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It was pretty lousy in the northern part of the bay many years ago. These days, the heavy industries along the ship channel do a pretty darn good job of cleaning up any effluent. I have been in a position for many years to get up close and personal with how that works. The goal is to put the water back in better shape than when you got it. I think we have the highest concentration of refining capacity for instance and you can catch trout off the docks. No, it wasn't always that way but a lot of progress has been made. The ship channel is being enlarged and that will make those busy shipping lanes safer. I can't remember any catastrophic spills and any type of spill is rare and limited in any case. There are trained spill teams well equipped and always on call for fast response. Other than containing what is spilled, I think we have learned that doing too much can be a bad thing. Texas A&M has done a lot of work on more natural remediation. The biggest problem, by far, that the bay system faces is run-off from all of the crap that people put on their lawns in urban areas-->bayous-->the bay. I will digress to this issue of "tar balls" on our beaches. When folks get the nasty black stuff on their feet in the summer time, the reaction is "nasty nasty big tankers and those nasty nasty offshore platforms." WRONG! There are natural tar seeps all over the gulf, particularly around the Bay of Campeche and they have always been there. The currents bring them to our beaches. The Karankawa indians used to use them for fuel and to smear on to keep the mosquitos away. That means that there are also oil eating bacteria in the gulf and bay sediments that are always ready for lunch. I can only imagine foraging in Maylaysia!

Here we go with the last trip, for the blog anyway. We have done some inland and bay area treks. Today we go to the beach, Galveston Island to be specific. Galveston Island is a barrier island that lies just off the Texas coast. Texas has a lot of barrier islands, actually along most of the coast. Back to our satellite photos of South Galveston Bay, You can see how a barrier island works. The island is in the bottom portion of the collection. Off to the more upper right, you see Bolivar peninsula. Sometimes the structure is joined to the mainland and you get a peninsula. (There is a TXDOT ferry system that takes you to the peninsula from Galveston. That is a fun ride.) There is a bay on the landward side of the islands and peninsulas, and of course, the beach fronting on the Gulf of Mexico. This is the typical Texas coast set up and it is those bay systems that give us our abundant seafood. Supposedly, Padre Island in south Texas is the longest barrier island in the world. The island is joined to the mainland by the causeway (I-45) that can be seen in the 4th row, 4th picture to the right. (You can click on the individual pictures to get a larger view.) Smithy, I never answered your question about the "spits" in the 3rd row, far right picture. Those are the jetties, long heaps of big blocks of Texas pink granite that protect the entrance into the bay. That entrance is the Houston Ship Channel. The jetties are a popular fishing spot, both by walking out on them and from boats. The presence of all of that rock adds another habitat for sea life that wouldn't naturally be there. Our coast doesn't have rocks. I am heading for the soutwestern tip of the island which is in the very bottom left. That is San Luis Pass and is just a pass from the bay to the Gulf. It can be treacherous when the tide is running. We lose a few wade fishermen a year. Several have asked about open land. On my way there, I thought I would show you a typical "pasture." This is very common on the coastal plain, mixed grassland with a stray nubbin of a tree here or there. If there is a creek it will have real trees and you might even find a native pecan tree in those little strips of woodland. There is usually a ditch next to the road that gives you a chance for wetland plants like cat tails. There are a few wild rose brambles out there. Running along Stewart Road along the more bay side of the island there is a lot of open land, some used for grazing, but some just let go. This is where things get nuts. In this one picture, there is wild rose, elderberry, honeysuckle and horsemint. And that is just what I recognize from the car. The elderberry blossoms are still too tight. I will have to go back next weekend if I want to eat some. (I do so I probably will.) The roses have no smell at all so I am not going to bother. I will either have to get up real early in the morning (unlikely) or just wait until September/October and see about the rose hips. This particular rose has nice hips. There are also the odd clumps of prickly pear. Later, the pears will be this gorgeous fuschia color. They make a spectacular looking, ok tasting jelly if you really want to do your penance doing that. Horsemint makes another appearance. Right before you go over the San Luis Pass toll bridge (to Surfside beach and Freeport) you can veer off to the right to get to the beach and bayside. I am going to the bayside first and see what I can find. The back side is typically salt marsh and a rich source of bait fish, shrimp and crabs if you are handy with a cast net. A couple of guys gave it a try while I was there, had little luck in that spot and moved on. They told me that they were fishing on the beach side and had gotten a good bit of shrimp early in the day. Tromping around I spot an interesting clump of weeds. Can it be . . . Could I be so lucky? It is! It is samphire! My favorite thing in the whole world. It is the light green stuff at the bottom. I am munching on some of it as I type this. It is very crisp and succulent, has a salty and very slightly tart flavor. When it is young like this, the fibrous core down the middle of the leaves hasn't formed yet so it is a true delight. Later in the year it will darken in color and get a reddish cast in the fall. I have heard of folks sauteing it but I can't imaging destroying that wonderful texture. When we have a lot of it, we include some of the leaves in a salad. I consider a salad with samphire one of the true luxuries in the world. Onward to the beach. This is where I got stuck in the "beach access" place. This time of year there are all sorts of interesting wildflowers growing on the back side of the dunes. I should probably put dunes in quotes. They aren't very high at all on this part of the coast. As you head south, the prevailing winds produce much higher dunes. It is a calm day and the water is actually almost pretty. We haven't had much rain, either to flush sediment out of the rivers and muck up the water. I was there to see what the coquina situation is. After I introduced myself to the tow truck driver (Hi! My name is stupid!) I asked him about the coquinas. He said that there were a few here and there but they really don't go looking for the big beds until after June 1st. With my trusty shovel, I confirmed what he said. There is a very few here and there but no great beds yet. I will be back. the line of brown stuff is a batch of sargassum weed that came in with the last high tide. So now we leave Galveston Island behind us and head off into the sunset and the end of this blog. But on the way out I saw this amazing sight. It is off-topic but I just had to share. There is an old cemetary on Broadway Boulevard (I-45) and it is just covered with Black-eyed Susans. (There were a couple of other photographers there doing the same thing I was.) I hope you enjoyed this little tour of "my" coast and what it has to offer. Wherever you are, take a look around you. This kind of thing can teach you a lot about your surroundings where ever you are. I credit my family's interest in our environment with leading me to my life long passion for science. Not only did that passion provide for a lucrative career, but more importantly, has given me many hours of sheer joy of discovery. That is not a bad thing to give a kid. Just remember to respect your sources. Never take more than you need and always leave enough to propogate for next year. Oh . . . And try not to get arrested.

