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John Wright from Maiden Newton has been a forager for as long as he can remember and began cockling as a small child.

For thirty years he's learnt all about mushroom hunting and now he's taken to the shores of Dorset.

Seaweed is his favourite seaside ingredient for a home-cooked recipe and on a trip to the beach he never leaves the house without a pair of scissors, a bucket and a net.

John believes Dorset has the best coastline in the UK for food because of the varied habitat of rocky shores, sandy areas and pebble beaches.

"Absolutely free"

Although seaweed is common on our shores, John doesn't think enough people have tried it.

John is often found collecting seaweed

He says: "It's such a shame because down here [on the beach] it's absolutely free.

"You can find seaweed anywhere there's a rocky shore.

"You can stand in a rock pool and you can pick five or even six different species of edible seaweed, without even moving your feet."

John first became interested in seaweed when he read some old books about marine algae.

He says: "They're written by eccentrics frankly and they've got this enormous enthusiasm for seaweed.

"I promised I'd never be like that, but here I am doing just what they did."

Seaweed pudding!?

John admits that seaweed doesn't always look as tempting as it tastes:

"The crispy seaweed hasn't got a very attractive name - it's called gut weed and it does looks like a lot of little green intestines.

"You can just pick it, dry it off as much as you can and then just throw it in hot oil, sprinkle some salt on it, a little bit of pepper and it's absolutely superb.

"Carrageen is probably my favourite seaweed because you can make puddings out of it.

"It's a setting agent, a bit like gelatine but vegetarian.

"I make a seaweed and elderflower panna cotta [with it] and it's absolutely delicious."

Sea plants

As well as seaweed John explains that he also likes to "fish" for crab.

He says: "I often wade out, waist deep with a lobster pot, or a crab pot, or a prawn pot and catch things."

And when there's nothing left to forage on the shoreline John heads to the top shores where he believes an "amazing" variety of plants can be found.

Sea beet - similar to spinach

He says: "Sea beet is very much like spinach.

"If you go to the supermarket, you pay about £1.89 for a packet of spinach.

"I could pick the best part of a hundred weight [of sea beet] for nothing, in about half an hour, if I wanted."

Be careful!

Foraging doesn't come without its dangers and although there are no poisonous seaweeds some of the plants can be deadly.

John says: "The worst one which you mostly find earlier in the year is called hemlock water dropwort.

"That's worse than a lot of toadstools.

"A nasty toadstool will have you dead in a couple of weeks, [whereas] a decent helping of hemlock water dropwort will have you dead in three hours.

"It's well worth knowing about these seriously poisonous plants [before heading out foraging yourself]."

"No conservation concern"

In general terms John explains that there's "no great conservation concern" of going to the seaside and foraging for food.

Scissors are John's essential bit of kit

He says: "The shellfish - there's no more worry than there is with commercially collected animals.

"With seaweed there's almost no problem at all, as long as you collect it carefully and cut it off with a pair of scissors rather than yank it off.

"The only concerns really are with some of the flowering plants.

"You're absolutely fine with sea beet - that grows in abundance.

"Marsh samphire [however] isn't uncommon, but can grow in sensitive areas and if everybody picked it then there could be damage [to the environment]."

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