Food foraging around Bedruthan Steps

Three cornered garlic.

Pennywort.

Early nettles.

Alexanders by the sea.

Our head chef Adam Clark was called on recently to do a spot of moonlighting. Three of our guests were keen for a food foraging walk but our usual expert wasn't able to make it.

Adam was caught on the back foot, as he had never actually done the usual Bedruthan food foraging walk before and didn't know the route.

Luckily, he had a walk of his own that he was old friends with that shows a fairly decent bounty of our local area, and becomes a lovely stroll with great views of our beautiful cliff top surroundings.

Adam set off a little worried that it was too early to show our guests anything much of interest, as it still felt a little like winter. But with a book clutched in his hands and a bit of luck on his side, he managed to put on a pretty decent tour.

They started right outside the hotel with pennywort growing freely along our stone walls; it's a common native plant of England and flowers from May to September. The leaves can be eaten in salads. Adam always says the crisp freshness has a likeness to iceberg lettuce.

Adam noticed that the first nettles have started popping up, so that next evening he put a nettle risotto with wild garlic on the menu. The garlic was picked from the hotel grounds.

He was lulled into believing spring had sprung. The sun had been bright in the sky, he had found a bounty of sea spinach and on his walk back to the hotel found some beautiful lush green Alexanders.

"I can’t wait to get them on the menu as seaside vegetables," said Adam.

"The best thing to do with these is to trim them to pan size lengths and peel with a knife as you would rhubarb. Then you boil them in salted water for about 8 minutes until completely tender, serve with fresh ground black pepper and butter. The young leaves can be used in salads.

"Well, now I know that spring is here…..almost…it’s still a bit frosty in the mornings mind, I can look forward to getting down the valley and getting into the fresh ramsons known as wild garlic."

Adam is booked into Marcus Harrison's wild food school to educate himself further later this month, and is really looking forward to it.