Kentish Marsh Foraging - Sea Beet and Purlsane

Sea Beet

Sea Purslane

On the Kent Coast, along the 10 mile path between Sittingbourne and Sea Salter via Faversham are patches of sea purslane and sea beet growing in large quantities.


Sea Beet - treat like spinach - pick the smaller, new leaves, (or trim out the stalk from older larger ones) and steam or add to dishes at the end so they wilt.

Sea Purslane - little 2cm long silvery leaves, on straggly bushes, just above the high tide mark, treat like little salty additions to salads - just a few - or I've read they are great to be used like a salty thyme or rosemary seasoning on roasted vegetables - just through them in with then for the last ten minutes of roasting, and they will add a salty, herb-like seasoning to them.

Enjoy


Tj@TheNook

"Gone Fishing"....well...Monday anyway.

After returning from a visit to the family in Cumbria with my trusty old child-hood fishing rod, shiny new reel,, and some of Dad's best two hook traces...it's finally time to try it out on Monday in the New Year.

Going to head out between Faversham and Whitstable on the search for big juicy flatties.

photo's, results, and recipes to follow........or recommendations for a decent Chip shop on the way home if the fish don't bite!


Off for a walk along the coast, west of Faversham tomorrow - looking for likely spots for next years crop of marsh samphire.

Tj@TheNook

The Best of 2011....

Whilst the roll call of 2011 included apples, pears, plums, damsons, greengages, cobnuts, sloe's, field mushrooms, wild and hedge garlic, wild hops,.....the prize find of the year are a patch of wild pacific oysters on the tide line of the Kent coast.

There weren't many big ones, these were the biggest we found, but there are plenty of small ones which shouldn't be picked for another few seasons to give them chance to breed.

Tj @ TheNook

Merry Xmas from The Nook

Merry xmas to anyone out with their trug this morning. This mild weather means there's been a fresh springlike flush of greens. Will be picking some 'jack by the hedge' garlic leaves tomorrow to go with a nice beef stew. And maybe some oysters from our favourite beach to make it a London Ale beef and oyster stew. Tj@The Nook

Welcome to The Nook

After what has been an excellent year, renovating our first home in Kent, making some great new friends swapping veggies, jars of pickles, apples by the bucket load, @ http://www.facebook.com/groups/glutclub/ ; and having begun working our way along the ancient highways and byways of rural Kent, we've been amazed at how bountiful the county is.


Trees loaded with apples, rock pools full of shell-fish, hedgerows of fragrant wild herbs, meadows full of mushrooms, are all there to be discovered, and what better than getting out in the fresh air for free exercise, with the added bonus of a trug full of free food in these austere times.

If you enjoy our journey with our trug through Kent even half as much as we do, and if any of you discover the joy of picking an apple from a wild tree, a wild strawberry from the woods, or making a bowl of shell-fish chowder from a morning visit to the beach, then 2012 will have been a successful year.

Enjoy.

Tj@The Nook