Long day but Galveston Island is a foragers paradise. The day was not without adventure. I got stuck in the loose sand and had to be towed out. It was too darn hot to dig it out myself. Baby Car just never learns. At least the blog will end on an up-note and some pretty pictures. I found the true treasure. I'll be back later once I have gotten the salt and sweat washed off and the pictures processed.

Thanks for the feedback on the baking Pam. I have wondered about that stuff. The regular Pam rocks for so many uses. Heh heh . . . somewhere here when the baking Pam first came out, a member got all excited after just listening to the commercial and thought that they had come out with bacon Pam. Poor soul got all dissappointed.

Well, I got the Nikon D70 just before starting this blog. I am an old 35mm photo-geek, a lot of macro. Right now I am using the auto settings so it is just an expensive point and shoot. I need to get more control of depth of field with the macro lens. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement. Going digital is like a whole new world. I did so only a couple of years ago with a Sony Mavica. Throw in new equipment and it is a wonder you can see anything. No . . . I have never gotten sick but I am really careful. If I am not really sure what it is I leave it alone. I have grown up doing this sort of thing. I can't say that we normally go on excursions for the express purpose of foraging. In fact, this week has been the first time I have ever done that. We just know what is going on in the particular habitats that we might be in, keep our eyes open and if we see an opportunity we sieze it. Learning has come from toddling along with my family, reading books and talking to folks that also know what grows and lives where.

I don't think it is just you. Most of what I see in the grocery these days are the seedless hybrids. They do seem to have rather thin rinds. My dad's recipe calls for only the white part of the rind. Looking at a ruler, the pieces were at least 3/4 of an inch thick.

