I have a rare day off, and Mrs. Nick is in work, so, time for a trip down to the beach.
Thurstaston beach is on the southern side of the wirral, and faces out into the Dee estuary. At high tide, the water makes it almost all the way to the base of the cliffs. The cliffs are comprised of boulder clay, left in the wake of retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age. They're constantly being eroded away...
Dull start.
Today's aim was to do a bit of foraging while out and about. I've got the river cottage edible seashore book, which would have been very useful if I'd actually brought it. Nevertheless, I grabbed a handful of these bad boys:
Try anything once...
I left them in a few changes of fresh water for an hour to let them empty themselves. This was...effective. I'm glad I had enough water for several changes, put it that way. :yikes:
Now, remember those constantly retreating cliffs?
It is of course an offense to uproot any wild growing plant. I honestly have no idea where I stand with this sea beet though, as it was pre-uprooted and thus, done for anyway.
So I ate the leaves with the winkles.
The sea beet leaves were nice, if you enjoy leafy green veggies. There was the bitter edge reminiscent of cabbage or sprouts, but the leaves remained nice and substantial, they didn't just mush down to nothing like spinach does. It's also worth saying there was a nice, salty maritime twang to them. This isn't much of a surprise.
The winkles were nothing like what I was expecting. I expected something along the lines of your normal French restaurant escargot: chewy, somewhat tasteless and a bit disappointing.
In fact, once you've flicked the operculum off and pulled the meaty bit out (leaving the gut sack, yuck!) You're left with something that looks, and tastes and bit like a prawn. Not a very big one, but a prawn nonetheless. The winkles were nice, and another thing to tick off the list of things I've eaten, but I really doubt I'd bother with them again. They're just too much faff for too little food.
The sea beet, however, is a different story. The root is delicious, the leaves are nice enough and they're present in abundance! Wouldn't dig one up though, obviously.
Walking on a bit, I went inland, as the tide was getting a bit higher than I'd have liked. I mooched a mile or so down the wirral way coastal path, and ended up at Heswall dungeon:
It's not a proper cave, just a hollow out of the sandstone scarp. Nevertheless I bet people have been coming here for shelter for thousands of years. I set the hammock up and had a little lie down.
Now, Heswall dungeon is a very popular place with walkers, dog walkers, dogs and generally people just mooching about. All of whom did a double-take when they saw my hammock. I bet they were all secretly jealous.
After that, went back the way I came, back onto the beach which was a lot sunnier.
Beats working in the call centre!
Forgot to add this: about 500g of rose hips, and a dozen sloes.
Thurstaston beach is on the southern side of the wirral, and faces out into the Dee estuary. At high tide, the water makes it almost all the way to the base of the cliffs. The cliffs are comprised of boulder clay, left in the wake of retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age. They're constantly being eroded away...
Dull start.
Today's aim was to do a bit of foraging while out and about. I've got the river cottage edible seashore book, which would have been very useful if I'd actually brought it. Nevertheless, I grabbed a handful of these bad boys:
Try anything once...
I left them in a few changes of fresh water for an hour to let them empty themselves. This was...effective. I'm glad I had enough water for several changes, put it that way. :yikes:
Now, remember those constantly retreating cliffs?
It is of course an offense to uproot any wild growing plant. I honestly have no idea where I stand with this sea beet though, as it was pre-uprooted and thus, done for anyway.
So I ate the leaves with the winkles.
The sea beet leaves were nice, if you enjoy leafy green veggies. There was the bitter edge reminiscent of cabbage or sprouts, but the leaves remained nice and substantial, they didn't just mush down to nothing like spinach does. It's also worth saying there was a nice, salty maritime twang to them. This isn't much of a surprise.
The winkles were nothing like what I was expecting. I expected something along the lines of your normal French restaurant escargot: chewy, somewhat tasteless and a bit disappointing.
In fact, once you've flicked the operculum off and pulled the meaty bit out (leaving the gut sack, yuck!) You're left with something that looks, and tastes and bit like a prawn. Not a very big one, but a prawn nonetheless. The winkles were nice, and another thing to tick off the list of things I've eaten, but I really doubt I'd bother with them again. They're just too much faff for too little food.
The sea beet, however, is a different story. The root is delicious, the leaves are nice enough and they're present in abundance! Wouldn't dig one up though, obviously.
Walking on a bit, I went inland, as the tide was getting a bit higher than I'd have liked. I mooched a mile or so down the wirral way coastal path, and ended up at Heswall dungeon:
It's not a proper cave, just a hollow out of the sandstone scarp. Nevertheless I bet people have been coming here for shelter for thousands of years. I set the hammock up and had a little lie down.
Now, Heswall dungeon is a very popular place with walkers, dog walkers, dogs and generally people just mooching about. All of whom did a double-take when they saw my hammock. I bet they were all secretly jealous.
After that, went back the way I came, back onto the beach which was a lot sunnier.
Beats working in the call centre!
Forgot to add this: about 500g of rose hips, and a dozen sloes.
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