Harvest 2022: nettles

[miteigenenhaenden]

Lunch grows by the wayside

A glorious summer morning. I had to go into town very early today. Shortly after 6 a.m. it was still foggy and cool. The bike ride – wonderful!

On the way back I was on a "foray" again.


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Nettles are very healthy, can be found everywhere and are free.
So it's a healthy, very cheap meal
You can find the recipe for the nettles here.

[catherine]

That looks delicious, mit! I believe I had nettles in my old yard, but I was always afraid to eat them because I wasn't sure they are nettles. They didn't "sting" but they looked like nettles in every other way. I do want to learn how to identify them.

[miteigenenhaenden]

The nettles that don't sting were probably dead nettles. You can eat these too.

[herbgeek]

Nettles to me is an acquired taste. It reminds me a bit of the earthiness of black currants. I know they are beneficial, very high in calcium and other minerals but I just can't get past the taste. They are still useful plants in other ways. So I don't eat them, but I do tincture them as daily support for allergies as well as soak them in a bucket and use the resulting liquid as a high nitrogen feed for my garden.

[iris lilies]

I’m glad you brought this up. I have nettles ( I think) growing in my “wild” area and have thought about cooking them. Keep talking!

[Tybee]

Be careful with allergies to nettles; if you have, don't eat them.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I have harvested them, made cream of nettle soup. But the season is very limited here, very early spring, more work than it's worth. And I've noticed less stingy ones in recent years, so I've wondered are these definitely nettles, sure look like them, and then are nettles getting less stingy? Why would nettles be getting less stingy? I have no idea, I guess I could always blame climate change.

I made elderberry syrup once from harvested elderberries, now that was almost worth it.