Seaweed foraging course group
Seaweed foraging course group

Seaweed and Eat It! 5th June 2016

We were really lucky to have the sun and glorious blue skies without even a breath of wind for our seaweed foraging course “Seaweed and Eat It!” on the spectacular Dorset coast on Sunday. The first part of the day was spent on the shore taking advantage of the really low tide to find a good range of edible species. As well as learning about each and how to use it in the kitchen we talked about other issues such as sustainable harvesting.

A sea garden - so many colours, shapes and textures (and tastes!)
A sea garden – so many colours, shapes and textures (and tastes!)

 

Gathering Sea Grass / Gutweed
Gathering Sea Grass / Gutweed

At our indoor venue we split into groups with each preparing part of lunch:

 

The results of the morning seaweed forage
The results of the morning seaweed forage – left to right – back row Kelp, Sea Beet. Middle row – Sea Spaghetti, Sea Lettuce, Gutweed. Front row – Pepper Dulse, Spiral Wrack, Laver

 

Wild Miso Soup
Miso soup made from Dashi stock with Kelp. Wild ingredients – Ceps, Pepper Dulse, Sea Beet, Wild Garlic & Sea Lettuce

 

Sea (and "land"!) Spaghetti in tomato sauce (includes Spiral Wrack). Served with a mixed, dried seaweed condiment.
Sea (and “land”!) Spaghetti in tomato sauce (includes Spiral Wrack). Served with a mixed, dried seaweed condiment.

The Sea Spaghetti was declared “a revelation”.

Elderflower Panna Cotta - made with Carrageen seaweed.
Elderflower Panna Cotta – made with Carrageen seaweed. Fresh Elderflowers infused in the milk – AMAZING flavour.

Everyone had a great time, with lots of very positive feedback – words like lovely, delicious, fascinating, recommend, very enjoyable, excellent, great, informative and confident.

Thanks to those that joined us for making it a memorable day.

by James Feaver

I have had a long term interest in wild food and foraging. This started in childhood with finding edible crabs and lobsters on the Gower coast of South Wales. The outdoors has always been my natural habitat with a passion for almost all aspects of natural history and its conservation. As a keen amateur botanist I have undertaken vegetation surveys of nature reserve for a number of Wildlife Trusts. I have been interested in fungi for many years and a member of the Cotswold Fungus Group and more recently the Dorset Fungus Group.

In 2008, regular requests to take people foraging lead to our Spring Greens. This sold out in no time and more were added to meet demand. The range of courses has been increased over time adding fungi, "fruit and nut" and a range of seashore courses. I now live in Dorset and work full time on foraging courses and a truffle hunting business (The English Truffle Company).