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#1 2020-12-18 06:34:28

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Seaweed that tastes like bacon

This new topic is offered as an alternative to traditional agricultural concepts for Mars.

Seawee has long been used as a source of nutrition on Earth, and that use appears to be increasing.

However, it would be worth considering for one of Void's large bodies of water on Mars.

It takes in sunlight and CO2, and releases oxygen into the water, which would encourage sea life.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/world-f … 00955.html

Seaweed is an anchor for the marine food chain, providing a place for animals to live. There are downsides, however: unchecked seaweed growth can damage coral reefs, and some reef fish prefer coral that isn’t surrounded with seaweed. Then again, we’d probably cull the excess seaweed from the ocean once enough people taste the magic of seaweed that tastes like bacon.

The BBC article is packed with information on the rise in seaweed, including socioeconomic variables that include more money and jobs for women, so do yourself a favor and give the piece a read. I feel like I did my small part for the industry yesterday by snacking on a bunch of seaweed on the couch, and you should too, because frankly, it’s delicious.

(th)

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#2 2020-12-18 09:50:03

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

I have heard of Ice cream made from seaweed or kelp so its not to surprising to hear since we not have vegi (no meat) burgers and the likes....

This fits with the notion of free brine on mars for the use but I think this will require work to obtain for use in large vats for growing the seaweed.

So the question is with that much sea water available how do we bring fish like tuna or albacore, flounder, cod ect to mars to seed the tank....but thats for another topic to be created

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#3 2020-12-18 14:02:11

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

------
A member said once that pressurized volume would be at a premium in places like Mars.
The choices for that that I am aware of are containers that hold someting like air, and containers that might hold a water solution.
Mars clearly offers much more water and ice for building materials, then highly processed or obtainable materials that could hold an air pressure.
Lava tubes may be a partial exception to that, but then even they must be improved by some means, and their total extent must be less than that for significant ice slabs on Mars.
I think that that is fairly established as true.
What follows is speculation, on my part, supposing things that might work for Mars.
I would start with producing Hydrogen and Oxygen, perhaps from salty water, which has recently been proposed.
In creating a basic biological system under ice, in melted water.
Of course the Oxygen you use to support items that can use it such as animals, and some types of Machines.
The Hydrogen you inject into the water, along with Martian atmosphere.   This allows Methanogen micorbes to grow.  I anticipate that critters would also have a way to utilize some of the Nitogen from the injected Martian atmosphere.
The outputs would be Methane, and biomass.  A presumed saturation of Nitrogen and Argon, which I would expect to come out of solution as gas bubbles which would likely accumulate under the ice.   I also expect that Methane would saturate and come out of the solution as gas bubbles, so you would have a Methane, Nitrogen, and Argon gas mix.  I think.
In order to collect the biomass for use it would be necessary to resort to mechanical methods of "Filter Feeding".    The biomass would be very fine in it's nature, so it may be a challenge.
A reference to "Filter Feeders":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_feeder
The process of filter feeding would also introduce heat into the water.   Just adding flow and turbulence to water should generate heat.   The Methanogens in their motabolism and possible motion should also generate heat.
A possible flaw in this is if the Methanogens were bottom dwellers and not suspended in the water column.  I am going to guess that somewhere on Earth what we would want could be found.  Perhaps in the debths of the Black Sea.
Even so, it might be that bottom dwelling microbes that produce Methane from Hydrogen and CO2, might somehow be utilized.
In the case of filter feeding from the water column, I would be very tempted to use a pneumatic method.   On the surface pressurized gas, might be warmed in sunlight, and might then be further pressurized and sent into the body of water through piping.   Doing this correctly should add heat to the water.   At the point of use, pneumatic motors might be used to drive the filter feeding process.
From this point then we might have the base of a "Food Chain" which might be useful.
ElderFlower at some point corrected me, I had remembered that it good 10 units of feed to produce 1 unit of food useful to humans.   But he corrected me and said that is for warm blooded creatures.  For cold blooded creatures it may be 4 units of feed for 1 unit of food useful to humans.
I am going to guess that it is even better for Mushrooms.   They breath, but unlike fish, they don't apparently circulate fluids to breath.   Also, they don't swim around.
So, the next level up would include Mushrooms, certain kinds of fish or other aquatic organisms.   Interestingly if you could transport Methane producing plankton directly into water with Oxygen, it may be that some filter feeding organisms might directly use it.
And there is a chance that the biological material from the anoxic process could somehow be processed directly into a human suitable food.   That is very unknown.
The detritus from some of these processes might be suitable to upgrade soils that might be used to grow green plants.
------
To go on and then grow green plants, you would need a light source.   This might be through protected transparent ice, or might be with artificial lighting.   I have posted a lot about dealing with the light through ice method.
So, I will look into artificial lighting methods.  My preference would be to involve pneumatics again.   The reason I like it is that although you have to compress a gas with power from an electric source, you may also heat that gas with relatively simple solar methods.   This then helps to heat a body of water.
Your light source then would be an electric generator driven by a pneumatic motor.   In many ways this could be energy in-efficient.  However it can be observed that for the most part any waste heat goes into the water.  So, your light source would illuminate some portions of the lakes, and you could hope to further modify a local environment to allow the growth of (th)'s posted seaweed, and many other aquatic plants.   To grow dry land vascular plants by this method, then you simply have a air filled canister, weighted down to the bottom, and the generator and light source are inside of it.
The water for this could be rather cold and fresh, or as in Antarctic Dry Valley lakes, if you could obtain and control the salt water column to produce a thermal inversion where the cold fresher water were on top and the warmer water on the bottom, then you might have a very suitable environment for plants that anchor to the sea floor.  Plants, perhaps and then of course large types of algae.
Where this plan allows for the longer term storage of waste heat, it is obvious that if it builds up too high, then you have to reject it to the Martian skies, and this process could produce electric or pneumatic power.
As for humans scuba diving in this environment....I sort of like the idea of a suit that is more like a deep sea divers hard suit.   This might allow the user to travel up and down through the water column without having to deal with the bends.    Also some parts of the water  column might have pressures less than 1/3 bar, so such a suit would serve to provide life support that way as well.
Done.


