sealed and doesn’t get damp. 

The dried whole pieces of seaweed can be utilized as is in soups and stocks. I will often grind these dried seaweeds up and make different seaweed seasonings and blends to use in all sorts of cooking.