Foraging on the Coastline – Part 1

2024, Coastal

Jen Wiss-Carline is a speara and keen coastal forager. In this series of posts, she shares some tips on how to make the most of the free food waiting to be found along our shores.

When I was a little girl, I used to love filling my plastic bucket with sea creatures for my mum to cook up. There was something extremely satisfying about finding juicy big cockles and mussels to bring a huge smile to her face, and she always made them smell wonderful. Now, as an adult, the soaring cost of food in supermarkets has provided me with a strong motivation to explore new ways to fill my table and freezer.

Whether you’re lucky enough to live near the coast or just visit occasionally, the ocean’s larder is always full of fresh, delicious and free food to forage, from crustaceans and molluscs to the mighty and often-overlooked seaweeds. It’s a great family day out with a lot of learning opportunities and the kids will love the thrill of finding you something to cook.

In this series of blog posts, I hope to inspire you to explore the shore, fill your buckets with tasty treats, and add the coastline to your list of favourite foraging haunts.

Rules and regulations

Before you venture to your nearest rocky shore in the search for tasty goodies, be aware that the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCA) make bylaws for all coastal regions in England which set out minimum sizes for taking shellfish to ensure that populations can reproduce before being harvested. You can check which IFCA region you fall under on this map, and there are links to the regional policies at the bottom of this page. In Wales, you can check the Natural Resources Wales for rules (have a quick search by species).

Please don’t take more than you need – we are lucky that this supply of mouthwatering free food isn’t overly regulated at the moment, and foraging sustainably helps to keep it that way.

Gear

If you’re staying on dry land, I recommend taking a knife and some catch bags with you, and waterproof shoes such as wellies or crocs – the rocks can be painful with bare feet. A rake is also helpful for foraging cockles. Check the tide times before you go – you want the tide to be going out so you can explore what has been left around the sea bed and rocky areas (I’ll get to more adventurous options later). Ideally you want a spring tide which occur during full and new moons. This is when the gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun align, either pulling together (new moon) or pulling in opposite directions (full moon), resulting in the most significant tidal ranges. This unearths much more of the sea bed than a typical tide and will be most productive. Be sure to keep an eye on the incoming tide and don’t get cut off by it.

Before cooking

For all your foraged seafood, make sure you wash it very well in cold water before you cook it to get rid of sand and dirt. Some seafood such as whelks will also benefit from a couple of hours soaking too.

Cockles

Starting with my childhood favourite, cockles are so delicious and incredibly healthy, packed with protein.

They tend to lie a couple of inches below the sand for which a rake is a really handy tool to drag them up, although you might find some above. They must be foraged alive so their shells should be closed and they shouldn’t smell bad. If you find an open one, give it a tap on a hard surface to see if it closes up – otherwise discard. Cockles are best steamed by adding a cup of water to a large pan with a lid. You can add a splash of lemon if you want to. They take just a couple of minutes and their shells should pop open – otherwise get rid.

Mussels

Mussels are easy pickings to be found on the rocks, hanging on tightly by their little strings (“the beard”). Make sure they’re closed shut when you find them, and either twist them off or use a short knife to get underneath.

Before cooking, spend some time cleaning each one: cut off the beard and scrape off any small barnacles from their shells. This will ensure there is not grit in broth. There’s no shortage of very simple steamed mussel recipes to be found, ranging from white wine, butter and garlic broth to coconut milk, fresh coriander and sliced chillies. Most seafood recipes are interchangeable with other shellfish and literally take minutes to execute. Make sure the shells opens when you cook them – otherwise discard those that don’t.

In my next post, I’ll introduce three more of my coastal foraging favorites: winkles, scallops, and oysters. Get your bucket and wellies ready for a real teatime treat!All images licensed through Envato.

30 July 2024/0 Comments/by Gavin

Using Free Wild Food to Supplement Your Diet, Improve Health, and Save Money

2024

It has taken me a while to post this, so apologies for my tardiness. Earlier this year, in conjunction with Bwyd Powys Food and Builth Wells Community Hub, I led a wild food and foraging session with the aim to help local low or zero income families to learn about seasonal eating and how to improve their health for free, whilst increasing their nutritional intake.

It was a bit wet and cold, so a few people dropped out but we had eight people out and getting wet whilst learning about what is safe to eat and what isn’t, including 5 adults and 3 children.

We saw Stinging Nettles, Plantain, Dock, Hawthorn, Ground Elder, Cleavers, Mullein, Dandelions, Blackthorn flowers, Common Sorrel, Garlic Mustard, and Ground Ivy.