Done.

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#4 2020-12-18 18:00:26

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

A Seaweed Treat That Tastes Like Bacon
The bizarre but tasty creation is actually a new strain of red marine algae called Dulse that is packed full of minerals and protein.

This is the before Dulse.jpg?resize=960%2C638&ssl=1

Then after processing is seaweed-tastes-like-bacon-640x361.jpg

video How to find and pick dulse

How to Grow Dulse75780023.jpg
Looks like a steak without the cheese….

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-grow-s … and-Alaria

full page instructions

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#5 2020-12-19 17:23:48

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

Much like we suggested with the algae growing tubes that got put forth by Calliban it would make sense for the Mars University to take up a challenger on a system design for mars use...

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#6 2022-01-06 12:38:50

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

This topic contains the word "seaweed" ....

This post is about seaweed that tastes like seaweed .... close enough ...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/nutrit … hp&pc=U531

Void has been talking about lakes on Mars for a long time.

It will be far easier to make a salt water lake than a fresh water one.

The article at the link above describes an entrepreneurial effort in India.

It seems to me the ideas under development might be adapted for Mars.

The "ocean" might be a trough cut through the terrain to harvest what little sunlight reaches Mars.

The trough could be covered with a plastic tarp able to hold just enough pressure to prevent evaporation.

A possible bonus is any fresh water that might condense on the plastic could be harvested.

Founded in 2010, Sea6 Energy wants to mechanize ocean farming, just as tractors did for agriculture, with its "Sea Combine," an automated catamaran that simultaneously harvests and replants seaweed in the ocean.

The machine travels back and forth between lines of seaweed, harvesting the fully-grown plants and replacing them with freshly-seeded lines.

A prototype is currently deployed at the company's seaweed farm off the coast of Indonesia. The Southeast Asian nation has a tradition of seaweed farming that involves villagers tying pieces of seaweed to ropes and hauling them out to sea, before manually harvesting the lines, and there is a strong appetite for the crop there, according to Suryanarayan. As the technology develops and the market widens, the company intends to deploy more Sea Combines, including in its home country, India.

(th)

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#7 2022-01-06 15:20:22

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

When are we going to get bacon that tastes like seaweed?

Why aren't any of our boffins working on that?

Edit: Let's all do our part to lobby Congress to make "pigweed" (yes, I just made that up) "a thing".  If pigweed is already "a thing", then fine, well call it "porkweed" or "baconweed" instead.  I feel as though we could start a lobbying firm for that, if only as a joke, to demonstrate to everyone what kind of sick joke lobbying already is.

Edit #2: Does this mean vegans can now eat BLTs so they know what they're missing?  Seriously, though, why do we try to make tofu taste like turkey or bacon, but nobody ever tries to make turkey or bacon taste like tofu?

