Samphire

[gerbera]

Every time I go to Pwllheli, I buy samphire from the fish shop as I absolutely love the stuff, both raw and cooked.

I would love to grow some, but I know it is a marine/marsh plant, and needs suitably salty conditions. I live at least 100 miles inland, so I'm wondering if I would have any success growing it. Could I replicate the conditions somehow?

Has anybody had any experience in growing samphire away from the coast?

Also, I have been reading about Salsola / Agretti, and wondered if it tastes anything like samphire, as it looks similar. Can anybody advise me, please?

[gerbera]

[saddad]

I have got some Salsola seeds from a swop but haven't had the nerve to plant it this year...
;D

[gerbera]

Saddad - I read this about Salsola / Agretti on the Seeds of Italy site:

"It has a very short sowing window and the seed will NOT keep".

I would get them in asap in spring and hope for the best.


Good luck!

[Mrs Ava]

I have never grown samphire, but I adore it so if you sus out how to do it, let us know!  ;D

[redimp]

Samphire Sea   Perennial    Av 45 seeds    £1.75
Crithmum maritimum - Rock Samphire, Sea Fennel
Sea Samphire flowers from June to August. Leaves and seed pods are used, leaves used in salads and pickled in vinegar and spices, or often cooked in butter. The plant has a reputation for helping weight loss. Medicinally used for treating obesity and kidney complaints also aids digestion. Sow seed in cold frame autumn or spring, lightly cover the seed, grow on in pots and plant out in the summer. Prefers a dry well drained soil in full sun sheltered from cold winds, benefits from a salty soil. Habitat grows in rock crevices, rocky shores, shingle beaches

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/herb-s.htm
Good luck - love the stuff but everybody else in the family hates it.

[Chantenay]

This is going to bug me all day if someone doesn't help. Which Shakespeare play has something about "Samphire pickers<<<deadly (is that correct)>>> trade".  To do with them hanging perilously off cliffs in baskets. Was it Lear?

[Melbourne12]

It was indeed.  Act IV Scene 6, before Lear appears, in a speech by Edgar to Gloucester as he looks over the cliff's edge at Dover:
EDGAR: Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still. How fearful
   And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!
   The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
   Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
   Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!
   Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
   The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
   Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
   Diminish'd to her thingy; her thingy, a buoy
   Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,
   That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
   Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more;
   Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
   Topple down headlong.

[Deb P]

I'm very impressed Melbourne12!!

[Barnowl]

a "thingy" doesn't sound very Shakespearean?

[freesia]

HI,

Nicky's Nurseries sell Rock Samphire (Crithmum Maritimum).  I haven't tried growing it myself.

My sister rooted a piece bought from a fish stall on the local market that she bought last Spring and I know it was still growing last month.

[Melbourne12]

I'm very impressed Melbourne12!!

I'm afraid that although I'd "sort of" remembered it, rather as Chantenay had, I had to look up the exact wording.   What a wonderful play King Lear is, though.  Just reading it, never mind seeing it, still gives me the shivers.

;D ;D ;D As for "thingy", the swearbot has prissily replaced the word.  The text refers to a cockboat, which is abbreviated to the word for a male chicken, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.   ::) 

I have to say that I'm quite tempted to try growing some samphire.  We used to live in Norwich, and in the season we'd buy it and cook it like asparagus.  Seriously delicious.

[Chantenay]

Thank you - I did it for A level. What joy to have another willy word, there really cannot be too many, can there? ;D