Welcome to the Wild Foods Guide Page for: Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum)

Wild Food Guide For: Rock Samphire



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Mushrooms and Fungi

Rock Samphire


This is the description page for Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum) and includes a description as well as an image, if available and a selection of recipes from this site that relates to the wild foodstuff: Rock Samphire.

rock samphire

Rock Samphire, Crithmum maritimum (also known as 'Sea Bean') is the sole sole species of the genus Crithmum, a member of the Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) family. As such it belongs to the same family as the carrot, pignut, caraway and chervil. It is an edible wild plant commonly found on rocks in the coastal regions of mainland Britain. The plant itself can be readily distinguished by its long, fleshy, bright-green, shining leaflets (full of aromatic juice) and umbels of tiny, yellowish-green blossoms. The whole plant is aromatic and has a powerful scent.

Rock samphire can also be identified by its warm but slightly sulphurous scent. The plant flowers between June and Spetember but the plant is at is best before it flowers and ideally should be picked betweeen the spring and early summer. Indeed, this is one of the springtime traeats for the wild food forager and the young leaves, if gathered in May, sprinkled with salt (after freeing them from stalks and flowers) to extract excess bitterness, boiled, and covered with vinegar and spice, make one of the best pickles, on account of their aromatic taste. The use of Samphire as a condiment and pickle, or as an ingredient in a salad is of ancient date. It used at one time to be cultivated in gardens and was sold on London streets as 'Crest Marine'. Samphire can be kept for up to a year if stored in over-salted brine (ie brine reduced by boiling) and simply needs to be soaked in vinegar for 24h afterwards to make it palatable. The simplest way to prepare this plant is to remove any hard parts of the stem and any leaves that have begun to turn slimy. The remainder of fthe plant can then be boiled until soft (usually about ten minutes) and can then be fried with butter.

The name itself derives from the French term 'herbe de St Pierre' and refers to the patron saint of fishermen.


Recipes Utilizing Rock Samphire

Mussel and Rock Samphire Salad
Rock Samphire, Procini and Walnut Salad
Roast Cod with Sea Beans and Oyster
Bean Soup with Sea Beans and Sorrel
Scallops with Seashore Vegetables
Rock Samphire Hash




Welcome to the Celtnet guide to wild foods. As this recipe site has grown it has become obvious that to allow people to replicate some of the more ancient recipes on this site (especially from the Ancient, Roman and Medieval periods) it is necessary to list modern alternatives but also to produce a guide so that the curious can find the original (often wild) ingredients for themselves. These pages are an attempt at bringing all these potentially useful and often forgotten wild foods together into one place.

It is a sad fact that we have lost much of the knowledge we once had of the seasonal wild foods that we have on our own doorstep and which are not only safe to eat but which are also very tasty and fresh. This section of the site grew from the work I've done on the ancient recipes section of this site. After all, for our ancestors before farming wild foods were the only foods available. This guide therefor represents images lists and recipes for various wild foods you can gather and what you can do with them. For the most part the list contains edible plants. But I am beginning to add a new section on edible wild mushrooms and this part of the site will be expanding to include many other plants and species very soon. If you would like to know how to cook with these wild foods, then as well as having links to individual recipes on these pages you can also visit my Wild Food Recipes pages for many more (over 1000 and growing) recipe ideas.



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