Visitors to the Crail Food Festival this weekend are to be served seaweed ice cream as part of a venture between two local food producers.
The historic Jannetta's Gelateria have collaborated with local producers Mara Seaweed to to mix seaweed with dairy to make the unusual treat. And if the feedback is positive the recipe will go on the menu at Jannetta's flagship St Andrews store.
The innovative blend is made from Shony - a unique blend of seaweeds hand harvested by Mara from the seabed off the East Neuk of Fife.They have been combined by Jannetta's with a mixture of other ingredients including green tea and lemon.
Owen Hazel, co-owner of Jannetta's Gelateria, said:
"We've created a new ice-cream, combining lemon and Mara's Shony Blend, enhancing the taste of the lemon. Being in the food industry, we are passionate about food and where it comes from.
"When Crail Food Festival approached us with the idea of collaborating with Mara we thought it was a fantastic idea. It has been a fun challenge to see how we could combine the flavours. It has been great working with Mara and we believe it highlights how local food producers can come together and showcase the very best in Scottish produce.
"If the Shony seaweek ice cream is a hit during the festival we may sell it within our St Andrews gelateria and further afield."
Fiona Houston, CEO and co-founder of Mara seaweed added:
"Our Shony blend is an intriguing mix of sweet and salty seaweeds that can be used in sweet and savoury dishes.
"We first combined Shony and lemon when Paul Hollywood came to visit us in Crail and we made him a Shony and lemon polenta cake that he described as 'inexplicably delicious' and went on to feature in his BBC Pies and Puds series."
Crail Food Festival will be running from 12-14 June.