The learner foragers each took an identification card and harvested their chosen plant to be taken back to the hub.

Back at the hub we added some of our herbs to hot water to infuse and make a stock, meanwhile we got to chopping onions and plants. The younger members were tasked with frying the onions, adding risotto rice and gently cooking the risotto whilst adding the stock. When the risotto was cooked, they added the chopped plants and some grated cheese.

The risotto went down really well (especially with the younger foragers! Adults, take note, lol).

The session went down well, and we hope to repeat it at other times in the year to help educate about seasonal eating.

If you would like to do something similar with your group/organisation, reach out to Gavin at gavin@foundfood.com

4 June 2024/0 Comments/by Gavin

Elderflower Cordial

Sambucus nigra

I love the smell and the taste of Elderflower, so every year it is a race to make as many things as I can from them to last for the rest of the year. This is one of the most versatile options because you can use it to make so many other things.

What you’ll need:

10 heads of Elderflowers.
750ml water.
Juice of 3 lemons or 2 teaspoons of citric acid.
600g sugar.

How to make it:

Heat the water and dissolve the sugar into it.
Take the water off the heat and add the lemon juice or citric acid, and the Elderflowers.
Make sure that the Elderflowers are properly submerged, and leave to infuse for 2 to 3 hours.
Strain the liquid through a muslin cloth, and pour into sterilised bottles.
Keep the bottles in the fridge and use within 3 months.

Now you have Elderflower cordial, you can have it as a cold drink, a hot drink, a cocktail, you can freeze it in cubes for other drinks, you can use it in baking and other desserts, you can add it to creams, and many many other uses.

30 May 2024/0 Comments/by Gavin

Rosehip Cordial

Rosa canina

Rosehips have been used for many, many years and it’s common knowledge that there is more vitamin C, pound-for-pound, than in an Orange. But what does it taste like? Well that’s a difficult question to answer as there isn’t anything else similar tasting. The best I can do is to say that it’s like a citrus fruit, but not like any other citrus fruit you’ve ever tasted.

It can be served as a lovely cold drink, a hot drink, and even as a non-alcoholic hot spiced cordial which is very reminiscent of mulled wine.

You can make this with cultivated rosehips (as long as they haven’t been sprayed), but I find that wild rosehips are much nicer.

What you’ll need:

1kg of wild rosehips.
3 litres water.
500g sugar.
Juice of 2 lemons or 2 teaspoons citric acid.

How to make it:

If your rosehips aren’t quite ripe and squishy, freeze them for a couple of days, then defrost them.
Roughly chop your rosehips and put in a pot with 2 litres of water.
Bring to the boil and keep boiling for 15 minutes.
Allow to cool and strain through a double layer of muslin, squeezing out as much juice as you can.
Put the pulp back into the pan and add another 1 litre of water.
Bring to the boil and keep boiling for 15 minutes.
Allow to cool and strain through a double layer of muslin, squeezing out as much juice as you can.
Discard the pulp now and bring the juice together in a pan.
Put the juice back on the heat and add the sugar, keep stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Allow to cool, then decant into sterilised bottles.

This will keep for 3 months or more in the fridge, if you can avoid drinking it all before then!

30 May 2024/0 Comments/by Gavin

Rosebay Willowherb Pickles

2024, Chamaenerion, Chamaenerion angustifolium, Onagraceae

Not so much a recipe, more just an idea of what to do with these wild vegetables. Usually, they’re steamed or boiled and used as a wild alternative to asparagus, but get them young and small enough and they make an excellent pickle.

Ingredients:

Apple Cider Vinegar.
Young Rosebay Willowherb shoots.

Method:

Pick young, small (less than 10cm) shoots.
Fill a clean jar with the shoots and fill with apple cider vinegar to cover all the shoots.
Leave in a warm, dry, dark place for 2 weeks.
Enjoy!

Rosebay Willowherb shoots have a little tanginess to them, so I use organic apple cider vinegar to balance that with the sweetness of the apples.

Download Recipe Card

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See Rosebay Willowherb on The Forager Helper.

25 April 2024/0 Comments/by Gavin

Stinging Nettle Cordial

2024, Urtica dioica

It’s difficult to think of nettles in anything other than savoury but I hope this recipe will change your mind . The reason I like this recipe is because I wanted to find a use for the older nettle leaves that I can’t use for eating fresh like you do with the nettle tops. This is perfect with ice, goes nicely with a G&T and with tonic water.

