Seakale is described in Gerard’s Herbal in 1597. He writes: ‘The sea colewert groweth naturally upon the bayche and brissies of the sea, where there is no earth to be seene, but sand and rowling pebble stones. I have found it growing between Whytstable and the Isle of Thanet neere the brincke of the sea and in many places neere Colchester and elsewhere by the sea-side.’ Cut off the root