Beach cabbage

[simoncpg]

Hi All
When I was a lad fishing on the coast in Brighton, we used to catch school bass (young bass) wrap them in beach cabbage, and cook them over a fire. Can anybody tell me the correct name for this plant. You HAD to boil it before eating it or it would give you a bad tum, it was only found on shingle beaches, ( I remember it on the beaches east of Brighton, and at Dungeaness in Kent.) It was dark green and purple and grew in clumps ABOVE the tide line.
Simon

[veggiechicken]

My first guess is Sea kale?

[simoncpg]

No it was not sea kale. As far as I know it was only found on the South coast, I have visited hundreds of different sites and Ihave not seen it anywhere on the east or west coast. Ihave looked through all my wild flower books and no luck.

[Two_Sheds]

You HAD to boil it before eating it or it would give you a bad tum

Probably because of all the dog pee on it


Google told me "On naturally bare shingle near the coast soil development is limited and only a few specialised pioneer plant species can colonise, such as sea-kale, sea pea, and sea cabbage..." Dungeness & Rye Coastal Plain | Important Plant Areas | Wild plants | Plantlife

Wiki says it's Brassica oleracea (wild/sea cabbage)

(sea kale is Crambe maritima)

Brassica oleracea ssp. oleracea is slightly different from B.oleracea? Brassica oleracea

interesting stuff

[veggiechicken]

I like this link Brassica oleracea Wild Cabbage PFAF Plant Database
It also says that it is slightly bitter raw and can be cooked in 2 changes of water.

[Thelma Sanders]

can be cooked in 2 changes of water.

This kind of thing always makes me wonder how the first person found that out

[veggiechicken]

They tried it raw, thought Yuk, someone came along and boiled it thought Yuk , then someone else came along and reboiled it, by which time it was totally disgusting greenslime, but they liked it so it has become the normal cooking method. Such determination......I' m not that desperate

[Mikey]

I remember watching a film where soldiers survived living off the undigested food from a sheep or goats stomach, it was in russia from memory, but it could just as easily have been canada, it was very cold....

Tell me, how hungry do you have to be to eat the contents of a dead animals stomach, bear grylls hungry!!