And now, for Sunday dinner's star attraction. This is a little pork loin roast, about two pounds. The loin was on sale. I usually cut it in half so that I don't have too much in the way of leftovers. Here is the little bugger sliced for internal seasoning. I took some of the rinds from the salt preserved calamondins, rinsed them and shredded them. Then I sprinkled on some of the dried horsemint. Rolled and tied, it is ready for the oven with a coating of some of the liquid and pulp from the preserved calamondins. Into the oven on a rack and roasted at 325 degrees F (about 163 C) until the internal temperature reached 140 degrees F (about 60 C). I tented it with foil and let it rest for 15 minutes. The result was outstanding. When I figure out how this camera works you will be able to see the juices and probably even taste it. The taste combination of the calamondin and the horsemint just works. Astounding. Who knew?

Yes, they are green. This all started with a mention of green grape pie on another thread. (I forget which.) I am not very good with pies and such so I thought I would make jam. BTW . . . I understand from my sister that there is no way to improve the color. The acidity does funny things to coloring agents and it just gets worse. So you end up with a funny green jam. Perhaps it should be served with green eggs and ham. (Sorry. I couldn't stop myself.)

I wasn't going to take it out of the pan at all. I thought from the picture that you served it in the pan. Now I am worried that my "jelly roll" pan, that is labeled a cookie sheet, is deep enough. It is the right size to be a jelly roll pan. I gotta quit worrying this thing to death and just do it.

Well . . . Still no mixer. I was contemplating making this cake as part of my foodblog this week. The idea would be to use some pecans from my pecan tree that I saved from last year. But, time is running out so that may not happen. Oh well, I don't particularly like pecans in sweet stuff anyway. Now the question of the day, with no mixer, can I use the whisk thingy on my Bamix stick blender?

Thanks for the woodruff picture. I am not sure we have that here. What does it taste like. edit to add: oops you already answered that. Hmmm . . . brandy in grape jam . . . hmmm . . .

Very cool, mizducky! Many thanks. And now a progress report. Its all green stuff. That is a quart of green grape pulp to be turned into jam shortly. All I did after cleaning and destemming the grapes was put them in my grandmother's enamel jam pot and boil them until tender. Then I worked out my dewberry aggression with a masher and put the stuff through a strainer using the back of a small ladle as a pusher. (I don't know where my ricer thingy is.) Upper left is the sorrel pesto made just with pecans, olive oil and a touch of salt. This stuff is outstanding. I had some with a cheese quesidilla a while ago. You can really taste the sorrel and the pecans and they go well together. That took a bit of fiddley clipping to avoid the wiry stems, though. Bottom left is dried horsemint. There is more in the drier. This is the easiest. The DeLonghi is doing and excellent job and the flavor is still there. Then you just rub it in your hands over a bowl. Gee . . . almost 6:30 here and we are down to 90 degrees.

I will have my sister look and see if she can find my dad's recipe. It was killer! I do remember that the rinds soaked in pickling lime for a time. The syrup was sweet sour and had spices in it.

Great topic. My dad served in the Pacific and he brought two culinary legacies back with him . . . A love of Spam and a deep hatred for mutton. We were working middle class in Houston and really didn't eat out all that much. There was the occasional trip with an aunt and uncle to the favorite steak house in town or a day at the waterfront with the grown-ups eating shrimp and drinking beer while the kids played at being wharf rats. I really don't remember much in the way of "ethnic" restaurants. There may not have been much. My mother cooked an Americanized version of Italian. She had been raised next door to an Italian family. As far as I can tell, Houston didn't diversify very much until in the early 60s. Our first brush with other ethnic food at home that I can remember is from the Philippines. It was in the early 60s that my dad had a couple of trips to the hospital. We had a nurses shortage and a lot of nurses immigrated from there. My dad was in hog heaven with all of the pretty nurses. Also from the war, he had a real love for the Phillipines. He found out where to get some of the ingredients and talked food with them getting recipes. He did some awesome stews. There was a restaurant across from the old Shamrock Hotel that was the first place to serve pizza, Valian's I think, and that was probably the late 50s.

