Life & Thyme: Foraging For Flavor With Salt & Straw

Peering over the cliff’s edge, the vast Pacific stretches out before me on a picture perfect day. It’s unusually clear for seven a.m. in April. Just north of Bodega but shy of Jenner, this section of the Sonoma Coast undulates in a ragged ribbon of rocky shoreline, prettier than a postcard and dramatic enough to take your breath away. For me, it is one of the most incredible places on earth. But I am biased. I grew up nearby. The significance of being exactly here for this purpose at dawn on Earth Day is not lost on me. Below, amongst the rocks, with heads capped in beanies, their puffy vests twisting around tidepools as the waves crashed theatrically behind them, a team of foragers hunts for kelp. Among them is Tyler Malek, co-founder of artisanal ice cream company Salt & Straw, and I am on my way to meet him. Read on...