Eating very locally or 'The Moonlight Shrimpers'.

This has to be one of the best adventures yet this year.  Out of desperation to make the most of the last camping-friendly days, James and I migrated, once again, towards to the sea where we were joined by my family.  After making our tent based nests, we ate supper by the light of a hurricane lamp and finally went for a moonlit stroll along the beach, with a shrimping net in hand.  As my mother's partner had donned his waders and headed into the tar like water, we laughed and shook our heads.  But as moments later he had herded shrimp by the hundreds, we suffered true fishing envy, so shimmied out of boots and jeans (jumpers were still required) and jumped into the midnight sea.

We hauled up shrimps aplenty as well as a host of other critters; teeny crabs that pinched as we released them, shy hermit crabs and the cutest little fishies (who were also released).

 

The scavenging carried on into the next morning, digging for clams to add to our haul.  Having never done anything like this before, I am still amazed at the amount of (tasty) critters living just beneath our feet.  Carrying them all back to the campsite in a bucket was such a proud moment, true hunter-gatherers us!

 

So finally, windswept and cold, we returned home for the most incredible, entirely local, fully sustainable and most required pasta dish ever.  Totally worth the hundreds of hours it seemed to take to peel the bleedin' shrimps.