The Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company

I love to find new and local foodie brands and this one is no exception – they are certainly local, just not to me! So why then am I dedicating a whole blog post to them?

The Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company caught my attention at the BBC Good Food Show this year because I loved both their story and their dedication to foraging and working with ingredients from their local area.  Based on the Pembrokeshire west coast of Wales, they are a relatively new company, starting life in the form of a beach cafe serving foraged produce and fresh seafood. This then grew to include street food, festivals and farmers markets and after winning Best British Street Food Vendor in 2012, the Beach Food Co has gone from strength to strength, launching a new line of retail products which you can buy online. Yum Yum.

I met founder Pembrokeshire based Jonathan Williams at the BBC Good Food show a few weeks back and listened to his inspirational story. His passion for food and in particular the sea and beaches around him was infectious. I tried several items from their new range, including the rather cool ‘seashore condiment’ Welshman’s Caviar which is made up from toasted laver seaweed. The salty flakes are great to use as a seasoning. The Laverbread Pesto was another unusual product which I loved. I took home some of their Pepper Dulse Butter and Ships Biscuits and soon scoffed the lot. The Ships Biscuits are savoury crackers flavoured with laverbread, dulse seaweed and Halen Mon sea salt from Anglesey. They are perfect for dips, pates, cheese! The Pepper Dulse butter was really good. Again, flavoured with locally foraged seaweed, it had a real taste of the sea to it. Use to panfry fish or as in sauce with seafood pasta.

Or if you’re a bit of a greedy pig like me, spread it on crackers or toast!