Well . . . Now that I have beaten back some computer problems, this morning I went after some more green grapes and horsemint and have been beavering away processing them. One last trip to the beach and I will see if there is any samphire. It should be up and growing. The trip will have to wait until it cools down or until the morning. I have to spend time processing some of my finds before they go off. Since it is air conditioned in here, that seems like a good plan. I am trying to remember how we survived without air conditioning. when we lived on the bayou, we didn't have it and I don't remember being miserable. We had big window fans and they pumped in air from over the trees that lined the bayou. I am really hoping that there will be coquinas. Having spent a couple of hours researching the subject, the best I can come up with is that they are in the surf "in the summer." Well, if this isn't summer, I don't know what is. It has been 97 degrees F again here today. They magically appear in the surf line "in the summer" then "disappear" in the fall. What I want to know is . . . where do they go? I haven't searched the scientific literature but I wonder if they produce some sort of cyst or something to overwinter. This is beginning to bug me. I will probably have to call Texas A & M. Or maybe someone out there knows about the life cycle of Donax variabilis. Pictures later.

Jack, thanks for the picture of the Woodruff. Since it came up, I have been searching for a similar thing here. I have probably missed something but I am not familiar with it. Also, many thanks for your proportions on the jam and jelly. That confirms to me that I am on the right track. What you say about having enough to "do anything useful with" is really telling about what foraging is all about. I went through a phase of dismissing anything that didn't yield a pantry shelf of jelly or whatever. I think that I have now progressed to enjoying the tidbits. For instance, I now have probably a tenth of an ounce or so of dried horsemint. It isn't a lot but it will grace a dish or so until next year and I will relive the thrill of discovery every time.

robyn . . . Please do not miss the China exhibit at the DMA. I was up a few weeks ago. The only venues in the US are Dallas and it was in Chicago last fall. The cafe is very pleasant and I had a delightful lunch in a nice setting. I didn't know that the restaurant was there but I understand from friends that it is very good.

I can now absolutely affirm that it is too hot for hound doggies. I went poking around locally and returned after about an hour with no water left in my body. But . . . I didn't come up empty handed. The first goal was to go ahead and pick the red dewberries and make a vinaigrette. No go. The damn things don't have enough juice to mess with. A couple out for a walk stopped to chat. They have been to numerous berry patches and have found about the same thing. The theory is that they hit a dry spell at just the wrong time. The alternate theory is that Mother Nature is a bitch. I voted for the alternate theory. But I continued to poke around and low and behold, I found a bit of sorrel. It is in a bowl of cool water to freshen it. There is also the issue that it was growing in dog pee territory. There isn't a lot but on consultation with my sister, we think there is enough for a small batch of pesto. I can use some of the pecans in that. Then, the grape gods came through. Thank you Dionysius. I turned a corner to a previously unnoticed grape vine and hit pay dirt. In some of them the seeds are a bit far gone but I can cook them up and then push through a strainer, extract the pulp and make jam. Does anyone have a recipe? Googling was less than successful but I think I can wing it if no one has ever made jam before. I am not inclined to make pies or tarts or anything like that since I don't eat much in the way of sweets. Something preserved, like jam, is usually more useful for me. I am glad I didn't take the camera outside. I would have dripped sweat all over it. If I am going to get flowers, I will have to get up early. If you are going to pick flowers, it is usually best to do so early in the morning before the heat of the day dissipates their perfume.

I slept late this morning. Went out to the car to get the horsemint and wild onion out of the ice chest. 10:30 or so and it is already HOT! I put some horsemint and wild onion in my scrambled eggs. To use an eGullet phrase . . . This does not suck! This batch of wild onion is wonderfully mild. I minced some of the bulblets. Now that I know where it grows, I will be revisiting the source. I will also probably go back and get a bunch to possibly freeze. I checked the weather and it doesn't look promising. It seems we are going to have some record heat today. That doesn't bode well for standing in the sun gathering tons of flowers. As it is now 97 degrees F (about 36 C) with a heat index of about 104 degrees F, I will be waiting a while to go out. I am beginning to see a theme here. I have been finding stuff but some of it will have to wait or I was too late to partake. That's ok. I at least know where it is. That is to be expected when getting a one week snapshot. The theme, though is that I now have a source for three kinds of flowers; honeysuckle, wild rose and elder flowers to make something with. That coupled with the excellent recipe suggestions has been worth the whole exercise.

