What the coast provides
At Praa Sands, the cliffs are soft and the land is generous. In spring, if you know where to look, it gives you everything. Caroline Davey knows where to look.
This week, Caroline joined us at Praa Sands as part of our Your Beach. Found takeover, basket in hand. Caroline runs Fat Hen, a wild food business and cookery school she founded in 2007, and her way of seeing a beach is unlike anyone else’s.
Finding the food
“The main premise is to bring people together to enjoy the outdoors, to get connected to nature and to create fabulous food from what we can find in the wild,” she says. “It was really about — how do I get people to love the land where they live? Food is universal, and the sort of ancient customs and pastimes of picking your own food is kind of deep within all of us. I just wanted people to feel that feeling that I felt. The connection with the land.”
At Praa Sands on a bright spring morning, that connection is easy to understand. The coastline here is sheltered, the land unusually soft and what grows reflects it.
“We are in spring, sun shining and all our lovely spring greens are just starting to grow,” Caroline says, moving along the coastal path with the practiced eye of someone who has done this for years. “Along the coast part here — lots of alexanders. Alexanders are like a really, really kind of perfumey version of celery.” She pauses. “I’ve also seen some nettles. Nettles are fantastic in spring.”
It’s the character of this particular stretch of coastline that shapes what ends up on the plate. “At Praa Sands it’s quite sheltered and it’s quite soft, the coastline here,” she explains. “Often the things growing here are a bit softer and a bit less bitter.”
From shoreline to plate
Back at the water’s edge, it isn’t just the land that Caroline is interested in. The sea gives just as freely. “I use about ten different seaweeds in my cooking,” she says. “Each species lends itself to a different sort of dish.”
Today, the harvest — three cornered leek and nettles gathered from the clifftop — is destined for something unexpected and wonderful. “With the nettles and three cornered leek I’m going to make a farinata, which is like a chickpea pancake.”
It’s the kind of cooking that feels both ancient and entirely of the moment: seasonal, spontaneous, shaped entirely by what the land offers up on a given morning in April.
Stay by the sea at Praa Sands
Your Beach. Found
From the feel of the sand underfoot to the anticipation as you near the sea, your beach is the one that stays with you. Find your beach with the Beach Match Quiz.
