365 IN 365 - What I Added To My List This Week: Samphire!

Jennifer Armstrong is the creator of this series of posts, published bi-monthly, entitled 365 in 365. These posts will help guide us all as we accept the 6D opportunity to diversify our plants in order to nurture and nourish our microbiome and thus improve our health and wellness. You can join us for this year-long event either in our Facebook group or by following along via our blog posts!

Have you ever stopped in your tracks while shopping for produce? That just happened to me this week at the Farmer’s Market. A dude in a bandana with a table full of beautiful mushrooms also had pint berry baskets full of green - twigs? Stems?

“What is this?”

“Sea beans! They grow by the ocean and they’re full of sea water and all the minerals in the ocean. Very crunchy and salty. Try one.”

So, I tried one. It was indeed very crunchy and juicy, like shredded raw beet root. It was also super salty, just as advertised, like licking seawater from your lips.

“They’re great raw in salads, or you can lightly sauté them, but then you lose the crunch.”

“And they’re just called sea beans?”I asked. “Do they have another name?”

He shrugged. “Probably. We just call them sea beans.”

So, of course, I bought them and then when I got home opened up the old Internet to see what the story is. Sea beans, aka samphire, aka sea asparagus, aka glasswort, is a plant that grows in coastal areas and beaches and is not only tolerant of salt water, but really thrives on it.

Evidently samphire is still well-enough known in the UK to show up on Tesco’s website. Like other sea vegetables they are packed with vitamins and minerals; it can be foraged or farmed. It can be dried and powdered for use as a seasoning, or eaten fresh and crunchy. And although you might think that eating something so salty would be bad for your blood pressure, research has turned up a phytochemical in samphire called trans-ferulic acid, a powerful anti-oxidant that seems to combat the hypertensive effects of the sodium in animal studies.

I never expected to find an entirely new-to-me plant food within walking distance of my house (our Farmer’s Market is in the park a few blocks away) but that’s what happens when you’re on the lookout for 365 plants to eat. Prepare to be stopped in your tracks.

About Jennifer Armstrong

Jennifer Armstrong has spent her life making things; she has had a long career of writing books for children, decades of gardening, painting, making music, and cooking. A 2023 graduate of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies course in Plant- Based Nutrition, she has also combined her interest in sustainability with her love of food by learning how to can and dehydrate, saving as much of the local harvest as possible for use throughout the year.  She lives in upstate New York.

Jennifer is both a blog writer and event moderator at 6D Living. Her blog post series 365 in 365 will explore how we can all diversify and improve our microbiome. Jennifer is also an administrator for our public, world-wide event of the same name. This free event is a year long community activity with one goal only - get more people on the planet a wider variety of plants.

About our 6D Community Activity - 365 in 365

This is a 365 day challenge to try 365 different plants in your nutritional routine over the next 365 days. We will explore new and known plants, share their nutritional benefits as well as recipes so we can all enjoy the splendor of the plant world and improve our health - as a united community.

We know that the diversity of plants we eat determines our microbiome health, which in turn determines our overall health and wellness. Our goal at 365 in 365 is to try to get as many different plants as possible into our bodies over the year - steadily becoming healthier together.

We invite all our members to share recipes, new plants they have 'discovered' for themselves as well as resources where we can all find these wonderful gifts from nature no matter where we live in the world.

This is an international plant-based community for curious minds which want to learn how to be healthier, happier and more balanced in their lives. This is a group of hope and encouragement for all sentient beings on the planet we call home. This activity/event is taking place both on Facebook as well as our 6D Blog - you can join via either venue, or join both by sharing your journey through comments and posts!

Be well

Stop.Breathe.Focus.Move.Flow.