Chapter 185: Out-of-season seaweeds emerge
When the weather gets cold, the fish and crabs run away, but more clams burrow into the mud bottom and spend the winter there.
As a result, many clams were swept out by the waves and washed onto the shallows near the shore.
Clams are generally yellow-brown with clear concentric lines and serrated or wavy brown patterns on their backs.
In some places, flower clams and Manila clams are confused, but for Liang Ziqiang and his colleagues, Manila clams are Manila clams and flower clams are flower clams. The difference between the two is quite obvious.
The two picked up clams and some flower clams along the way.
"Look, that's kelp, right? It's better looking than what we usually eat." Chen Xiangbei picked up a few clams and when she stood up, she saw several pieces of clothing-like things in the shallow water floating towards the beach.
"This isn't kelp, it's sea lettuce!"
Kelp is a brown algae, and sea lettuce is a green algae. The plants that are gradually drifting towards us are green like dancing emeralds, floating in the sea water.
Something so green is naturally not kelp, but sea lettuce.
“Should I be able to eat it?”
"Of course, it tastes better than kelp. Kelp is chewy, but this is crispy and tender!"
"Then I'll take it!"
Chen Xiangbei came over wearing long boots. At this time, the sea lettuce was already floating closer. She stepped her foot slightly into the shallow water and scooped up a large handful of sea lettuce.
But after fishing a few times, I found that it was a bit endless.
More and more sea lettuces floated in from the sea, and not only that, there were also other algae of various shapes mixed in.
"What did I get? It looks like a ball of wool..."
This time, what Chen Xiangbei scooped up with a hand-scoop net was a handful of hair-like things, dark brown in color and very smooth.
When Liang Ziqiang heard his wife muttering "wool" to camel hair, he couldn't help laughing: "This is camel hair, and it's also a very delicious seaweed!"
Camel hair is also called Hemerocallis fulgens. It usually grows on huge rocks in the sea and is brown and fibrous. When covered by it, the rocks no longer look like a stone, but like a camel soaking in the sea. Therefore, this seaweed is called "camel hair".
"Can this be eaten?" Chen Xiangbei had an expression that said, "I trust you so much, don't lie to me."
"You still don't believe it. If you use this to make dumplings, I guess there are few kinds of stuffing better than this. Just scoop more and you can make it in a while to satisfy your craving..."
"I believe you, I'll try it tonight."
Chen Xiangbei continued to scoop up a few more handfuls, but Liang Ziqiang didn't dare let her do any more.
Because there were too many seaweeds floating on the surface of the sea. Although she was not pregnant yet, Liang Ziqiang was really worried that it would be bad for the fetus if she tired her waist.
He immediately took the scoop net from her hand and scooped it up himself.
"It's strange, where did these seaweeds come from recently? I rarely saw them when I went to the beach before!" Chen Xiangbei noticed that there were people catching seaweeds in the distance and asked in confusion.
"It's strange to see them normally. There are several kinds of seaweed in the sea. Unlike fish and shrimp, which hide in the winter, these seaweeds take advantage of the winter to grow rapidly and keep popping up! Why do you think so many people come to the sea in winter? In addition to clams and snails, the most abundant thing on the beach in winter is seaweed!"
There is a saying that goes, "In the coldest days of winter, camel hair is fresh," which refers to the seaweed called camel hair. The colder the winter, the more tender, fresh, smooth and refreshing the camel hair becomes.
Some fishermen would brave the cold weather and go out to the reefs on the sea to look for camel hair on days when the waves were not too high. When they found reefs covered with camel hair, they would take out large scissors and cut the camel hair to sell.
What Liang Ziqiang encountered now was a handful of camel hair that was washed down from the rocks by the waves.
When camel hair grows to 2 to 3 inches, it is a good time to collect it. After the spring, the weather gets warmer day by day, the camel hair becomes longer and longer, and the taste becomes worse.
In April and May, when other seafood begin to migrate back, camel hair becomes inedible.
The creatures in the sea are like this sometimes, with opposite habits but complementary to each other. Otherwise, the fishermen really would not be able to survive the winter.
This is what Chen Xiangbei didn't understand, why he had never seen any seaweed before, but encountered a lot of seaweed when he went to the beach in winter.
In addition to sea lettuce and camel hair, there is also a large amount of another kind of filamentous sea vegetable mixed in.
This seaweed has another color, purple-red, bright and transparent.
"The purple-red ones are called sea dragon whiskers, and they are also very crisp!"
Sea dragon's beard is also called sea hair algae, Gracilaria, and crystal algae. It has a delicate and crispy taste, smooth and refreshing, and can be fried, made into soup, cold salad, or cooked into porridge. In some countries, it is also called "longevity vegetable", which shows that its ingredients are still beneficial to the human body.
Liang Ziqiang found that the buckets and baskets were not big enough to hold them. The amount of seaweed today was a little beyond his expectations, so he simply went back home and picked up a basket full of seaweed.
They would fish at this beach, then move to another place and fish again.
The sea water is like a magic trick, showing us all kinds of seaweed in different colors and shapes.
Liang Ziqiang's basket was already filled with several kinds.
Sea lettuce, camel hair, seagrass, sea kudzu...
They only appear in large numbers on the seashore in cold seasons and are the winter "vegetables" bestowed upon fishermen by the "ocean vegetable garden".
While collecting various sea vegetables along the way, the two were also looking for shrimps.
The usually common mantis shrimps, green shrimps, red shrimps, etc. are almost nowhere to be seen now that the weather is cold.
However, there will still be a small number of shrimp hiding in the nearby mud and sand, and being washed ashore by the tide.
This time, the two of them didn't see any crabs or fish, but they did catch two baskets of various sea vegetables, as well as buckets of clams, flower clams, snails, and shrimps.
Those who walk on the beach basically gain these things, which is a completely different scenery compared to usual.
Liang Ziqiang moved to another place near the tidal gully, and this time there was more kelp.
Many people really can't tell the difference between wakame and kelp.
In fact, the color of wakame is lighter than kelp. In terms of shape, wakame looks like a large cattail leaf fan with a distinct long handle in the middle, split like feathers. Because the whole looks like a skirt ribbon, it is called wakame.
The iodine content of kelp is too high, more than ten times that of wakame, but other nutrients of wakame, such as magnesium and calcium, are much richer than kelp. In terms of health, wakame is obviously better than kelp.
Just as she picked up a handful of wakame, Chen Xiangbei, who had sharp eyes, immediately noticed that something was peeking out from under the wakame: "Look, what's that shell underneath? A piece of it is peeking out from the mud. It looks like it's purple?"
"Could it be purple clams? Purple clams are more valuable than blood clams, but they rarely wash up on the shore!"
Liang Ziqiang no longer wanted to catch kelp, so he quickly put down the scoop net and used his gloved hands to dig out the purple clams in the water.
Burst
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
