By Jayne Simmons
Everyone remembers the first time they met nettles in person. Sometimes, you were just trying to step off the trail for a moment, and nettles found you. Or if you are lucky, and you have a good mentor, you got to learn how to fold up the leaf and eat it without getting stung!
My mentor was a 10-year old I met during a Vashon Wilderness Program Summer Camp I hosted at Sister Sage Herb Farm.
When those deep green shoots first peek through the earth, you know winter is basically over; and it turns out that this changing of the season is when nettles are needed. With protein, iron, minerals like potassium, magnesium, calcium, and zinc among others, and vitamins (K, A, B1, B3, B2, and B6), and Omega-6s, they are a true super-food. They contain antihistamine properties helping those with seasonal “hay fever” and the general sluggishness that can come with the changing of the seasons.
I like to gather nettles two or three times each spring. The first picking is when they’re just a few inches tall; these are the darkest color and have the least amount of stems. They’ll sprout again where you cut it, so you can return in about ten days. By the third cutting, they might be a bit taller, and the leaves a touch brighter. Those final cuttings or any plants that get super-tall can also be made into a strong overnight compost tea to nourish other plants. Once you find a reliable patch and you have permission to pick, a nettles patch keeps on giving, coming back year after year, spreading by root system.
I was first introduced to nettles as a food in 1987. I worked at what would now be called a farm-to-table restaurant called The Magnolia Bar and Grill, in Durham, North Carolina. The farmers and wildcrafters used to just knock on the back door with a bounty of heirloom vegetables and wild foods. Every shift, I learned about plants like nettles, ramps, and many varieties of culinary mushrooms.The chef would sauté the nettles with garlic, add a bit of their house-roasted veggie stock, and serve them over creamy grits with morels and asparagus.
When I moved out to Seattle, I worked at Place Pigalle and The Pink Door in the Pike Place Market, and I learned that the chefs here make a similar sauce, drizzle it on salmon, serve it with risotto and fiddlehead ferns and top it off with a huckleberry dessert!
Cooked fresh nettle-tops can be used in a variety of dishes as a substitute for spinach or kale. Steam or blanch the nettle tips, drain them, and cut them with scissors before adding them to your recipe.
● Add to omelets, scrambles, or breakfast sandwiches
● Use in stir fry recipes, in curry sauces, or spanikopita
● Add to almost any soup recipe, especially onion or potato
● Blend into pesto or other dips
● Include in the ricotta layer of lasagna
Dry nettles as quickly as possible in a warm, well ventilated dark spot, until crispy dry. The smaller the leaf, the faster the drying process. The leaves can be cut off in the field, or after they are dry. They are best left whole until use and crumbled by hand or powdered in a blender or dedicated coffee grinder. (Use a mask to avoid breathing the dust.) Remember to store dried nettles away from light and in airtight containers to preserve their nutrients. Refrigerate nettle infusions, since the protein content makes them spoil easily.
● Make a simple tea or an overnight infusion that is rich and thirst-quenching.
● Incorporate dried nettle powder into bread recipes
● Add a couple of tablespoons of dried nettle to a smoothie for an energy blast
I am challenging myself to eat a dish with nettles in it once a week for the next 6 weeks. Please let me know how you love to make nettle a part of your life?
Nettles are basically free, taste great, and are easy to prepare. In fact, some people will actually pay you to take them away! (Does that sound like your dream job, or nightmare?)
Jayne Simmons is the owner and principal farmer at Sister Sage Herb Farm, located on the Roseballen Land Trust on Vashon Island. She is the founder of Sister Sage Herbs Natural Remedies company and makes products from herbs she grows and sells online at sistersageherbs.com and in person at the Pike Place Market. She can be reached at jayne@sistersageherbs.com
