© Lucy Izon

Prince Edward Island National Park, P.E.I. – As you wander the beautiful beaches of Prince Edward Island watch for a rubber-textured seaweed washing up with the tide. It’s used to hold together ingredients in shampoos, cosmetics and salad dressings (there’s even a rumor that it keeps a popular candy from melting in your hand). Known as Irish Moss, it’s harvested for its natural gel-forming properties (carrageenin), and is used in products ranging from toothpaste to cheese. Almost half the world’s Irish Moss comes from P.E.I. Harvesters rake it from the beaches or gather it using horses that drag baskets through chest-high water. Watch for this after a storm. Learn more at the Greenwich Interpretation Centre at Prince Edward Island National Park, or visit the remote west coast village of Miminegash, which has the ‘Seaweed Pie Café & Irish Moss Interpretative Centre’.

Where: Joined to New Brunswick by the 12.9 km Confederation Bridge, Canada’s smallest province, rolling rural Prince Edward Island, is just 225 km wide. Historic Charlottetown is the birthplace of Canada’s Confederation, and a great place to celebrate Canada Day. Island explorers can find great golf opportunities, beautiful beaches, the world’s only potato museum, Anne of Green Gables sites, lobster dinners, and a 70-mile-long September yard sale.

Have you tried Seaweed Pie? Please share…