What's in Season - Wild Nettles

Spring is a wonderful time to look to nature for a natural way to cleanse and detox. A few months ago I embarked on a Natures Larder Medicine Chest course to learn about our native wild plants and discovered the delicious wild greens of nettle, dandelion and burdock. To get you started on your foraging (and free food) why not experiment with wild nettles.

Nettle greens are a rich source of calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, cobalt, copper, potassium, trace minerals, chlorophyll, the B-complex vitamins, and more.

Not only are the greens incredibly good for you, they are delicious too. Harvest the tender tops from the time they first appear in spring through mid-summer. To avoid the sting, gloves are recommended. Luckily, they lose their sting when cooked. Cooking nettle greens is easy. Just substitute in any recipe that calls for spinach or other fresh greens. Or steam them for about ten minutes or until they are tender, and serve with a dash of tamari and vinegar.

If you choose to eat wild nettle greens, you'll benefit from the many medicinal properties of this amazing plant. Nettles are a tonic for the kidney, adrenal, and thyroid glands, so they can help increase and stabilize energy levels. Used regularly for several months, they can prevent hay fever and other allergies and it has also been shown to help with arthritis.

Because of their dense concentration of minerals and amino acids, Nettles help to build healthy bones, hair, skin, and teeth, as well as being an excellent tonic for pregnant, lactating, and menopausal women.

Celebrate the new season by going out to gather some wild foods. The nourishment in edible weeds will help you feel more alive and energetic.

Here's a few tips I found for picking Nettles.

1. Pick the plant when young. Older plants can be bitter and fibrous. Make sure that they haven't flowered as well.

2. Pick/cut the top 4-6 inches of the plant (this will be the tender part), and it will re-grow and then you can harvest again.

3. Wear proper nettle clothing, or use tongs if you don't want to get "stung".

4. Avoid picking right by the main road, where toxic fumes from cars will have contaminated the nettles, and avoid areas that may be chemically sprayed. Some people just allow it to grow in their garden or find a meadow or wooded area.

5. Wash the nettles one by one, to get rid of soil and insects.

Recipes

Nettle Shitake Stir fry

Ingredients

One bag fresh Nettle tops,

Half an onion

Several handfuls fresh shitake mushrooms

Tamari

Instructions

Sauté onion in olive oil until soft, add thinly sliced shitakes and sauté for several minutes. Add nettle greens, along with several dashes of tamari and a few tablespoons of water (just enough to keep it from scorching), simmer about 10 minutes.

Nettle Tea

1. Put the nettles in a pot and add enough water to just about cover them. With some experience, you can adjust the amount of water depending on how strong you would like your tea.

2. Boil until the water becomes slightly green.

3. Remove nettles. The tea might go more bitter if they are left in. (On the other hand, the stronger taste might be exactly, well, your cup of tea.)

4. Serve with sugar and sliced lemons. Nettle tea has a characteristic feature: it changes colour if you add lemon. Its colour depends on the PH and acidity of the water. Children love to add a slice of lemon and watch the tea magically change from a dark green to a bright pink colour.

The boiled nettles can be used much like spinach, or eaten as-is with some salt.

Nettle Soup

This is a dense and delicious dark green nettle soup. Make it when nettles show up at the farmers markets in the spring. Be sure to wear gloves when handling the nettles or they'll sting you!

Recipe provided by:
Allrecipes
Ingredients
500g wild nettles
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 tablespoons basmati rice
1L chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation method
1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil with 2 teaspoons of salt. Drop in the nettles, and cook 1 to 2 minutes until they soften. This will remove most of the sting. Drain in a colander, and rinse with cold water. Trim off any tough stems, then chop coarsely.
2. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat, and stir in the onion. Cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice, chicken stock and chopped nettles. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, and season to taste with salt and pepper. www.allrecipes.co.uk