During the last few years, I have been with family in various parts of the county, which has allowed me to explore the natural vegetation and forage in the area. This time it is Formby and most of the Fylde coast. This is not my favorite area in the country, it is very wet and happens to be a part I grow up in for a time, so no good memories of the area either, it is very run down and has lots of poverty in many areas of the Fylde coast, that doesn’t seem to be improving.
This is a vast area, and my limited mobility has also limited my foraging, but I did find some really good spots. These are some of the edibles I found…
Sea Buckthorn: A thorny shrub among The sand dunes of Formby and Southport, a shrub that produces small, tart orange berries. These berries are rich in vitamin C and can be used in jams, sauces, or infused into drinks. This shrub happens to be a menace to the sand dunes, and each year the local council gets volunteers to clear it, I can’t help but wonder if they would be better harvesting it first as it is such a good cheap source of vitamins.
Sea Beet: Sea beet is a wild relative of spinach and can be found growing along the coast. Its tender leaves are nutritious and can be used in salads, soups, or cooked as a side dish.
There was other sea vegetation I could have collected, but I am a little unsure of what it is good, and I am not so sure of how clean our coastal areas are at the moment.
Pine was a new venture for me, this March & April, this time I collected pine needles, baby pine cones, and pine pollen, all of which are edible, and can be made in herbal remedies, and edible delights.
Formby's coastal area also offered aromatic herbs of wild thyme and lavender. We also found the usual dandelion, sticky weed, jelly ear fungus, Plantain, purple and white dead nettle, and nettles. The council and national Trust in this area have used lots of rubble to hold back the sand dunes, I know this was probably to do good, but I can’t see how piles of building rubble can help in any way, except for this to also end up swept out to sea.
