Cleaning sea urchins is a very simple operation; you will only need a specific tool: the sea urchin cutter. To know if they are fresh, pay attention to only one thing: they should smell of the sea.

Peer into the water at the tide pools along the Sonoma Coast, and you’ll see what appears to be an alien invasion of bright purple, spiky balls the size and shape of hacky sacks. Here, sea urchins ...