Wild food - Samphire

Seaweed spends its whole life floating in seawater so is well adapted to being underwater, land plants have to put up with an occasional downpour but can generally get used to the dry. But what of those bits of land at the whim of the tide, the salt marshes?

Most plants baulk at the challenge of living here. It’s a hard life spending half the day in potentially baking summer sun and half the day soaking wet with salt water. But one of the few plants that has risen to the challenge is samphire.

There are two types in the UK 'marsh' and 'rock'. Here I’m talking about marsh samphire as that’s the one widely available (in supermarkets if you can’t make it to the sea). Rock samphire is actually in the carrot family and completely unrelated.

To be honest my favourite way to eat this  succulent plant is simply to boil it for 3 mins, drain it, mix it with some butter and have it with some fried fish and mash. It’s unexpectedly tasty (given its habitat), crunchy and a great seasonal alternative to standard greens. Some people refer to it as 'sea asparagus', but I reckon it tastes good enough to be recognised in its own right. 

If you do go foraging on salt marsh by the sea and end up with an abundance of this little plant there’s a tasty recipe you can use to make it last longer.

Ingredients

250g samphire

400ml white wine vinegar

70g brown sugar

1 tsp all spice

1 tsp mustard seed

Half tsp turmeric

Half tsp coriander seed

2 bay leaves

Method

This should make two large jam jars full. 

1. Put all the ingredients except the samphire in a pan and bring to the boil for 3-5 mins, then leave to go stone cold.
2. Blanch the samphire in boiling water, drain and transfer to cold water. This ensures the samphire stays crisp.
3. Drain the samphire and put in sterilised jars. Cover with the spicy mixture and seal. Leave for one month (or at least a week or so if you’re impatient)

You can keep this pickle in the fridge and eat it with cheese, in a sandwich or as is traditionally the case, with fish. It’ll keep for up to 6 months.  

A threat to samphire

With the rise of the oceans through climate change the salt marshes that play home to samphire are shrinking, as they are caught between the sea and built up areas inland.

So, as if you needed one more reason to stand up against climate change, it also threatens our stores of samphire.

You can tell decision makers that you want to protect samphire - and anything else you care about - from climate change at the Climate Coalition's website fortheloveof.org.uk/