In Wales, landscape and food are inextricably linked. The richness of the Welsh countryside has always been reflected in its food, and more so today than at any other time.
There are salmon to be found in the rivers Usk, Wye, Severn and Conwy. Fish abound in these deep rivers and the rushing mountain streams yield trout bursting with flavour. Sea trout ‘sewin’ are caught in rivers like the Tywi and the Teifi. Sewin are lighter in colour and taste than salmon.
Cockles and the unique seaweed called laverbread are harvested on the Gower Peninsula. At Penclawdd on the northen side of the mild-weathered sea-fringed limb of land, you will see stooping women scraping below the tidemark for cockles which they gather in buckets and haul away with donkeys and carts. Laver is also gathered here. The dark green seaweed is boiled thoroughly until it looks like chopped spinach. Traditionally it is eaten rolled in oats and cooked with bacon.
In Wales, the sea is never far away and Cardigan Bay (Bae Ceredigion) is a place for shellfish – lobsters and crabs and locals swear their herrings and mackerel are better than any other.
The gathering of cockles and mussels is of considerable antiquity in Wales, for the shells of these molluscs have been excavated from a number of prehistoric and Roman sites. The most important centre of commercial mussel gathering today is Conwy. Mussels are caught on the ebbing tide in shifts of three or so hours of back-breaking work. The season extends from the middle of September until the end of April, and some of the fishermen for the remainder of the year are concerned with seine-net salmon fishing and sparling (brwyniaid) fishing.
The unspoilt open countryside of Wales gives Welsh lamb its sweetness, while the coastal marshes add a salty tang. Delicious at all times of the year, it varies from the delicate sweetness of the spring animals eaten at Easter to a fuller mature flavour of a winter roast or stew. Lamb together with Welsh Black beef, is the most famous meat in Wales.
It is a rich dairy country offering many different kinds of farmhouse cheese, from the salty local Caerphilly and Caws (cheese) Llyn to the more traditional chives and leek cheese.
In early summer the shops sell Gower or Pembrokeshire (Penfro) potatoes, freshly raised from the rich soils of the two peninsulas where the temperate climate allows growth throughout the year. The potatoes are sweet and at their best with a dollop of welsh butter and a slice of home-cured bacon.
You need to love your surroundings. The food should be an expression of that. In Wales it certainly is.