Harvesting and Cooking Nettles: A Guide to this Wild Superfood

Nettles, often considered a pesky weed with a nasty, painful sting, are actually a nutritious and versatile wild green that can be a wonderful addition to your kitchen. 

Packed with vitamins, minerals, and a unique flavour, nettles are a sustainable choice for foragers and home cooks alike. Here’s a guide to harvesting and cooking nettles safely and deliciously.

1. Why Nettles?

Nettles (Urtica dioica) are rich in iron, calcium, magnesium, and vitamins A and C. They have been used in traditional medicine for centuries and are known for their anti-inflammatory and detoxifying properties. Besides their health benefits, nettles offer a taste reminiscent of spinach, with a hint of cucumber.

2. How to Harvest Nettles

When to Harvest:

The best time to harvest nettles is in early spring when the leaves are young and tender. This is typically from March to June in the UK.

Avoid harvesting nettles once they start to flower, as they can develop a gritty texture and lose their nutritional value.

What You’ll Need:

Thick gloves (to protect your hands from stings)

Scissors or garden shears

A large basket or bag

Where to Harvest:

Look for nettles in clean, unpolluted areas away from roads, industrial sites, and areas treated with pesticides.

Popular spots include woodland edges, riverbanks, and meadows.

How to Harvest:

Put on your gloves to protect yourself from the nettle’s sting.

Use scissors or garden shears to snip the top 4-6 inches of the plant. This is where the youngest and most tender leaves are found.

Collect only what you need, and leave enough behind to allow the plant to continue growing and for other people to forage.

3. Preparing Nettles for Cooking

Handling:

Always handle fresh nettles with gloves to avoid being stung. The stinging sensation is caused by tiny hairs that inject irritants into the skin.

Washing:

Rinse the nettles thoroughly in cold water to remove any dirt or insects. Submerge them in a large bowl of water and swish around, then drain and repeat if necessary.

De-stinging:

The sting of nettles is neutralised by heat. Blanching or steaming them for a few minutes is enough to make them safe to handle and eat.

Blanching Nettles:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Add the nettles and blanch for 1-2 minutes until wilted.

Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the nettles to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

Drain and squeeze out excess water before using in recipes.

4. Cooking with Nettles

Nettle Soup:

Ingredients:

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large potato, peeled and diced

1 litre vegetable or chicken stock

200g fresh nettles, blanched and chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Double cream (optional, for garnish)

Instructions:

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and sauté until soft and translucent.

Add the diced potato and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potato is tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the blanched nettles and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Using a blender or immersion blender, purée the soup until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve hot, with a drizzle of double cream if desired.

Nettle Pesto:

Ingredients:

100g blanched nettles, squeezed dry

50g fresh basil leaves

50g Parmesan cheese, grated

50g pine nuts (or walnuts for a twist)

2 cloves garlic, minced

150ml olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a food processor, combine the nettles, basil, Parmesan, pine nuts, and garlic. Pulse until finely chopped.

With the processor running, slowly add the olive oil until the mixture reaches a smooth, pesto-like consistency.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Use as a sauce for pasta, a spread for sandwiches, or a topping for roasted vegetables.

Nettle Tea: (I love Nettle Tea!)

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh nettle leaves, rinsed and chopped

2 cups boiling water

Honey or lemon (optional, for taste)

Instructions:

Place the nettle leaves in a teapot or heatproof jug.

Pour the boiling water over the leaves and let steep for 5-10 minutes.

Strain the tea into cups and sweeten with honey or a splash of lemon, if desired.

Enjoy hot or cold.

Conclusion

Harvesting and cooking nettles is a rewarding way to enjoy one of nature’s most nutrient-dense plants. With a little care and creativity, nettles can be transformed into a variety of delicious and healthy dishes. So, next time you see this humble weed, consider its culinary potential and give it a try in your kitchen garden adventures. Happy foraging and cooking!

The Art of Foraging: Discovering Wild Ingredients in the British Countryside

Foraging for wild ingredients is a delightful and sustainable way to connect with nature while enhancing your culinary repertoire. 

The British countryside, with its diverse flora, offers a bounty of wild edibles waiting to be discovered. 

Here’s a guide to some of the best wild ingredients you can forage and tips to ensure your foraging adventures are safe and fruitful.

The Joy of Foraging

Foraging is more than just gathering food; it’s about exploring nature, understanding ecosystems, and appreciating the bounty that the natural world offers. It provides an opportunity to learn about different plant species, their habitats, and their roles in the ecosystem. Additionally, foraging encourages a mindful and sustainable approach to eating.

Essential Foraging Tips

Know Your Plants: Accurate identification is crucial. Invest in a good field guide or attend a foraging course. Some plants have toxic lookalikes, so never consume anything you aren’t 100% sure about.

Sustainable Foraging: Only take what you need, and never uproot entire plants. This ensures the plant populations remain healthy and continue to thrive.

Legal and Ethical Considerations: Forage only where it is permitted. Avoid private property unless you have permission, and be mindful of protected areas.

