Autumn is harvest time. And as the temperatures cool and the leaves turn golden, the UK’s coastal landscape produces an abundance of rich and colourful ingredients – from foraged vegetables to succulent seafood. This makes it the perfect time to tuck into the season’s produce beside the sea.
Here are some of the finest seasonal ingredients freshly picked from land and sea, and where to try them on your autumn seaside break.
Foraged Sea Veg: Samphire, Sea Beet and Marsh Herbs
The UK coastline is home to an abundance of edible plants and seaweed, and sea vegetables such as samphire, sea beet, and marsh herbs are best picked from the shoreline in the cooler autumn months when they’re bursting with nutrient-rich tidal waters. These succulent herbs bring a tangy, slightly salty flavour to autumn dishes, and make the perfect complement to roasted fish or hearty vegetable stews.
Where to try them:
Hooked on the Rocks, Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is fast chasing the reputation of Padstow as Cornwall’s foodie hotspot, with many of its water’s edge restaurant peppering the menu with flavours from the sea. Our top pick is Hooked on the Rocks at Swanpool Beach in Falmouth, where a seafood-biased menu uses seaweed, sea vegetables and samphire to tickle its just-caught fish with flavour.
The Three Chimneys, Isle of Skye
Head to Isle of Skye for a foodie experience extraordinaire. At The Three Chimneys, every ingredient on your plate has been sourced and foraged by local experts, with seaweed and samphire often making an appearance in the carefully curated dishes.
Stein’s Deli, Padstow, Cornwall
If you prefer to cook in the comfort of your holiday cottage, Stein’s Deli stocks fresh, locally sourced sea vegetables, perfect for adding an oceanic autumnal flavour to any homemade dish.
Autumnal Seafood: Mussels, Oysters & Crab
Autumn is prime time for British shellfish, when the colder water yields plumper, sweeter mussels, oysters, and crabs. These ingredients are perfect for classic coastal dishes, such as seafood stews and moules marinières. You can add autumn squash or root vegetables for a true seasonal twist.
Where to try them:
Crab House Café, Weymouth, Dorset
At this award-winning seafood restaurant right on the Dorset coast, you’ll find a variety of seafood dishes stuffed with autumn bounty. Try the signature autumn oyster platter with spiced pumpkin purée and warm sourdough, or the creamy crab chowder seasoned with warming autumn herbs. If visiting the Crab House Café, stay nearby in one of our Dorset sea view cottages.
The Company Shed, Mersea Island, Essex
Mersea Island is famous for oysters and shellfish, and The Company Shed’s rustic eatery serves some of the best autumn seafood around. Try mussels steamed with garlic and thyme or a fresh crab salad paired with seasonal apple cider vinaigrette. Just remember to check the tide timetable before your visit. Eating here is the perfect accompaniment to a Kent coastal holiday.
Porthilly Shellfish, Rock, Cornwall
The family-run Porthilly Shellfish harvests mussels, clams, oysters and samphire fresh from the Camel Estuary, which can be delivered to the door of your Cornish holiday cottage.
Autumn Fruits: Coastal Berries & Apples
Autumn’s bracing coastal air encourages a variety of autumnal fruits to grow and ripen; blackberries and elderberries burst from the hedgerows, and rosy apples hang from the trees. All of these are perfect for autumn bakes, preserves, and chutneys and bring a balance of sweetness and tartness to pies, tarts, and sauces.
Where to try them:
The Hidden Hut, Porthcurnick Beach, Cornwall
This beach café isn’t just famous for its sell-out feast nights; it’s also one our favourite spots for a pit stop on an autumn coastal walk. As well as soups and stews packed with seasonal flavours, their blackberry and apple pie is made with coastal apples and local berries, and served with Cornish clotted cream. Dining at The Hidden Hut is best paired with a seaside stay in Portscatho.
Haselbury Mill, Crewkerne, Somerset
Nestled in the Somerset countryside just a stone’s throw from the coast, the Haselbury Mill celebrates its autumn harvest with a menu packed with coastal and countryside apples. Try a warming spiced apple cider, or their apple and mixed berry crumble made from fruit foraged along the coast.
Sizergh, Cumbria
Why not forage for your own juicy fruits of autumn to take back to your seaside cottage to conjure up a crumble or cake? On the edge of Morecambe Bay you’ll find plenty of autumn fruits in Sizergh’s woodlands, where the hedgerows are bursting with wild raspberries and blackberries in autumn, and damsons and apples are ready to be picked from the orchard at nearby Holeslack Wood. Stay nearby on the Cumbrian coast, at places such as Grange-Over-Sands.
Autumn Game with a Coastal Twist
Autumn also marks the start of game season, and coastal regions of the UK are renowned for pairing rich, freshly-felled game with foraged herbs autumn’s root vegetables. It’s also the perfect season to dine on the Llŷn Peninsula’s salt marsh lamb.
Where to try it:
The Mustard Seed Restaurant, Inverness, Scotland
Sitting next to an open fire, in a converted church on the banks of the River Ness, there are few better locations to dine on local venison from the Highlands. Unsurprisingly, The Mustard Seed Restaurant is a popular place, so make sure you book ahead during your coastal break in Scotland.
Salt Marsh Lamb, Llŷn Peninsula, Wales
Salt marsh lamb is a unique autumnal delicacy that comes from sheep grazing on coastal marshlands, with a distinctive flavour thats naturally seasoned by the salty environment. In the autumn months it’s at its most tender and is available at farm shops across the Llŷn Peninsula, such as the Abersoch Farm Shop.
Root Vegetables and Squashes
Autumn is the season we all associate with hearty root vegetables and squashes, and coastal regions are no exception when it comes to growing and showcasing these comforting ingredients. From pumpkins and parsnips, to heritage carrots and hardy greens, these vegetables can be made into soups, roasted dishes and pies. The best place to source the most vibrant veggies of the season is at local farm shops and farmer’s markets, but here are a couple of coastal restaurants renowned for using autumn veg as a centre-piece to their dishes.
Where to try them:
Crocadon, St Mellion, Cornwall
Set on a 120-acre farm in southeast Cornwall, Crocadon is the zenith of farm-to-fork dining. Set up by a former winner of the Roux Scholarship, this self-sufficient farm-cum-restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star within a year of serving up a hyper-seasonal menu led by what’s grown and reared on the land.
The Pig on the Beach, Studland Bay, Dorset
The Pig’s autumn menu not only brings together delicious dishes created from ingredients mostly sourced within a 25-mile radius, but much of the rich and hearty veg comes from its own garden and greenhouse, including cauliflowers used in a spicy autumn soup, carrots paired with roasted hazelnuts, flavoursome fennel and garden greens.
Hungry? Book your foodie-focussed autumn break by the coast
Check out our range of coastal cottages across the UK, from where you can dine on the taste of autumn from the comfort of your holiday home and in the best restaurants beside the sea.