I will often make this with the discarded nettle leaves I won’t use for making crisps.

Ingredients:

200g nettle leaves.
500g caster sugar.
4 Squeezed Lemons or 4tbsp lemon juice.
500 ml water.

Method:

Put your nettles and water in a large pan and bring to the boil for 10 minutes.
Strain the nettles out of the liquid through a fine mesh colander or a cloth.
Take the strained juice and add the sugar to it.
Put this back on the heat and warm slowly, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice.
Allow it to cool and place in sterilised bottles.
Use within 6 months, once opened keep in the fridge and use within 2 weeks.
Enjoy with sparkling water, water or add to jellies, ice lollies to give a wild nettle flavour.

22 April 2024/0 Comments/by Gavin

Sloe, Sloe, Sloe!

Prunus, Prunus spinosa, Rosaceae

Winter is upon us, the frosts have started already and it’s tempting to wrap up warm and stay indoors, but there’s still a whole world of food to be had out there. For this article I want to pick on a commonly used plant that seems to not get much use outside of making booze. I am of course talking about the humble Sloe of the Blackthorn bush (Prunus spinosa).

I’m not going to dive into recipes or variations for sloe gin, Epine aperitif, or even sloe wine (another of my favourites). After all, it’s very simple and there are tons of recipes out there already; not to mention that you can now buy sloe gin off the shelf (and I won’t start on all the reasons why that’s wrong!).

Species

Blackthorn is a member of the Rose family and like most fruit of the Rosacea, it has seeds/stones containing compounds which can convert to hydrogen cyanide in the stomach, however you’d have to consume a lot of the seeds for it to affect you, and we’re discarding the stones today anyway; It’s that hydrogen cyanide compound that gives almonds their flavour, and which comes out in sloe gin if it’s infused for a long time. Trust me, it’s a good thing.

Identifying Blackthorn

Blackthorn grows in dense tangled bushes, with evil black spikes up to a couple of inches long, so when picking the berries it’s best to wear suitable clothing or be very careful. If you’re looking to identify it in spring Blackthorn and Hawthorn can have very similar flowers and spikes, but where Blackthorn flowers before its leaves appear, Hawthorn flowers after its leaves have appeared. If the leaves are out it’s much easier. Blackthorn has simple small leaves, Hawthorn has lobed leaves.

Eating Sloe Berries

As you probably know already, sloes are a wild plum but are incredibly sour and astringent until they’ve been frozen. Whether by the natural frosts or by putting them in the freezer for a day or two, the freezing process releases more of their natural sugars and makes them much more palatable for our infusions. A few years ago, I was licking my fingers after preparing some berries for wine and it struck me that now they’re nice and sweet, why not use them like a normal plum?

Sloe Dumplings

This is your recipe for this issue. I adapted it from a family recipe which used shop bought plums, which was lovely but I think that these small snack size versions are even better:

Ingredients

12 frozen sloes
1 tbsp caster sugar
125g peeled potatoes
20g butter unsalted
50g breadcrumbs
20g granulated sugar
1 egg
60g plain flour
Pinch salt
Pinch cinnamon

Method

Put your potatoes on to boil. You want it nice and soft, like your going to make mash.
Clean your sloes and make sure that they’re defrosted. Remove the stones keeping as much of the flesh as possible. Sprinkle the caster sugar over the sloes.
Melt the butter in a pan and add the breadcrumbs. Cook gently until golden brown then remove from the heat. Stir in the granulated sugar thoroughly and set aside to cool.
When the potatoes are done and cool enough to handle, shred them into a bowl – I just mash them with a fork.
Add the egg, salt, cinnamon and flour and mix into a sticky dough. If it’s too wet add a little more flour.
Get a pan of water on the boil.
Take a small piece of dough at a time, flatten it into a 5mm thick circle. Add the sloe, fold the dough and shape into a ball.
TOP TIP: If you find the dough too sticky to mould in your hand, wet your hands; It makes it much easier.
A few at a time, drop the dough balls into the simmering water and cook until they rise to the surface.
Remove using a strainer to drain excess water and put straight into the breadcrumbs. Roll them around so they’re coated and leave to cool.
Serve the dumplings cold, maybe with custard or a little Sloe port.

Health Benefits

Sloe berries are rich in Vitamin C and Vitamin E, and also have concentrations of potassium, calcium and magnesium. They’re also packed with antioxidants, phenols and essential fatty acids, all of which are good for maintain health and reducing the likelihood of chronic disease.

