14th April is Laverbread Day, now this day was created by the fabulous owner of Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company Jonathan. He deliberately chose this day as it falls on Japan's Mother of the Sea Day .This is a day which celebrates one kick ass female scientist called Kathleen Mary Drew, she discovered a special phase in the life cycle of a red seaweed in the 1940's (which was found in North Wales by chance as she was based in Manchester) which helped Japan find a way to regrow Nori (aka the seaweed that is wrapped around our sushi) after a major drought due to the increasing polluted waters.
WHAT IS SEAWEED?
Because I am not done to steal from others blog I would like you to refer to a blog by PBFC called Why Seaweed? It's super interesting and if the facts don't make you change your mind and give it a try then hopefully rest of my blog will.
We love Laverbread in this house but for many reasons, firstly because its delicious but secondly because it is insanely sustainable. As it doesn't require land or freshwater to grow AND it is fast growing it means it can help sustain our ever growing population. We have their Welsh Man Caviar (apaz donned by Mr Richard Burton himself) which we use in cooking (everything from cottage pie to Welsh rarebit) as well as sprinkling on top of our homemade baked beans and scrambled egg on toast. We actually went out yesterday to Milkwood and Jason had a giant portion of Laverbread, bacon and cockles on toast (only £6 too) and I had major food envy. So while at Wally's getting bits for Easter weekend I picked up a box of Laverbread ready for my next craving of it.
One of my favourite providers of Laverbread is Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company which I first came across when I lived in Pembs and we used to go to one of our (many) local beaches Freshwater West aka where Dobby is buried. They would served all kinds of fabulousness but my favourite was their lobster rolls, I'm literally salivating at the thought now. Funnily enough in Freshwater West there is a seaweed drying hut (Made in 2009 when Robin Hood was filmed there)for you to view and this is because laverbread in Wales apparently goes back hundred of years with one of the first recordings being in the early 1600's.
Anyway when I was on their website the other day I spotted a simple recipe of Laverbread Butter which I decided to give a go as the following weekend I am going down to Pembs and I know my parents would love it. The beauty of this recipe as well is that the butter can be frozen, so no need to rush to eat it and potential waste, LOVE IT!!!
My next mission is Laverbread Cheesy Scones as I am a real savoury girl, but I need to buy their Seafood Spice Rub first (love an excuse to buy a new sustainable food product) which I'm going to do next weekend when I visit The Old Point in Pembs which is their new venue and venture (and if it is anything like Mor in Swansea its going to be incredible.
Now go be sustainable and have a HAPPY LAVERBREAD DAY YA'LL
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