Last edited by kbd512 (2022-01-06 16:42:08)

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#8 2022-01-06 21:38:03

RobertDyck
Moderator
From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,782
Website

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

If you want something vegan, here's one. I learned about this when I was given a bag of orange split something, and had to figure out what it is and what to do with it. Turns out they were red lentils. So what do I do with them? Found a recipe for an Egyptian national dish called Koshari. Then met a lady who is vegan and glucose intolerant. Some of us were concerned she wasn't getting enough nutrition. So I cooked her a batch of Koshari and gave her the recipe. It's lentils, rice, macaroni with a spicy tomato sauce. Often garnished with aka chickpeas aka garbanzo beans, and could be garnished with caramelized onions. I found caramelized onions cook way down, take effort and don't add much. This dish is very nutritious, completely vegan, gluten free, and delicious. It doesn't try to be anything else.

Recipe here
The Daring Gourmet Koshari
This recipe calls for brown lentils, but traditionally is made from red lentils. And I had red lentils, so used that. And they cook fastest.
Tomato sauce here has North American spices. I use crushed tomatoes instead since they have almost no spices. This recipe adds Baharat spice blend.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbs olive oil

  • 1 cup medium grain rice

  • 1 cup brown lentils

  • 2 cups small macaroni noodles (uncooked)

  • 2 cups vegetable stock

  • 1 garlic clove , quartered

  • 1 tsp cumin

  • 1 bay leaf

  • ½ teaspoon salt

  • Salt to taste

For the Sauce:

  • 2 tbsp olive oil

  • 1 small onion diced finely

  • 2 cloves garlic finely minced

  • 1 15 oz can plain tomato sauce (cooked/pureed tomatoes)

  • 2 tsp baharat spice blend

  • ¼ teaspoon red chile flakes (omit if you don't like it spicy hot)

  • 1 tbs red wine vinegar

  • Salt & pepper to taste

Crispy Onion Garnish:

  • 2 large onions , very finely sliced

  • Oil for deep-frying

  • 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans , rinsed and drained

Instructions

  1. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the rice and fry it for 2 minutes, then add the vegetable stock. Bring it to a boil, decrease the heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the rice is cooked.

  2. Rinse the lentils under cold water and add them to another medium saucepan with 2 cups of water. Add the garlic, cumin and bay leaf and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Once cooked, add the salt and stir to combine. Strain any excess liquid if necessary.
    Cook the macaroni according to package instructions until al dente.
        Note: Prepare the rice, macaroni and lentils while the sauce is simmering and leave them covered in the pots to keep warm.

  3. To make sauce: Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and add the onion. Cook until soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until golden brown. Add the tomato sauce, baharat, salt and pepper to taste, chile flakes (if using) and red wine vinegar. Bring it to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. To make the crispy onions, heat the oil in a skillet. Add the onions and fry until dark brown. Using a slotted spoon, remove them from the oil and place them on paper towels to drain and cool.

  5. Add the rice, lentils and macaroni to a large bowl and toss to combine (or simply scoop out desired amounts of each onto the plates). Sprinkle a little baharat over each portion and serve topped with some of the spicy tomato sauce. Top with garbanzo beans, the crispy onions and another sprinkle of baharat. Serve warm.

Lentil cook times

  • green - 20-30 minutes

  • brown - 20-35 minutes

  • red - 10-20 minutes

  • black - 25-40 minutes

  • French green - 30-45 minutes

The recipe webpage has a link to how to make Baharat spice blend. It's an Egyptian spice blend; I can't find it here, but ingredients are easy to find. So I blend just enough to make one batch whenever I cook it.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon black peppercorns

  • 1 tablespoon cumin seeds

  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds

  • 1 teaspoon whole cloves

  • ½ teaspoon cardamom seeds

  • 1½ tablespoons paprika

  • 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon

  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions
Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat and dry roast the whole spices/seeds (set aside the paprika, cinnamon and nutmeg) until they become very fragrant, about 3-5 minutes, tossing regularly to prevent scorching. Transfer them to a bowl and allow them to cool completely before grinding them in a spice or coffee grinder along with the paprika, cinnamon and nutmeg. Keep stored in an airtight glass jar.

How to Make Vegetable Broth (With Kitchen Scraps!)

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

  • 5 cloves garlic minced

  • 2 onions large, chopped

  • 3 ribs celery chopped

  • 3 carrots chopped

  • 8 cups water

  • frozen vegetable scraps 2-3 cups is a good amount

  • 2 bay leaves

  • parsley a few sprigs

  • thyme a few sprigs

  • salt and pepper to taste, omit if you are making stock

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium heat.

