BC Living
How to Support BC Wineries Now
Embark on Culinary Adventures: 5 Must-Try Solo Dining Experiences Around BC
You Gotta Try this in April 2024
4 Tips on Balancing a Nutritious Diet with a Side of Indulgence
Choosing Connection: A BC Family Day Pledge to Prioritize Presence Over Plans
Embracing Plant-Based Living this Veganuary and Beyond
Inviting the Steller’s Jay to Your Garden
6 Budget-friendly Holiday Decor Pieces
Dream Home: $8 Million for a Modern Surprise
B.C. Adventures: Our picks for May
Spring into Fun in Kamloops: The Best Events in the City
7 BC Retreats Where Solo Travellers Can Find Inner Peace and Wellness
BC Distilled
Melodies and Museums: Solo-Friendly Entertainment for the Independent Traveller
Arts Club Theatre Company Celebrates 60 Years
SOLO CHIC: 5 Essential Pieces for the Stylish Solo Traveller
8 Gadgets and Gear for Your Solo Adventures
A Solo Traveller’s Guide to Souvenir Hunting in BC
The self-proclaimed Seaweed Lady is a third generation seaweed picker.
If you’re wandering the beaches on the edge of the Juan de Fuca Strait at low tide, you might see Diane Bernard collecting her briny crop of seaweed where the huge upwellings of cold oxygenated water make the location a prime spot for her harvest.
And if you’ve been fortunate to dine at Sooke Harbour House, The Aerie or C Restaurant, you’ve likely supped on some of Bernard’s beloved bounty. The self-proclaimed “Seaweed Lady” describes herself as a third-generation seaweed picker, though her Acadian ancestors used seaweed for more utilitarian purposes, like stuffing mattresses and insulating buildings. Bernard’s background in economic development in coastal communities helps explain the manifesto behind her “value add” mantra.
“We do not look at Canadian wild resources the way the rest of the world does,” she says. “We are too quick to chop it, log it, dig it, mine it, fish it – and we sell it off in the lowest form possible. It just drains the resources in the worst way.” Instead, Bernard brings the public, chefs and the spa industry to the beach – outfitted in rubber boots no less – to tour her wild ocean garden, packed full of 700 species, including the dozen or so seaweed species she harvests and supplies to high-end restaurants and resorts.
When she broached chefs with her seaweed venture in 2000, they were quick to share Bernard’s passion for what she describes as a “perfect food” that’s packed with fibre, vitamins and all the essential amino acids. True to her “value add,” Bernard has also expanded her seaweed offerings with her line of skincare products, and her Wild Sea Garden Tea, a blend of seaweed, green tea and local mint.
Seaflora www.sea-flora.com 1-877-713-7464