Wild Foods at the Seaside

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Wild Foods at the Seaside

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cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 10:46 am Post subject: Wild Foods at the Seaside

After coming back from my hols, I've been mulling over the differences in foraging at the coast in different parts of the country.

There seems to be lots of commonality, but there are a few differences that strike me as interesting.

First, if you can find a safe beach, there are three tremendous shellfish that seem to cover most of the country; mussels, winkles, and limpets. You can also pick up shore crabs and sometimes little shrimp in pools quite easily, you may also come across the occasional sea urchin on a shore (not really worth eating). These are all really, really easy to find, but you need to show some caution in picking specimens and preparing them, and they're all (with the exception of the urchin!) great eating.

But other shellfish, such as razors, scallops, oysters, cockles and clams need more searching out, and while it's conceivable that you MIGHT forage a bigger crab or a lobster, that's not really going to happen without some equipment.

Onto plants; again, seaweeds (okay, okay, not technically plants, so sue me...) are pretty much universal, but I've yet to get a handle on which ones are found where, and which are best. Bladder wrack and sea lettuce are good, and I seem to find them wherever I go.

On shore, some plants are profuse in some areas; when you find sea beet, you'll normally find loads, and it's great. When you find march samphire, you'll again have shedloads of this fab vegetable. Same goes for rock samphire. Alexanders are common as muck around a lot of the English and Welsh coastline, less so in Scotland.

It's perhaps only the land plants that let you down when foraging at the coast in Scotland. Some of the best edibles are uncommon up there; but my experience has been that the quality of what you find on the beach makes up for that!

Any thoughts, anyone?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:06 am Post subject:
I think the first thing on the seashore is how do you know the quality of the water? I've added a link to blue flag beaches which is a start, and finding a good local would be a fine idea but are there any indicators? Is there anything that'll only grow in very clean water or is there anything that will only grow in polluted water?

Lozzie

Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:19 am Post subject:
Blue Flag Beaches are often swept clean of virtually EVERYTHING that might conceivably be of interest. Every morning here in Dorset the tractors are out at the crack of sparrow's, raking the sand into beautiful uniform Japanese-rock-garden style effects, all the way from Hengitsbury Head to Sandbanks. Great for holiday makers with small children; ghastly for beachcombers and foragers.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:23 am Post subject:
The environment agency is a good start, I'm told that you can phone them to find out whether it's safe to gather shellfish from particular beaches. My own approach has been to ask locals, which usually works. As for marker species... Yeah, probably, but that's easier to do with freshwater than seawater. I can't immediately think of any for seawater.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:26 am Post subject:
Good point Lozzie, I wander what they do with the seaweed? Do people purge foraged shellfish then? When my parents gathered mussels down Cornwall we left them in a bucket of water with some flour in IIRC. Is it also try that grazers such as limpets are far less risky than filter feeders such as mussels?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:33 am Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

Good point Lozzie, I wander what they do with the seaweed?

Do people purge foraged shellfish then? When my parents gathered mussels down Cornwall we left them in a bucket of water with some flour in IIRC. Is it also try that grazers such as limpets are far less risky than filter feeders such as mussels?

I always purge mussels, something like four hours to overnight in a bucket of water with some oats. But I've never purged limpets or winkles, not sure I can figure out how I'd do that anyway. I'd suspect that the grazers would be slightly less prone to concentrating some toxins, but I'd never rely on that as a means to remain safe.

That said, as a kid I was sent foraging for winkles on the rocks not so far from Hartlepool nuclear powerstation when we were on holiday at a caravan site there, on more than one occasion. It's a wonder we all survived...

Lozzie

Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:34 am Post subject:
Yes Treacodactyl. I think you should purge ALL shellfish! I don't know what happens to the stuff that is swept off the beaches every morning. That is a great question for the local Environmental Health Department!

Lozzie

Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:35 am Post subject:
Cab do you glow in the dark? You would make an excellent alternative to low-energy lightbulbs

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:35 am Post subject:

Lozzie wrote:

Yes Treacodactyl. I think you should purge ALL shellfish!

How would one purge a limpet?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:36 am Post subject:

Lozzie wrote:

Cab do you glow in the dark? You would make an excellent alternative to low-energy lightbulbs

Yeah, but that's just the ready-brek I used to eat as kid that does that...

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45669
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:36 am Post subject:

cab wrote:

It's a wonder we all survived...

You survived all right but look at the side effects

Lozzie

Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:38 am Post subject:

cab wrote:

Lozzie wrote:

Yes Treacodactyl. I think you should purge ALL shellfish!

How would one purge a limpet?

I confess, I have never tried it

But you have got my juices flowing and now I am on a mission to find out!

I had never realised they were edible before.

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 11:59 am Post subject:

Just because a beach doesn't have a blue flage doesn't mean it's not clean. Flags are given to designated bathing beaches (this is why Luxemburg has some blue flag beaches on lakes). As well as water quality other criteria come into play like having toilets, litter bins, banning dogs and cleaning services as mentioned above. A beach can lose its flag if any of these criteia fall short. For water quality you have to find out about loacl discharges. These fall into several types and from diffuse sources. Sewage discharges - most coastal discharges fronm sewage works in England and Wales (scotland still has some way to go) now receive secondary biological treatment and some companies even sterilise it with UV light to kill viruses etc. There are some raw discharges but these are usually from isolated dwellings or hamlets and are being sorted out. As water companies have cleaned up their act other discharges have been exposed as damaging, mainly commercial operations and these are bing cleaned up. Agricultrue run off from the land is a problem. Occasional storms washing a lot of silt in or causing sewer overflows to be activated can cause a beach to lose its flag if tested on that day, but they are intermittent and not so serious. The current biggest problem is the background pollution caused by all these animals crapping everywhere Sheep, cows, seagulls, fish which when you get a lot of them can cause 'pollution'.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 05 12:18 pm Post subject:

There is an article with a bit of advice on foraging seaweeds on the Waitrose site of all places: https://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/wfi/ingredients/fruitandvegetables/9811086.asp

Or you can buy it from a small company:

https://www.seaveg.co.uk/bbseaveg.html

Event in Yorkshire on 4th August might be good:

Quote:

Event : Seashore Food For Free
Venue : Yorkshire Coast - Robin Hood's Bay (in Yorkshire)
Date(s) : Thursday 4 August 2005
Description : Look for tasty delicacies on the sea shore
Time(s) : 10-30am on slipway
Price(s) : Adult Members: �1.00, Child Members: �1.00, Adults: �1.00, Children: �1.00
Contact : Yorkshire Coast - North 01947 841386
[email protected]
Notes : In addition 50p per taster - if you dare!!! Booking essential on 01947 841386

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/thingstodo/events/default.asp?propertyID=364&period=366

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