Read the Shore Before You Pick a Single Leaf

The stretch of coast between Saltburn and Filey is one of the most generous in England for the careful forager. Cold clean water, big tides and miles of exposed rock and shingle mean there is genuine abundance here — samphire, sea beet and dulse all grow within a short walk of the car park at Runswick Bay or the clifftop path above Ravenscar. But abundance is exactly why restraint matters. These are slow-growing plants on a shoreline that already copes with storms, erosion and heavy footfall, and the difference between a sustainable harvest and a stripped rock platform comes down to how you pick, not how much you take.

Before you set out, know what you are standing on. Large parts of the North Yorkshire foreshore sit within Sites of Special Scientific Interest and other protected designations, where byelaws can restrict or forbid removal of plants and seaweed. Check with the site's managing body or the local authority before you fill a bag, and treat any reserve, nature trail or marked no-access area as entirely out of bounds.

Tide, Timing and the Practical Kit

Everything on this coast runs to the tide. Aim for a low water spring tide and arrive about an hour before the lowest point, which gives you a safe window on the lower shore and time to get back up the beach. Carry a printed tide table rather than relying on a phone signal, which vanishes in the bays at Runswick and Staithes.

• Scissors, not a knife — you want clean cuts, not torn roots.
• A mesh bag or basket so anything you gather can drain and breathe.
• Sturdy boots with grip; wet chalk and kelp-covered rock are treacherous.
• A plastic tub of seawater to rinse your haul, rather than tap water.
• A friend, or at least a text to someone saying which beach and when you will be back.

Skip the shore for at least 48 hours after heavy rain. Runoff from the moors and storm overflows both affect water quality, and you do not want to be eating anything that has been sitting in it.

Samphire: the Salt Marsh Star

Marsh samphire is the plant most people mean when they talk about coastal foraging, and it is the one that demands the most care. Look for a bright green, jointed, fleshy plant with no real leaves — it looks like a miniature cactus that has spent too long in a spa. It grows on muddy saltmarsh and in estuaries rather than on the open rocky coast, so your best local bets are the sheltered inlets at the mouth of the Tees and the tidal reaches around the Humber. On the open North Yorkshire shore, treat any patch as precious.

Season: June to early September, and it is at its tender best in June and July. By August it turns woody and stringy.

How to pick: Snip the top five to eight centimetres with scissors. Never pull, never take the base, and never dig for roots — the whole plant dies if you do. Move on after a handful from any one clump. Rinse in seawater, then steam it for two minutes with butter and black pepper. That is the whole recipe.

Sea Beet: the Wild Green of the Shingle

Sea beet is the wild ancestor of the sugar beet and beetroot in our fields, and it grows in glorious, glossy profusion along sea walls, cliff bases and shingle banks. The leaves are dark, thick and spoon-shaped with a distinct wave to the edge, often with crimson-flushed stems. You will find it within metres of the path at Boggle Hole and along the sea wall at Sandsend.

It is available most of the year, but the young leaves of April, May and early June are the ones worth having — older foliage turns bitter and tough. Take the outer leaves from several plants rather than stripping one, and never lift the crown. Avoid anything growing below the strandline, where it will have been soaked in salt spray and worse, and steer clear of the dog-walking hot spots at the top of the beach. Treat it exactly as you would spinach: wilt it in a pan with garlic, or shred it raw into a salad with a sharp lemon dressing.

Dulse: the Purple Ribbon of the Lower Shore

Dulse is a red seaweed that also comes in deep purple and brownish tones, with broad, hand-shaped fronds that feel like soft rubber. It grows on rocks and on the stipes of larger kelp in the lower shore, so you only see it properly on a big spring tide. Filey Brigg and the rock shelves below Ravenscar are ideal.

Cut the fronds about two centimetres above the holdfast — the little sucker that anchors it — and leave the holdfast intact so the plant regrows. Seaweed cast up on the strandline is fair game, but it is usually past its best. Dulse needs no cooking: eat it straight off the rock, dry it on newspaper for a day or two and crumble it over potatoes, or shallow-fry small pieces for a few seconds until they crisp. It is rich in iodine, so use it as a seasoning rather than a vegetable.

Harvesting Rules and Leaving the Shore Better

In England, gathering foliage, fruit, fungi and flowers by hand for your own personal consumption is generally permitted on open access land, but digging up any plant without the landowner's permission is not. The foreshore is often owned by the Crown or a private estate, and seaweed collection for personal use, by hand, without tools, is widely tolerated — but that is a convention, not a right, and it does not override byelaws on protected sites. Commercial harvesting always requires permission.

• Take only what you will eat within a few days.
• Never take more than a tenth of any single patch.
• Leave holdfasts, roots and crowns undisturbed.
• Do not move material between sites — it spreads invasive species.
• Pick up a piece of litter on your way back. It costs nothing and the shore notices.

Forage with your eyes first and your scissors second. The best foragers on this coast come home with less than they planned and a better understanding of the shore than they had the week before.