Coastal Foraging

How far would you be prepared to go to get a taste of rock samphire?

In the 16th century they were prepared to sacrifice quite a lot for it - a child, for example. No wonder Shakespeare is famously quoted as describing the picking of samphire as a "dreadful trade". Kids were literally tied by their ankles and dangled over the cliff to collect the herb that had been over-picked elsewhere. Luckily for us, it's grown back and is now abundant on the shoreline.

The shoreline is also the place to find scurvy grass, the Vitamin C supplement given to returning sailors after long sea voyages. But, interestingly, scurvy grass is also now appearing on roadsides – where it is believed to find the salt residue from treated winter roads something of a home from home.

Scurvy-grass has a very strong taste, and is distinguished right now by its pretty four petalled flowers.

Another flower that is easy to spot on coastal verges is Sea Beet. The Beet here comes from the family to which it belongs - beta vulgaris, also family of beetroot, chard and sugar beet. We've domesticated it now, but finding the wild heart-shaped wind pollinated cluster, also known as sea spinach, is one of the easiest ways to learn about foraging.

Inspired by a talk given by Martin O'Donnell of The Twelve Hotel, we pickled the three plants, which we picked with Martin on a beach near Barna. Martin puts them in an Asian-type pickle with sugar and spices, rather like the cucumber pickle that many will have already sampled.

We went for a more austere approach and simply marinated the sea vegetables overnight in apple cider vinegar. They were delicious with grilled shiitake mushrooms and brown rice, with a chilli vinaigrette made with the pickling vinegar.