Well . . . Another day in the weeds. I didn't come up exactly empty handed. Onward to the bay. A couple of blocks away from where I live I found some horsemint that I could get to. You can see that it is whiter than the picture that Judith posted. Nibbling a leaf, I get a nice well rounded oregano taste with a touch of pepperiness. I will probably make a chicken salad for lunch tomorrow with the leftover chicken I poached for the tamale pie. I think this would be quite nice in that. I will dry the rest. Luckily, the DeLonghi has a dehydration setting that works quite nicely. I made one more try for ripe dewberries along the abandoned railroad track. Not a berry is in sight. Harrumph. I stopped by the VFW hall to drop off a case of grill brick. (My beloved housekeeper's husband is the commandant there and I had picked it up for her on my last trip to the restaurant supply.) She told me that the railroad track berries were ripe a week or so ago and the locals cleaned them out. Going back to my car, I spotted wild onions growing in the ditch! Now to my new place to check out the pecan tree. Note that there is no house yet. The house is planned to avoid and not damage the pecan tree and the big water oak behind it. Not a pecan in sight. Of course it is too early but I was hoping to get a picture of the babies. I have some from last year that we shelled out to make my dad's signature Scotch Raisin Bread that he used to bake every Christmas. My sister and I try to do this every holiday. There was a pretty good crop last year and we stole enough from the squirrels to put in the bread. We thought that would be fun to use pecans from my tree. Something happened and we never got around to it last year and we put them in the freezer so I can use them for something else. I think I will do the Texas Sheet Cake that everyone has heard of, except for me. My neighbor tells me that the tree goes on strike every other year. Walking toward the water, I found that I still have hydrocotyl or penneywort growing. Someone told me that the Indians had some use for it. There is an Asian green that is in the same family but looks a bit different. I can't find the reference to that right now. This plant seems to have some medicinal uses. One reference mentions its use as an anti-seizure medication and that it is being investigated for treating Alzheimers. Hmmm . . . Maybe I should cultivate more of it. The Indians were probably onto something. And here is my ultimate grazing ground, Galveston Bay on a still day. (It is getting hot, too.) The bay is shallow and it isn't unusual to see wade fishermen out past the ends of the piers. They are usually only waist deep. The bottom is firm sand and a hangout for blue crabs, stone crabs, red drum (the Redfish that Paul Prudhomme made famous, and scarce), spotted sea trout (speckled trout or specks). There is a big oyster reef just beyond the piers. That makes this strip of the bayfront a popular fishing spot. The predator fish cruise the edges of the reef when the tide is running. There are barnacles on the old pilings that attract sheepshead. We always considered them trash fish but I understand that they are quite good and have been sold as "bay snapper" lately since red snapper has gotten scarce. You can check out our local creatures here and more here. The good news is that I can rebuild the pier without the totally insane permitting process since I am "repairing" an existing pier. I have dreams of pecan crusted trout or redfish. I spent too much time yakking with the neighbors and lost the light. I will have to do some backtracking to get to the wild roses that I found just down the road.

OK robyn . . . Spill the beans. No fair! I like your approach to the "BBQ tour."

Welcome lizka_2. My favorite place for an upscale meal in a quiet and relaxing atmosphere remains Brennan's.

On the lavender, there is a lavender farm somewhere in your parts that is growing lavender and giving seminars on growing lavender. My sister ran across it. I think this is the link here. I have only been sporadically successful growing lavender here, but I will still probably try one of these days.

Oh my goodness, Varmint. You are a doll. I will be doing this forthwith. You have added a new dimension to my family foraging adventures.

I had never heard that. A bit of research is in store. We would go through dozens of blossoms sucking the nectar out like I alluded to above. I don't remember ever having any bad effects. I was intending to use only the flowers. Also, oddly enough, seeing any of the berries here is not all that common. I think that the usual pollinator isn't here though it does get "done" by hummingbirds from time to time. The variety that I showed above is not a native plant. I forget where it came from but it is one of those things that came in and took over. When I make my Galveston excursion I will see if those infested acres are still there. It is an amazing sight.