Norway Women Bring Seaweed to Culinary Heights in Europe

Lofoten Seaweed co-founder Angelita Eriksen picks kelp from the icy Norwegian waters. Olivier MORIN / AFP
Lofoten Seaweed co-founder Angelita Eriksen picks kelp from the icy Norwegian waters. Olivier MORIN / AFP
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Norway Women Bring Seaweed to Culinary Heights in Europe

Lofoten Seaweed co-founder Angelita Eriksen picks kelp from the icy Norwegian waters. Olivier MORIN / AFP
Lofoten Seaweed co-founder Angelita Eriksen picks kelp from the icy Norwegian waters. Olivier MORIN / AFP

In the glacial waters of the Lofoten archipelago in Norway's far north, Angelita Eriksen uses a knife to cut a handful of seaweed that will soon end up in a fancy European eatery.
"We have the cleanest and clearest waters in the world. We're very lucky that we have this really important resource growing right outside our doorstep," Eriksen told AFP in a cabin on the shores of the northern Atlantic Ocean where the seaweed is laid out to dry.
"We want to show that to the world."
The daughter of a Norwegian fisherman, Eriksen joined forces with New Zealand-born Tamara Singer, whose Japanese mother served seaweed with almost every meal, to start the company Lofoten Seaweed -- specializing in harvesting and preparing seaweed for the food industry.
With the help of six others, they hand-pick 11 tons of seaweed a year, the snow-capped mountains plummeting into the sea behind them in a dramatic tableau.
It's a demanding and "physical job", said Eriksen.
The peak season runs from late April until June, but "we harvest the dulse, the nori and the sea truffle in the winter and fall".
"It can be quite cold, as we can stay out for about an hour along the shore", with lower legs and hands submerged in the chilly water.
By "late May, I'm actually sweating in my suit".
One time, she said, "I took my glove off and the steam was just rising up".
"It's physically hard but at the same time it's very meditative, or therapeutic in a way, to harvest," she says.
'Delicate'
Truffle seaweed, winged kelp, nori, dulse, sugar kelp, oarweed kelp: the pair focus on about 10 types of seaweed, long eaten in Japan and increasingly popular in Europe for their nutritional qualities.
The seaweed is sold locally or shipped to gourmet restaurants in Norway and the rest of Europe.
The two women organize workshops to teach chefs about the different varieties and the qualities of each type.
"Seaweeds are like vegetables, they have their own texture, taste and colors," says Singer.
She said it was a "huge surprise" how many European chefs had little or no knowledge of the different flavors and ways of preparing seaweed.
The duo have worked with Japanese chefs "who know exactly what to do, you don't have to tell them anything".
"It's just so natural for them. It's like giving a piece of fish to a North Norwegian," says Singer.
Some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, chef Josh Wing has been serving the pair's products in his high-end restaurant Hattvika Lodge for about five years.
He is well versed and does not need to take part in their workshops anymore.
Wing is particularly fond of the dulse, a "very delicate purple seaweed", which he serves with local fish dishes or bread.
It "can provide a physical texture in a dish that you can't get from other products", he tells AFP.
To ensure that their business is sustainable, Eriksen and Singer have mapped and dated their harvest sites, as well as the volumes of each species, for the past four years.
"Our results show that the regrowth in recently-harvested patches is actually faster than anticipated, almost as if a harvest actually stimulates growth," says Singer.



Santa and Mrs. Claus Use Military Transports to Bring Christmas to Alaska Native Village

Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
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Santa and Mrs. Claus Use Military Transports to Bring Christmas to Alaska Native Village

Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).

Forget the open-air sleigh overloaded with gifts and powered by flying reindeer.
Santa and Mrs. Claus this week took supersized rides to southeast Alaska in a C-17 military cargo plane and a camouflaged Humvee, as they delivered toys to the Tlingit village of Yakutat, northwest of Juneau, The Associated Press reported.
The visit was part of this year’s Operation Santa Claus, an outreach program of the Alaska National Guard to largely Indigenous communities in the nation’s largest state. Each year, the Guard picks a village that has suffered recent hardship — in Yakutat's case, a massive snowfall that threatened to buckle buildings in 2022.
“This is one of the funnest things we get to do, and this is a proud moment for the National Guard,” Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, said Wednesday.
Saxe wore a Guard uniform and a Santa hat that stretched his unit's dress regulations.
The Humvee caused a stir when it entered the school parking lot, and a buzz of “It’s Santa! It’s Santa!” pierced the cold air as dozens of elementary school children gathered outside.
In the school, Mrs. Claus read a Christmas story about the reindeer Dasher. The couple in red then sat for photos with nearly all of the 75 or so students and handed out new backpacks filled with gifts, books, snacks and school supplies donated by the Salvation Army. The school provided lunch, and a local restaurant provided the ice cream and toppings for a sundae bar.
Student Thomas Henry, 10, said while the contents of the backpack were “pretty good,” his favorite item was a plastic dinosaur.
Another, 9-year-old Mackenzie Ross, held her new plush seal toy as she walked around the school gym.
“I think it’s special that I have this opportunity to be here today because I’ve never experienced this before,” she said.
Yakutat, a Tlingit village of about 600 residents, is in the lowlands of the Gulf of Alaska, at the top of Alaska’s panhandle. Nearby is the Hubbard Glacier, a frequent stop for cruise ships.
Some of the National Guard members who visited Yakutat on Wednesday were also there in January 2022, when storms dumped about 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow in a matter of days, damaging buildings.
Operation Santa started in 1956 when flooding severely curtailed subsistence hunting for residents of St. Mary’s, in western Alaska. Having to spend their money on food, they had little left for Christmas presents, so the military stepped in.
This year, visits were planned to two other communities hit by flooding. Santa’s visit to Circle, in northeastern Alaska, went off without a hitch. Severe weather prevented a visit to Crooked Creek, in the southwestern part of the state, but Christmas was saved when the gifts were delivered there Nov. 16.
“We tend to visit rural communities where it is very isolated,” said Jenni Ragland, service extension director with the Salvation Army Alaska Division. “A lot of kids haven’t traveled to big cities where we typically have Santa and big stores with Christmas gifts and Christmas trees, so we kind of bring the Christmas program on the road."
After the C-17 Globemaster III landed in Yakutat, it quickly returned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, an hour away, because there was nowhere to park it at the village's tiny airport. Later it returned to pick up the Christmas crew.
Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with their tuckered elves, were seen nodding off on the flight back.