Samphire - so exoctic but so close to home

Some years ago I was in Prince Edward Island for a Canadian book publishers convention and was invited to visit and enjoy a meal with Marc Gallant in Rustico.   Marc was an electic personality who greeted us dressed in bare feet, denim cut-offs, royal blue velvet dinner jacket, white shirt and bow-tie.  He served  mussels in a nest of curry sauce on individual shells on a locally crafted platter with shades of blue and pearl.

For those who don't know, Marc was the author of "More Fun with Dick and Jane" and he produced the Anne of Green Gables' Colouring Book that attracted so many thousands of Japanese tourists to PEI.

When he served the mussels they were accompanied by this succulent, salty green item.  When I asked what it was he told me this wild story.  The green was a rare item harvested in a secret area by a local Mi'kmaq elder matriach.  He said she supported her community by selling it to a market in New York where it fetched a very high price.    I was enthralled.  "Samphire" sounded so exotic.

The next day I was reading one of the Atlantic  publishers books ... local edible wild plants and there was "samphire" .. a green one could harvest along any coastline where there is a tidal backtide.

When my cousin Grant and his partner Rony started this magazine I thought of Marc and this story.  Creativity and recipes.  I went on-line and could not believe all the entries for "samphire" -- from all over the world!  It's also known as the "poor man's asparagus" and it's also featured in Shakespeare's King Lear.  Wow.