Dried Kelp

Step 5 Dried!

Before long your kelp will be dried. It's amazing how thin and crispy it gets. Even the heads can shrink and turn into something you can bite and chew.
The white stuff on these heads are crystals of salt from the interior.
There are some spots on these leaves, they're eggs from some small sea animal, I eat those too.

Here's my non-scientific method to decide if I need to eat some kelp:
Caffeine stops having much of an affect on me.
I'm getting plenty of sleep, excercise, and sunlight.
I'm getting plenty of iron (anemia runs in my family).
Then I'll nibble a piece of kelp leaf each day for a few days, and usually the caffeine starts working just great!