Southend-on-Sea in Transition

I didn’t think much about foraging until this year really. Apart from the odd nettle I cut to dry for tea or make into soup I was largely unaware of the abundance of wild food in an urban environment like Southend.

Cover via Amazon

It all started off for me with the Permaculture Design Course at Growing Together where I meet Carole

who after a 15 min stroll in the garden was coming back with a box of greens which I would not consider as food before. Add a bit of dressing and a story or two about the greens we ate I started appreciating there might be more to foraging then I thought.

As things go with all the other activities going on I didn’t have time to pursue my new found interest but it just didn’t want to go away.

Next Gill and her friends brought boxes of foraged goodies for the Food Swap again highlighting the abundance available to those who know for what to look for and than I meet a friend who was foraging for seafood on the East Beach.

I know where my interest is heading now, with the article I found on how to prepare UK snails (according to the expert they are all edible) beware my garden snails and for those of you who want to learn a bit more in a group there is the new Facebook group

Foraging for Food in Southend on Sea

and some people are meeting up soon for a foraging walk:

Who would be up for a seashore forage at East Beach? We could spend a little while on the beach collecting some of the mussels, oysters, crabs, limpets, winkles, cockles, clams etc and cook them there and then?

Let’s go for Sunday 20th November – low tide is at 13:24 and high again at 19:39 so we should have a few hours on the beach before water becomes a problem. If we begin collecting at around 1pm and start cooking at 2pm?

See you there! 🙂

Filed under: Awareness Raising, community, Food, reskilling | Tagged: berries, foraging, fruit, herbs, snails, wild food |