Summary

When we’re looking at foraged food it is sometimes easy to stick with what we know, even making small changes to recipes, and we often overlook the basic nature of a thing. Sloes are wild plums and we know that they sweeten up when frozen and defrosted, so why not use them as tiny plums? OK, so they’re a little fiddly, but I think it’s well worth the effort. I can promise you that they make lovely desserts, sweet and sour sauces, and this year why not try a lovely rich sloe sauce to go with your Turkey?

11 December 2022/0 Comments/by Gavin

Not a banana – plantain herb

Flowers, Foraging, Leaves, Medicine, Plants, Recipe, Spring, Summer

Spring is well and truly sprung and the perennial weeds are popping up everywhere, much to the disgust of proud gardeners and allotment owners. A lot of the weeds have medicinal and edible uses, but some are better than others, and frankly some of them are little more than wild salad “fillers”. However, there’s one particular genus/group of prevalent weeds with medicinal qualities, nutritional benefits and they actually have a taste worth looking for too. It’s the plantain herb (genus Plantago), also known as fleaworts.

As the title suggests, I often find myself saying “it’s not related to the banana-like vegetable which you see at the supermarket”.

Species

At the last count there were about 200 species in the genus, but I tend to stick with wide-spread, UK-based varieties such as Broadleaf (Plantago major), Ribwort (Plantago laceolata) and occasionally Sea (Plantago maritima) and Buckshorn (Plantago coronopus); All of which have very similar properties and uses. They all have slightly different seasons, with Broadleaf tending to pop-up first, then Ribwort a little later, and Buckshorn and Sea Plantain from about mid-summer; As with all of these things, it depends upon your location, and the current weather conditions.

Identifying plantain

It’s easy to ignore and walk all over, because it is a very common weed, and without its flower heads it blends into the grassy background easily; But once you’ve learnt to recognise it, you’ll see it everywhere. Whilst the basic leaf shapes may vary (Broadleaf has wide, round leaves; Ribwort has long, strap-like leaves), there are some features that they all have in common:

Parallel leaf veins – The leaf veins run from base to tip and are usually easy to see. If you’re really careful, you can tear a leaf and the ribs can stay attached so you have two halves of a leaf attached by threads.

Flower spike – They all send up a long flower spike with tiny veins.

Eating plantain herb

General rules of foraging withstanding (look for potential contamination, condition, wash it, etc.), plantain leaves, stalks and flower heads can be eaten raw – and this is where the surprising taste comes through. At first, it’s a bit of a plain “green” taste, but give it a good chew, get your juices flowing and get it to the back of your mouth and… Mushrooms. If you’ve never tried Plantain before, you really have to give this a go; I promise you won’t be disappointed. The most intense flavour seems to come from the flower heads (they’ll be out in a few months’ time), but the leaves give the same flavour too.

Recipes

Crisps

A very quick and easy snack. Wash and dry your plantain leaves (I find that broadleaf works best for this) and put them into a shallow pan of hot oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan or they’ll just wilt and not crisp up. Give them up to 30 seconds, turning once if necessary, then drain and eat as a nice little snack. They can be salted while they’re cooling too, if you like.

Vodka

This was a mad idea I had one day of getting an earthy, mushroom flavour into cocktails. Leaves and seeds infused in vodka for 3 months, then strained. The earthy flavour counterbalances sweetness, but I find a little bitterness really lifts it. So mixed with nettle cordial for the sweetness, a few splashed of home-made bitters (or Angostura), and topped with tonic water works well.

Plantain herb and garlic mustard risotto

This is your full recipe for this issue. Apart from the fact that it makes a really good flavour, I’ve sold this idea to learner foragers who are scared of mushroom picking – It means that you can have a mushroom and garlic risotto with no mushrooms or garlic!

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
1 large white onion
4 large handfuls of plantain herb leaves, stalks and flower heads
2 litres of water (to make 1 litre of stock)
250g Risotto rice
1 handful of garlic mustard leaves

Method

Put 2 handfuls of leaves, stalks and flowers in a couple of pints of water, bring to the boil and simmer for at least 1 hour. Allow to cool and strain out the plants. Add the remaining fresh plants and simmer again for 1 hour, then strain.
If the stock isn’t already reduced to 1 litre, simmer it again to reduce.
Fry a chopped onion in a little oil until golden.
Add the risotto rice and toss in the onion and oil.
Add a little plantain stock and stir until it is soaked up.
Repeat until the rice doesn’t soak up the stock any more, then put the rest of the stock in.
Keep on a low heat until all the stock is gone and the rice is thick and sticky.
Remove the risotto from the heat and stir your sliced garlic mustard leaves through.

