File:Coast watch (1979) (20472170180).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_1 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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Guide to eating out at the coast Sit down to a meal gathered from nature—coquina clam chowder, yucca flower fritters, beach peas, steamed periwinkles, cattail pollen bread spread with prickly pear cactus jam, and yaupon tea. The main ingredients for this menu aren't likely to be found canned or packaged along the aisles of a supermarket. Instead, to obtain the fixings for this meal, you will have to pick, pull, cut and dig your ingredients. An abundance of plant and animal life is free for the har- vest along North Carolina's shorelines, marshes and woodlands. Some items of bounty, such as oysters, persim- mons, wild grapes and yaupon, have marked the diets of coastal residents since the Indians. Others have had a more recent discovery. David Phelps, an anthroplogist at East Carolina Univer- sity, says the Algonkian Indians, native to northeastern North Carolina, cultivated many of their plant foods— corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, gourds, tobacco and sunflower. But they also sup- plemented these foodstuffs with wild fruits, nuts, berries and plants. They made flour from ground acorns and puddings from persimmons. The Pilgrims sub- sisted their first winter in America on the starchy tubers of the groundnut, which grows wild on stream banks along the East Coast. The Indians taught the Pilgrims to eat this tuber. And those who know its goodness still seek the groundnut today, using it like a potato. Maxine Claar, a wild foods expert, says the Indians saved many settlers' lives by teaching them which North American plants were edible. The Indians not only provided information that allowed the settlers to supplement their meals during those first lean years of adjustment to a new land, but taught them the hazards of
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*v— groundnut many poisonous plants. While many wild foods are abundant to- day, only a few adven- turous folks bother to sample their goodness. But Claar and her family often forage for their meals when they visit the coast. She says wild foods are often richer in vitamins than their cultivated counterparts. From the surf, the Claars gather coquina clams or mole crabs for broth or chowder. Along the surf and sound edge, Claar collects sea lettuce that has washed ashore to make another coastal chowder. "I take it home, wash it in fresh water and dry it in a slow oven or outside on a hot day," she says. "Then it becomes dry and crispy. I add it to a milk- based chowder along with butter and wild onions. It makes an excellent chowder." And while the dunes appear barren, they too offer edibles for the forager, says Mark Joyner, the aquariums specialist for the N.C. Office of Marine Af- fairs. The succulent leaves of the sea rocket, which has a mild mustard flavor, can be steamed or added raw to salads, Joyner says. The trailing wild bean, available from prickly pear cactus early September to mid-October, should be picked when it's small and cooked like green beans, Claar says. And the beach pea, which resembles the garden variety, should be chosen when it's tender and bright green for preparation like its domestic relative. For a more versatile dune plant, seek out the yucca, more properly called the Spanish bayonet. The sweet, white cluster of flowers can be added raw to salads or dipped in an egg batter and fried as fritters, Joyner says. Or foragers can wait until fall when the yucca produces a purplish fruit that can be split, seeded, buttered and baked. And if you can beat the raccoons and rabbits to the ground cherries, you can stir their sweet red fruit into jams, jellies, toppings or pies. But Joyner warns that unripened, green berries are poisonous. Other fruits and berries, abundant behind the dunes, make tempting morsels for the sweet tooth. Per- simmons and cran- berries have been stirred into confections for centuries. Wild grapes, such as fox grapes and pigeon grapes, can be squeezed into juices or seeded for pies and jams. And the fruit of prickly pear cactus, stripped of its bristles, can be eaten raw or cooked into jam. From the marsh, Claar gathers two wild foods flavored with tradition—marsh periwinkle snails and glasswort. During the days of Charles Dickens, the European species of the periwinkle were roasted and sold on the streets of London and in small restaurants called "winkle shops." Today, Claar wades through the marsh to pick a similar species, the southern white periwinkle, from the blades of the salt marsh cord grass. She steams the gastropods and

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