Wild Harvesting Seaweed, Great Music, & A Tribute To Those Who Serve

I meant to write something over Memorial Day weekend, but I feel so conflicted about what’s happening in the Middle East and the way the militant forces of the world are hurting one another that I thought I’d honor a veteran and his love of seaweed harvesting instead, as well as a community honoring its volunteer firefighters. At some point I might say more about how distressed I am about the genocide in Gaza, the student protests, the Trump supporters who don’t seem to care about 34 guilty verdicts, and all that jazz. But on this first day of June, let me instead celebrate wild harvesting nature’s bounty and some kick ass musicians!

This Memorial Day weekend, I had the pleasure of getting an in person seaweed harvesting lesson from Jonathan McCloud at The Intentional Table. He came home from an early morning harvest at Bodega Bay with fresh kombu, bladderwrack, Sister Sarah (aka “Cystoseira”), and Nori. You can learn what I learned from him about the nutritional benefits of kombu and bladderwrack at The Intentional Table, which, as a closet chef, is one of my favorite Substacks.

After our seaweed harvesting lesson, my partner Jeffrey Rediger (who teaches a lot about nutrition as part of his radical remission research and his book CURED and recommends high density nutrition as one way to treat and fend off illness) took Jonathan’s lessons to the beach and wild harvested “Sister Sarah” and “bladderwrack” seaweed, while watching our golden doodle (who didn’t doodle very much) chase seagulls.

After cleaning and chopping the raw seaweed, I seasoned it with a dressing of half fresh lemon juice, half soy sauce, and just a whiff of sesame oil, then scattered toasted sesame seeds and pickled ginger into it. It was delicious! Jonathan pickled his, which I can’t wait to taste.

Jeff just bought me a dehydrator so we can dehydrate the kombu Jonathan also taught us to harvest. So that’s next…

In honor of our local fire department (as fire season looms ahead), I also wanted to promote the vocal stylings of Loralee Christensen and all the other amazing musicians from Andre’s All Stars at the Muir Beach Volunteer Firefighter’s BBQ, which happens the Sunday before Memorial Day every year. Last weekend, my family had the yearly joy of celebrating with my community at the 50th Annual Muir Beach Volunteer Fireman’s BBQ, which is honestly the best party of the year for you Bay Area folks. We ran out of chicken and veggie tamales because we had 3800 people show up to support our firefighting team, which my partner Jeff is now joining, having just moved officially to the community two weeks ago!

But I had to share the best part, which is the Andre’s All Stars local band. I wanted to share two particular videos with you. Every year, I Google search this amazing band and find almost nothing, so this year, I decided to forgo dancing to two songs so I could actually video the band. (Jeff took over for me during one song because I just couldn’t help myself.)

The first video features Loralee Christensen from Andre’s All Stars, singing Me & Bobby McGee.

The next is Andre De Lone leading us all in a rousing “woo woo” with a Bob Dylan cover of Like A Rolling Stone.

Our fire department is fund-raising for a new fire house, so if you feel inclined to help out, the website for fundraising is MuirBeachFire.com. We only have seven firefighters, but they’ve saved this community- and many hikers who’ve needed rescuing- time and time again.

So these are the folks I want to celebrate from last weekend’s Memorial Day musings.

All over the world, people make sacrifices to try to serve others. As a doctor, I know I’ve certainly harmed people in my attempt to help them, and it’s obvious that veterans and firefighters sometimes do the same. Still…we honor those who do their best to serve our communities and often go on to endure the moral injury as part of the burden of service.

To all who have been traumatized by war- both military and the civilians they often hurt- on all sides of all wars, my heart goes out to you. And to Jonathan McCloud in particular, all the volunteer firefighters in Muir Beach, and just newly retired fire chief Manly Moulton in Richmond and everywhere, thank you for all you do.

I welcome any polarized parts that arise in you, as they surely arise in me, when we think of those who have served, especially in wars, and especially in times like this. Please feel free to respectfully share your comments.