Pickling Samphire and Other Coastal Vegetables

Why Coastal Vegetables Are Made for Pickling

Marsh samphire, rock samphire and sea beet share a quality that few garden vegetables possess: they arrive on the plate already seasoned. That natural salinity, combined with a crisp snap and a green, mineral freshness, makes them superb candidates for a jar of spiced vinegar. A handful picked in July, packed within a few hours and left in a cool cupboard, will taste of the tideline in December.

There is a practical argument too. Samphire has a short season and does not keep well in the fridge — a day or two at most before it turns limp and dark. Pickling is not a novelty here; it is the sensible way to hold on to an abundance you cannot eat fast enough.

Know Your Samphires

The two plants sold and foraged under the name samphire are unrelated, and they behave very differently in the jar.

• Marsh samphire (also called glasswort or sea asparagus) grows on muddy estuaries and salt marshes. It is bright green, jointed and brittle, with a juicy crunch. Season runs roughly June to August. Snap off the top few inches rather than pulling, and leave the woody base behind.
• Rock samphire grows on cliffs and shingle, with fleshy grey-green leaves and a strong, resinous, almost medicinal aroma. Pick young stems from May to July, before the plant flowers and turns tough. It needs blanching in two or three changes of water to tame its bitterness.

If you are buying, marsh samphire should squeak faintly when rubbed between your fingers. Anything slimy, yellowing or smelling of old rope goes in the bin, not the brine.

Preparing for the Jar

Work quickly and keep everything cold. Rinse your haul in plenty of fresh water, picking out bits of seaweed, grit and the small shrimp that inevitably come home with you. Trim any woody stems and any browned tips.

Next, blanch. Bring a large pan of unsalted water to a rolling boil, drop in the samphire for 30 seconds for marsh samphire and 60 to 90 seconds for rock samphire, then lift it straight into a bowl of iced water. This sets the colour, firms the texture and drives off the raw edge without turning it to mush. Drain thoroughly and pat dry on a clean tea towel — wet vegetables dilute the vinegar and shorten the shelf life.

Pack the drained samphire into warm, sterilised jars, standing the stems upright where you can. It should be snug but not crushed.

The Spiced Vinegar

This is the workhorse brine. It makes enough to fill roughly two 500ml jars.

• 500ml cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 250ml water
• 5g fine sea salt — deliberately low, because samphire is already salty
• 15g caster sugar
• 2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp fennel seeds (optional, but excellent with rock samphire)
• 2 bay leaves, 2 strips of lemon zest, 1 dried chilli

Bring everything gently to just below a simmer — small bubbles at the edge of the pan, no rolling boil, which would soften the vegetables and dull the vinegar. Simmer for two minutes, then pour the hot brine over the packed jars, leaving 1cm of headspace. Tap each jar on the worktop to release trapped air bubbles, top up if needed, and seal while hot. Wipe the rims first; a clean thread means a proper seal.

Sea Beet and Other Shoreline Pickles

Sea beet is the wild ancestor of garden beetroot and grows in fat, glossy clumps along sea walls and shingle. The leaves are soft, so treat them as a leafy pickle rather than a crunchy one. Blanch for 20 seconds, squeeze out the excess water, pack into jars with a sliced garlic clove and a few peppercorns, and cover with the same spiced vinegar. It is ready in a week and is superb with cold beef or a sharp Cheddar sandwich.

Sea purslane, alexanders and the young stems of sea kale all take to the same treatment. Add a little extra salt for purslane, which is milder than samphire, and cut alexanders finely, as the stems are sturdier.

Patience, Storage and Serving

Leave the jars for at least two weeks before opening, and a month if you can manage it. The vinegar needs time to draw out the vegetable's own brine and mellow the spices. Kept in a cool, dark cupboard they will hold for up to a year; once opened, refrigerate and use within six to eight weeks.

On the plate, marsh samphire pickle is the business with cold roast lamb, oysters, smoked mackerel pâté or a plain fish finger sandwich. Rock samphire, sharper and more aromatic, sits happily beside charcuterie or chopped into a salsa verde. A spoonful stirred through potato salad or a martini will surprise you in the best way.

One last word on foraging: pick above the high water mark, away from roadsides, outfalls and busy harbours, take only what you will genuinely use, and never uproot a plant. Check local byelaws before you set out. Pickled properly, a single good afternoon on the coast will keep you in seaside flavour well into the new year.