What to Forage in January [coastal]




I am lucky to live in a lovely coastal town, so I am blessed with the abundance of coastal wild foods. January is certainly regarded as a sparse month but it isn't because there isn't anything about, it is just the better sources of nutrition are hidden underground as roots or are tree fruits that appear past their best but are simply more dried or frost softened. January is a month of stragglers and early shoots. Like I found this hawthorn today. The fruit was soft and buttery perfect for making raw haw ketchup. Most haws have fed the birds two months ago, but you will still find the occasional tree with plenty of frost softened fruit.  Rosehips can also be found in a similar usable state, along with the very odd apple tree.


Raw Haw Ketchup
Take about a kilo of frost softened haws. Place a cupful in a sturdy metal colander.  Rub the fruit so the flesh falls off the seeds. Collect the pulp in bowl below. For every 2 cups of pulp add approximately 1/2 cup home made vinegar and 1/4 of good quality sugar. Mix well, store in fridge.

The frost softening of fruits like hawthorn and rosehips, is origin of the phrase haw frost, a good frost is required to make the fruit soft, it often makes the fruit sweeter, it certainly makes haws and hips more usable.
January is a month of strange opportunities. The weather is often cold enough to preserve odd things in a perfectly edible condition. You still can find good apples hiding under trees, we found two apples with supermarket stickers sitting on a grass verge. Being totally uncivilised we don't know the difference between food and rubbish so picked them up, washed them and ate them. The wilder grandparents of commercial brassicas are coastal plants. We found a brussels sprout visiting its grandmother in a perfectly edible condition on the high tide line, if there was more we would foraged them as well. 
This buck's horn plantain. It is not common plant but can be found inland on old 
 industrial sites. Ribwort plantain and the large round leafed plantain are a lot more common. Like other plantains the leaves are edible, both raw and cooked, but on buck's horns they are softer and more palatable without the string in the leaf. The seeds are still present occasionally in January . These too are edible and can be cooked up once the husks, are removed. The seeds are very similar to chia seeds. The seeds from plantians like chia seed and psyllium husk are bulk laxitives, fine in small doses, but unless you have piles and are constipated they need to be eaten moderately. 



 Alexanders are commonly found near the coast. These were found about a mile inland on a road near the retail park. They are part of the carrot family and they have very dangerous look alike. Alexanders have very shiny leaves, and in the summer develop a yellow flower. You mustn't pick them if you have any doubt at all. 
They are pushed as a great delicacy by several foragers. Traditionally they are candied like anglica or are battered and deep fried. Simply boiled on their own, they have a peculiar taste which I personally dont find that pleasant. It is not say alexander tempura isnt nice, but if you deep fry and batter most things they taste good. I am still experimenting with them find a way of eating them I like. 
Sea beet is the wild ancestor of sugar beet, beetroot, chard and perpetual spinach. It grows extensively locally and is found just above the high tide line. It tastes most like chard, but so much better. It is like comparing a wild bilberry to cultivated blueberry. The wilder plant has the most outstandingly nutrient and taste rich quality. The type of experience that only wild food gives.
The leaves are harvested simply by cutting as to not damage the root system. The roots are also edible, but must cooked, or you sometimes get a weird sore throat from it, sugarbeet can do the same. I cooked the sea beet into saag.









Sea Beet Saag
Sea Beet Saag
Fry onion with cumin seeds, garam masala and coriander seeds. Add thoroughly washed wet sea beet. Pour a cup of water and add one chopped tomato or a handful of deseeded rosehip if you find them.  I added coconut flour at this stage too. Place lid on saucepan and cook for ten mintues. Serve with fresh coriander leaves or sea purslane.
 This is a thoroughly dreadful photo of sea purslane. This plant coats my local salt marshes, this time of year it is at it most edible. It can be eaten raw, or cooked. The leaves have to picked off the woody stem. It is nice added to clear broth and noodles.

















Back in October I spent a week of my life peeling every evening  to ensure I had enough chestnuts to last throughout the year. Returning to the spot where we gather them, it was pleasing to find some more stragglers. In a matter of a minute buried slight into the soft soil where chestnuts. some had started to sprout but most where fine. This is what I mean the abundance of natural food in January is still there but hidden. It takes a lot of previous clocking foods like burdock or rechecking sites where food might be preserved.


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