A trip to the seaside. Seaweed Gathering , Food for Free = Moules Marinieres.

We never need an excuse to visit the coast although we don't go that often because of the distance, our favourite coast is about an hours drive but when we go we always try to make it worthwhile to justify using the fuel.

 Our trip last week was to show our friends the beautiful Sligo coast , to gather more seaweed for the garden and if the tide was right to collect mussels, killing three birds with one stone.

We were in luck, it was a beautiful day, warm with very little wind although we did have a shower, and we were in luck with the tides.
Eventually our friends are hoping to have a smallholding and be self-sufficient, so we took the opportunity to show them how to gather food for free and gather seaweed which is one of the best fertilisers you can use to grow vegetables.

Seaweed collecting at Strandhill.

There are over twelve thousand different types of seaweed, many are edible but for us the greatest advantage would be as a fertiliser and as a compost activator. The main seaweed that we find washed ashore is  Kelp and Bladderwrack. It is OK to gather unattached seaweed but not to cut or pull it, for that you have to have a licence, but there is always plenty of loose weed to be found, we ended up with four large bags. This is not the beach that I would normally go for mussels, but it was getting late, and
as the tide was out I suggested we look for mussels as with the exception of Simon we all love them, they gathered ninety shells, just right for a lunch time snack the next day.

They don't come fresher.

Although they take a little time to prepare,  removing the barnacles and seaweed that is attached to them they always taste better than the ones that you can buy from a fish monger, and of course they are free.

Should have collected more!

 We dined the next day on Moules Marinieres with hunks of fresh home made bread, the herbs and onion coming from our garden, the wine and cream we had to buy so not a completely free meal, but delicious, we could all have eaten double the amount.

Sun going down at Strandhill.