Dungeness

[poliphilo]

Dungeness is the biggest expanse of shingle in Europe. On one side is the English Channel and on the other is Romney Marsh- which is an otherworldly place but not as otherworldly as Dungeness.  People live here in shacks and rejigged railway carriages. There are two lighthouses and a big, blocky power station which hums. The shingle is dotted with plants that look like a cross between cabbage and seaweed.

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

That's a very splendid plant! Any idea what it is?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

cmcmck says sea kale and puddleshark says halophytes (which would be the correct botanical name). I had been thinking sea kale myself- just because that's what its form suggests. I've just looked it up and apparently it has white flowers at the proper time of year.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Ooh, halophytes! I love the space-alien look of shingle-bank plants.

I've always wanted to visit Dungeness. Don't suppose I ever will, so thank you for the pictures!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I took a lot more pictures but none of them really captured what I wanted them to capture- the oddness, the alien quality of the place. I'll have to go back sometime- perhaps when the sky is doing something more interesting.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

It's sea kale, I think, which might explain its cabbage-osity.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you're right.

I reckon it might be nice in a stir fry with plenty of soy sauce.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

It's certainly edible.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Mm, sounds rather good!

The plant is cultivated as a vegetable, related to the cabbage.

Along the coast of England, where it is commonly found above high tide mark on shingle beaches, local people heaped loose shingle around the naturally occurring root crowns in springtime, thus blanching the emerging shoots. By the early eighteenth century, it had become established as a garden vegetable, but its height of popularity was the early nineteenth century when sea kale appeared in Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book of 1809. It was also served at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, when Prince Regent George IV of the United Kingdom (1762–1830) used it as a seaside retreat.

The shoots are served like asparagus: steamed, with either a béchamel sauce or melted butter, salt and pepper. It is apt to get bruised or damaged in transport and should be eaten very soon after cutting, this may explain its subsequent decline in popularity.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Bah! I seem to be missing the edit button this evening. =:P The link's meant to go over here.