Flowering plant on the beach - ID please?

Anyone recognise this? Its popping up all over the beach lately.

 

Looks like Sea Rocket Dave, bit fleshier leaves than the Rocket we grow for salads, but a good edible all the same.

 

Yep Ziggy's right I asked the exact same thing a few years ago

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/couple-of-beach-plants.15604/

 

So, it seems you can eat it, but its horrid by all accounts.

 

I tried a piece yesterday. I only ate the tiniest piece and in fact I spat it out after chewing it up. I wanted to double check that it was edible. My logic being that if it we'd got the ID wrong and it was something poisonous, then I'd know by now.

I'm pleased to report that so far about 24 hours has passed and as yet I am still intact.

 

Can't see your pic anymore, but if its a Brassica with the 4 cross shaped petals then there is nothing poisonous in that family as far as I know, just some hot or bitter tasting things like brussel sprouts.

 

I think I've reinstated the pics now if you want to have a look

 

Yep, you're fine

Just watched this http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...British_Series_1_45_minute_versions_Foraging/

You might like that.

 

I've watched 10 minutes of it so far. I don't normally go for shell fish, but those razor clams look nice and there are loads down our beach.

 

They look great, have utterly failed to catch any so far, think i've been targeting the wrong burrows & have just annoyed some lugworms with the salt

 

Next question, what do I do with this foraged beach weed?

When I sampled it, the intense flavour and texture, not totally dissimilar to young runner bean pods but a bit salty, suggests maybe stir fried with a bit of garlic and lemon juice perhaps?

 

That sounds good, I usually just include it in salads. Make sure you wash it as any clumps on a beach are targets for dogs. No lamposts on a beach

Have you got any clumps of Sea Beet up there too? Thats quite a fleshy leaf that would go in a stir fry.

 

While talking about food for free, from the coast .
I was amazed to find 150g packs Samphire for sale in our local Tesco 2 weeks ago.

I enjoyed it steamed as a garnish on poached salmon, raw in a salad, and it was great in a stir fry too. It seemed to go a long way. Really salty flavour.... No added MSG!
Do try it!

Wish we lived near the right bit of coast to go and pick our own.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cp=5&gs_id=r&xhr=t&q=samphire&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=1536&bih=776&um=1&ie=UTF-
8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=WAlLUMiFH8OU0QWZ8oCoDQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samphire

 

Wotcha Silver,

I love Samphire. I don't pick the whole plant, just the central spike, leaving some to set seed. When I first started picking from a local estuary there was only a small patch, 20 years later and its now growing the full length Probably something to do with the demise of the commercial pickers down there though, they used to pull the whole plant.

Couldn't pick for a few years due to the oil from the wreck of the Napoli, but its ok now.