Seaweed images: Credit Alison Moore

A look at people and seaweed over the centuries, in Scotland and Japan, through film, stories and refreshments.

The 2022 film Seaweed by Julia Parks brings together voices of seaweed harvesters and alginate workers today with archive footage and folklore, amidst the swirl of the sea. Rebecca Marr looks back at the history of seaweed in Orkney as food for humans, animals and the soil and then as a source of kelp for British industry.

Giulia Nicolini, who is researching seaweed as a food at Exeter University, makes some interesting comparisons with Japan and describes how the seaweed industry there was saved by the research of a British scientist, Dr Kathleen Drew-Baker. In 1951 when production had all but ceased of the red alga (nori) essential for sushi wraps, a Japanese biologist came upon her work and put it into superbly successful effect.

And there’s an opportunity to taste seaweed in various forms, which extend to chocolate and Skaill House gin. Kanako Mano of Sakura Kitchen in Kirkwall is going to make onigiri — filled rice balls wrapped in seaweed, one with a salmon filling and one with wakame and sesame.

Organised by the Orkney Japan Association.

The ticket for this event comes from a separate booking system.

To set the scene, here’s the trailer for the film Seaweed.