I love being beside the sea. I couldn’t think of anywhere better to live because it has everything here: big skies, freedom and, of course, seaweed. Even my dog is called Seaweed!
Foraging means you get exercise, fresh air and different things to taste. As founder of Wild about Pembrokeshire, I meet lots of different people on our foraging courses. I hope that they go away with some insight into what you can find in hedgerows and on the beach.
There are probably about 700 different seaweeds around our British shores. The ones we can reach are all edible. It’s a really good alternative to meat because of all the protein. It’s full of all sorts of vitamins and minerals, iodine and so on. We should really be eating more seaweed and foraged food.
Some people send me photographs of a seaweed dish and their children wearing a look of horror on their faces. But you know that they’re making a difference and they realise that it’s good for you.
Julia Horton-MansfieldI’m incredibly biased but St Davids, where I live, is particularly full of the most amazing things to do."
St Davids Cathedral is amazing. By cathedral standards, it’s tucked away a little. Then you walk down under Porth-y-Tŵr, see it all below you and it’s just… ‘Wow’. Then you have nice eating places and good pubs; and it’s close to the beach.
I really like being up on the Preseli Hills, looking down over Newport. It’s very beautiful and totally different. And the Gwaun Valley has beautiful ancient woodland. It’s quite special.
Caldey Island off the coast of Tenby is one of the holy islands of Britain, with Cistercian monks farming the land. I stayed up in the lighthouse cottage there for a few nights, which was fantastic. I came across a plant there that I hadn’t seen here, Golden Samphire. I was so excited – it was edible, of course.
If visitors do a little bit of foraging for themselves after coming on one of our courses, or just go away and think: ‘Well, at least I can recognise a few things now,’ that’s fantastic. They become, in their own guardians of the countryside and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in their own way.
Find out more about Wild About Pembrokeshire's foraging courses.