NOTE: Garlic mustard leaves can have a very bitter after taste but cooking them can kill the gentle garlic flavour. We stir them through at the end like this, because a little heat tames the bitterness without destroying the garlic flavour.

Health benefits

Plantain has a long history of being used in traditional herbal medicine, and for very good reason. Modern investigations have shown most traditional uses are actually highly effective.

Plantain is “mucilaginous” which means that it has a soothing effect on both the skin and the mucous membranes, so it is an effective relief for burns, bites and stings, as well as on coughs, sore throats, and urinary tract infections. I’ve found that it is best used as a fresh, first-aid herb for burns, bites and stings – you can crush the leaves with a little water and apply directly; If it’s for me, I’ll chew them with a little spit and apply it. For internal injuries or issues, you can make a tea from either fresh or dried herb. Just pour hot water over the leaves and allow to infuse for 10 to 15 minutes. As well as mucilage and its soothing, anti-inflammatory ability, studies have found that Plantain contains allantoin, a substance proven to stimulate the regeneration of tissues for healing, and aucubin, with proven antibiotic actions.

Summary

To native Americans, this was known as “White man’s footprints” because it spread wherever the European settlers went. Apart from kids using it as an improvised gun, or the species Plantago psyllium used for improving digestive transit, this little weed gets largely ignored; I hope that after reading this, you’ll realise its amazing food and medicine benefits and make good use of it.

Originally published in The Bushcraft Journal Issue 25 - 2019

13 May 2020/0 Comments/by Gavin

What on Earth is Bletting?

2018, Berries, Foraging, Winter

If you’ve been around foragers in winter, or been reading about it, or been foraging yourself, the chances are that you’ve come across the expression “bletting“; But what does it actually mean?

Simple definition of bletting

Well, at its simplest it’s a stage of fruit development in-between ripening and rotting. It describes when a fruit has fully ripened, has started to break down, but is not quite rotting yet. There’s a bit of semantics at play here, strictly speaking bletting is actually the early stages of rotting, but before the fruit goes bad.

Bletting Medlars — By Nadiatalent – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22967467

What does it really mean?

For certain fruit, bletting is actually an essential process to make it edible for us. Fruit such as Sloes (the fruit of the Blackthorn bush – Prunus spinosa) and Medlars (Mespilus germanica) for example, are quite sour and astringent when ripe. Leave them to “blet” a little and the cell walls begin to break down and release sugars, thereby sweetening the fruit. Rosehips (Wild dog rose – Rosa canina) are often rock hard until they’ve begun to blet, at which point you can squeeze their citrus-like juice out with your fingers. For fruit such as Sloes, it was always recommended that you wait until after the first frost to pick them, as the frost creates ice crystals in the flesh which has the same effect as bletting; However, nowadays with our changing seasons and modern technology, it’s much simpler to pick them as soon as they’re ripe and put them in the freezer!

By 4028mdk09 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8256632

So, “Bletting”. An odd word, a simple yet important process, and nature’s way of helping us to have more food to eat.

12 December 2018/0 Comments/by Gavin

A Forager’s Visit to Corfu

2018, Autumn, Foraging, General

I recently stayed on the East coast of Corfu (Greece) for a week, and whilst the intention was to have a week of complete relaxation, I don’t think it’s possible for a forager to ignore plants, ever.

Anyway, I was pleased to see so many plants that I recognised from foraging in the UK, but there were also plenty that I wouldn’t have a clue about – that’s where some local knowledge would help if I intended to stay there and forage!

Quite often on foraging walks, we get onto the subject of lost knowledge, and how in other parts of the world (including some of mainland Europe) they don’t have “foraging” because gathering wild edible plants is just part of life. However, whilst it was encouraging to see some evidence of wild food gathering, it was also clear that the practice is beginning to die out in Corfu too.

Horta forager

In Greece, they have a dish called “horta” which just means greens and will probably have different contents from one restaurant to another. It can include dandelion leaves, amaranths, mustards and chicory. Interestingly, the Greek for vegetarian is hortafagos which translates as “weed-eater”. Anyway, it was encouraging to see that you can still buy horta, gathered by a local forager, from the markets.

Slightly less encouraging was the amount of perfectly good olives, grapes, prickly pears and other edibles rotting on the plants, or on the floor beneath them.