Thursday 7th May

Most of this week seems to have been based on food ( and drink) with a few dog walks thrown in here and there to attempt to burn off calories considering the amount of each that has been consumed.

Yesterday was a St Helier morning,  a little shopping lots of browsing and the odd cake eaten for mid-mornings at the Charity cafe in the market. (A fine establishment, and my suggestion of course!)

Samphire was bought for lunch at the fish market, and would have been delicious if it had been washed before hand..... ( its a marsh weed that grows on mud flats in Norfolk), but my brother being my brother was in such a haste to scoff it down that he didn't really wash all the salty sea out of it, so a little disappointing.

Originally "sampiere", a corruption of the French "Saint Pierre" (Saint Peter),^[2] samphire was named after the patron saint of fishermen because all of the original plants with its name grow in rocky salt-sprayed regions along the sea coast of northern Europe or in its coastal marsh areas. It is sometimes called sea asparagus or sea pickle. In Norfolk it is commonly called sampha [sam-fa]. In North Wales, especially along the River Dee's marshes, it has always been known as sampkin.

All the plants bearing the name are annuals that begin growing in late autumn and vegetate throughout the winter until the first warm weather arrives. Then the first stems and internodes form, and by mid-spring the plant measures 6 to 8 cm.

Uses[edit]

Fresh samphire from the Loughor estuary for sale at Swansea Market

Marsh samphire ashes were used to make soap and glass (hence its other old English name, "glasswort").^[2] In the 14th century glassmakers located their workshops near regions where this plant grew, since it was so closely linked to their trade. Samphires of all kinds have long been eaten in England. The leaves were gathered early in the year and pickled or eaten in salads with oil and vinegar. It is mentioned by Shakespeare in King Lear:

Half-way down Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade! (Act IV, Scene VI). This refers to the dangers involved in collecting rock samphire on sea cliffs.

Marsh samphire (Salicornia bigelovii) is being investigated as a potential biodiesel source that can be grown in coastal areas where conventional crops cannot be grown.^[3]

Samphire is gaining popularity in the UK, being served more often in restaurants as an accompaniment to fish dishes, and is also found more often in supermarkets.

A visit on the way home to the Fresh Fish Company made up for it though, fresh asparagus (biggest we'd ever seen, and the 'grower' was there delivering it). Prawns, pates, and loads of other fishy things to try...

We finished off the day with a meal down at the Black Dog in Bouley Bay, there were nine of us, and luckily the portions are huge so a main course satisfied everyone's needs!

Today's activities involved fishing.....and the one that got away, but more of that later!