the.com/samphire
a sea-pickled crunch that tastes like the ocean decided to become a vegetable
means A fleshy, salt-tolerant green plant that grows on rocky coasts and salt marshes, eaten as a crisp, briny vegetable.
from From the French 'herbe de Saint Pierre' — 'Saint Peter's herb' — Peter being the fisherman apostle, fittingly tied to a plant clinging to the sea's edge. English ears squashed the phrase down to 'sampere' and then 'samphire.' Shakespeare nods to it in King Lear, where a man gathers it from a cliff face — 'dreadful trade!' — a reminder that this rock-clinging green was once a perilous harvest.
- two kinds
- rock samphire and marsh samphire are unrelated plants
- shakespeare nod
- named in King Lear as a cliff-gatherer's deadly trade
- no salt needed
- it self-seasons from seawater it grows in
- also called
- sea asparagus, sea beans, glasswort
- glass history
- its ash once made medieval window glass
glaswort — halophytic plant harvested in coastal marshes across europe, used as a vegetable since medieval times
sea asparagus — succulent plant (salicornia europaea) foraged along uk and new england coasts, eaten fresh or pickled
rock samphire — cliff-dwelling plant (crithmum maritimum) found on white cliffs of dover, mentioned in king lear