Jan Kruijsse

Who's behind it

Jan Kruijsse fished for cockles and mussels until 2012. That year he started De Zeeuwse Zeewierhandel, after hearing at the fish auction that many of the seaweeds he came across every day are edible. He also took over the small business of his uncle, who cut knotted wrack for the oyster trade in Yerseke. In 2014 he became one of the few people in the Netherlands licensed to harvest seaweed in the Oosterschelde. In 2016 he built the cutting boat YE 132 with a net he developed himself, so he can also cut in deeper water and is less dependent on the weather.

Wild-cut

Jan cuts by hand at low tide on the tidal shore, with a small sickle, six centimetres above the root so the plant grows back. What comes in goes straight into tanks with water from the same Oosterschelde and keeps there for about four days. The seaweed tastes full, mineral and iodine-fresh.

Jan harvests at least 120 different edible varieties. Which ones reach your kitchen that week depends on the tide and the time of year. Around February and March come thread seaweed, wakame, sea oak and Japanese sargassum; in summer it's more about green sea lettuce and red horn seaweed.

In your kitchen

On the menu you can name the seaweed in concrete terms: name, place, vessel, harvest day. You tell the guest that the sea lettuce next to their sole was cut in the Oosterschelde this week. Have fixed uses ready (sea lettuce through a butter sauce, red horn seaweed raw over raw fish, sea oak in the stock) and switch the variety with what comes in. Call before you order and ask what was cut that day.