Walk 3 - Coastal Foraging Walk

As most of our public walks have been alongside the freshwater part of the river we thought it necessary to have at least one of them next to the Stour estuary and thankfully Matthew suggested to lead his foraging walk at Wrabness (pop. 400). We met everyone at the railway station, including a chap who didn't have a computer so was unable to book online (we couldn't run him away, especially as he lived locally) and eventually set off down Black Boy Lane towards Grayson Perry's house. In the first hour we must have walked no more than 400m, stopping every few paces or so to look at a plant of some kind. Not that we minded at all, as we learned a lot of new plants and whether they could be used in cooking or medicine. We ate quite a few of them, including mushrooms (remember Matt is an expert on these things and we trusted him implicitly), seed, leaves and berries.

Matthew's knowledge was incredible and everyone was amazed at the variety of things we found, and the uses that they could be put too. The range of habitats was diverse as we progressed from town, through arable and wood to the salt marsh and estuary, each with its own distinct range of plants and trees. Everyone got involved, especially the children who were really good at discovering things, especially mushrooms. The walk took longer than the previous ones, and after three hours we decided to head back to the village where we lay out our bounty for all to see.

List of things we identified:
lavender
marjoram
white nettle
campion (white is edible, red is not)
stinging nettle (a super food)
yarrow
black horehound
common mallow (with mallow cheeses)
nettle seeds
bracken (not edible as it contains cyanide!)
mugwort
bramble (there are 500+ varieties which is why blackberries can taste so different!)
wild carrot
broafleaf plantain (great for stings and bites)
common dog rose (hips for jelly and jam, flowers for headaches!)
hog weed (seeds)
dock
cow parsley
elder
hawthorn (berries)
guelder rose
St.John's wort
sweet chestnut
ragwort (poisonous to humans and most animals!)
thistle
sea arrowgrass (or coriander grass...guess what it tastes like?)
sea aster
sea purslane
sea lavendar (not edible!)
grassleaf orach
acorns
sloes
alexanders
sea blite
samphire (also known as glasswort)
sea beet
sea plantain
ribwort plantain
knot grass
goosefoot
bristly ox tongue
hedge mustard
feverfew
poppy
tansy
great lettuce
fat hen
dandelion
Russian vine
hazlenut
ground mint

mushrooms:
tawny grisette
bay boletus
rooting boletus
purple brittlegill
green brittlegill
fragile brittlegill
spindleshank
charcoal burner
common puffball
fairyring