  2. Add the garlic, onions, celery, and carrots. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring often.

  3. Add the water, frozen vegetable scraps, bay leaves, parsley, and thyme. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes.

  4. Pour the broth through a fine mesh strainer into a large heat-proof bowl or pot; discard solids.

  5. Once the broth has cooled, transfer it to airtight plastic containers or freezer bags and store it in the freezer. (I usually freeze it in 2-cup portions so I don't have to thaw all the broth every time I use it.)

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#9 2022-04-14 04:42:15

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 8,892

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

Lab-grown caviar to bring luxury to the masses

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lab- … -r9296hxrc

71% of Participants Choose Cultivated Meat at Live Consumer Test by SuperMeat
https://vegconomist.com/cultivated-cell … supermeat/

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#10 2022-10-04 17:36:12

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 8,892

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

Turning Biosphere's into small Lakes and creating a Sea inside a Mars Biosphere, the Aquaculture or  aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation or sea "farming" of aquatic organisms such as fish, algae, crabs and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants the Mars Aquaculture perhaps will involve an artificial sea or lake or pond, or maybe cultivating Martian zone of freshwater, brackish water and saltwater populations under controlled or semi-natural conditions, lessons learned from farming back on planet Earth. Perhaps Mars will have a wild life of sea, a park with ponds, Economies of scale imply that ranching can produce foods and seaweed and fish at lower cost than industrial fishing, leading to better human diets and the gradual elimination of unsustainable fisheries, Algaculture will be tyhe form of aquaculture involving the farming of species of algae. Earth already has seaweed and fish farms within intensive and extensive aquaculture methods, numerous specific types of fish farms are used; each has benefits and applications unique to its design.  The Martian Urban aquaculture  will be the aquatic farming of organisms, including all types of fish,  mussel shrimp and aqua plants within the Mars urban environment rivers, the biospheres with housing and ponds, lakes, Martian biodomes with artificial lakes and canals.

Alaska's kelp farming industry hits tricky hurdle, despite high global demand

http://www.thedutchharborfisherman.com/ … its_tricky

Alaska's nascent kelp industry is following suit. The first commercial farm in the state was established in 2016, and more are popping up every year.

But industry experts say Alaska farmers are currently facing a challenging growth spurt.

"There is kind of a chicken and egg situation between farmers and processing," said Tamsen Peeples, a commercial seaweed mariculture specialist.

Peeples recently visited Unalaska to talk about the state's growing mariculture industry and offer guidance for people who might be interested in taking up a new seaweed or shellfish farming project.

She said there's a lot of potential for Alaska to become a major provider of sugar and ribbon kelp. Farmers haven't had as much luck growing bull kelp, on the other hand, which doesn't produce nearly as well as it does in the wild. However, some companies like Jueanu-based Barnacle Foods and Ketchikan company Foraged & Found are harvesting wild Alaska bull kelp.

When it comes to sugar and ribbon kelp, Peeples said there's a lot of interest from farmers as well as buyers, even though the industry in Alaska remains fairly small.

"There's been a lot of folks that are buying seaweed, and these big international buyers that might be interested in say biofuel or bio plastics are waiting for the scale of production in the state to get substantially larger," Peeples explained.

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#11 2022-12-04 20:07:20

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

The article at the link below is about an innovative company that is raising money to set up a carbon sink business with other income potential.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/giant-seawee … 54186.html

The location of the proposed seaweed farm is potentially of interest to NewMars members .... it would be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, South of the famous Sargasso Sea, which is notable for the calm winds in the area.

(th)

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#12 2022-12-04 20:35:10

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

A very interesting development.  I hope it pays off big time.

I believe that this has appeared on the site before:
https://news.usc.edu/182840/kelp-as-bio … cientists/

Quote:

The team’s newly published findings suggest it may be possible to use the open ocean to grow kelp crops for low-carbon biofuel similar to how land is used to harvest fuel feedstocks such as corn and sugarcane — and with potentially fewer adverse environmental impacts.

The beauty of it is it appears that the seaweed can be lowered into fertile waters at night to get nutrients, and then raised into the sunlight during the day to grow.


Done.

Last edited by Void (2022-12-04 20:40:12)


Done.

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#13 2023-03-20 12:01:29

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 8,892

Re: Seaweed that tastes like bacon

Can seaweed save the world? Well it can certainly help in many ways
https://theconversation.com/can-seaweed … ays-201459

The good and the bad of biofuels
https://www.politico.eu/article/the-goo … rop-waste/

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