Jonathan Williams

Food & Drink

We sit where the road meets the sand dunes. Behind us the quiet solar powered beach hut is prepped ready for customers and in front of us the waves at Freshwater West gently crash onto the shore. This is where Jonathan grew up, learned to surf and after a short stint away, came back to sell amazing seafood from a beachfront shack.

We chat briefly before heading off to forage for seaweed. We pass the only seaweed hut left from a once thriving industry and Jonathan fills us in on the history of the famed laver seaweed. Back in 1879, a ship travelling from San Francisco to Liverpool was hit by a storm and was wrecked on a nearby beach. Its cargo was strewn across Freshwater West, fifteen thousand boxes of new world delights lined the coast. Word spread like wildfire and folk rushed to take advantage of this free bounty. It was here a number of enterprising chaps from Swansea saw the laver beds, or ‘black gold’ as it became known and struck a deal with the locals to harvest it. This was the start of the of the seaweed industry in Pembrokeshire.