Seasonality: Different plants are available at different times of the year. Learning the seasonal calendar of wild edibles will help you make the most of your foraging trips.

Top Wild Ingredients to Forage

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum)

Season: March to June

Habitat: Damp woodlands and shaded areas

Uses: The leaves, flowers, and bulbs are all edible. Use the leaves in pesto, salads, or as a flavourful addition to soups and stews.

Elderflowers (Sambucus nigra)

Season: Late May to early July

Habitat: Hedgerows, woodlands, and along riverbanks

Uses: Infuse the flowers to make elderflower cordial, champagne, or use them to flavour desserts and cakes.

Nettles (Urtica dioica)

Season: March to October

Habitat: Common in gardens, woodlands, and along pathways

Uses: Nettles are packed with nutrients. Blanch them to remove the sting and use in soups, teas, or as a spinach substitute.

Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus)

Season: Late July to October

Habitat: Hedgerows, woodland edges, and scrublands

Uses: Perfect for jams, crumbles, and pies. They can also be eaten fresh or frozen for later use.

Mushrooms

Season: Varies by species (e.g., Chanterelles in autumn)

Habitat: Woodlands, fields, and grassy areas

Uses: Mushrooms are versatile and can be used in a variety of dishes. Always ensure you have positively identified mushrooms, as some can be highly toxic.

Foraging Equipment

Basket or Cloth Bag: For collecting your finds without damaging them.

Knife or Scissors: For cutting stems and leaves.

Field Guide: To help with plant identification.

Notebook: To jot down your discoveries and notes.

Recipes to Try

Wild Garlic Pesto

Ingredients: A handful of wild garlic leaves, 50g of pine nuts, 50g of parmesan, 100ml of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Method: Blend the garlic leaves, pine nuts, and parmesan. Gradually add olive oil until the desired consistency is achieved. Season with salt and pepper.

Elderflower Cordial

Ingredients: 20 elderflower heads, 1.5 litres of water, 1kg of sugar, 2 lemons, 50g of citric acid.

Method: Boil water and sugar to make a syrup. Add elderflower heads, sliced lemons, and citric acid. Leave to infuse for 24 hours, then strain and bottle.

Nettle Soup

Ingredients: A large bunch of nettles, 1 onion, 2 potatoes, 1 litre of vegetable stock, salt, and pepper.

Method: Sauté the chopped onion and potatoes. Add the nettles and stock, simmer until the potatoes are soft. Blend until smooth and season to taste.

Embrace the Foraging Lifestyle

Foraging can transform your relationship with food and the natural world. It’s an adventure that brings you closer to nature, adds excitement to your culinary endeavours, and promotes sustainability. So, grab your basket and head out to the countryside – a world of wild flavours awaits!

Here are some resources you can check out:

https://www.foragebox.co.uk Forage Box courses

https://rb.gy/gef85v Foraging Diploma Course Centre of Excellence 

https://rb.gy/nythq9 Totally Wild foraging courses

https://rb.gy/7y67xs Virgin Experience Days Foraging Day

Foraging triggers new launches by food trend setters My Secret Kitchen

Wild Garlic Secret Spice

The UK's first food tasting company are very proud to announce the start of a new range of Secret Spices starting with Wild Garlic.

One of their founding principles is a commitment to creating versatile products with a multitude of uses. The first in a new range is a perfect example. It comprises wild garlic and garden herbs together with a secret dash of wasabi.

Wild garlic is very common throughout the UK and you can often smell it before you see it whilst taking a walk through the woodlands. Unlike your standard garlic, it’s the leaves of the wild garlic plant that are used in this blend. As well as using Wild Garlic seasoning to make a gorgeous garlic butter, a brilliant garlic bread, a delightful dip or a tasty cheese ball just 1/4 tsp of this store-cupboard wonder can replace 1 clove of fresh garlic in other recipes too.

My Secret Kitchen are predicting the rise of North African food in the market place in 2012. Their new Saffron Tagine Paste is an intense concentration of saffron and exotic spices. A heady combination of classic flavours you'd find in a traditional tagine or stew – coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, clove and mint – with a generous helping of the most indulgent of spices, saffron.

The result is a fragrant and aromatic paste that can be used in a tagine or slow-cooked stew (where it is especially good with cheaper cuts of meat) or in marinades and dressings. As is now normal practice at My Secret Kitchen this is an especially intense paste so a very little will go a very long way.

Finally My Secret Kitchen are very proud to announce the long awaited return of Miso dressing with ginger. It is an intensely flavoured salad dressing featuring wheat free soy sauce, white miso paste (a Japanese paste made from fermented beans more commonly used to make miso soup) and fresh ginger. Perfect as an Asian marinade or to add to a quick stir fry, and as it's oil free and has no added salt, it's the perfect thing to splash onto salads for a burst of guilt free flavour.

My Secret Kitchen is the UK’s first nationwide food and drink tasting company, and was started by husband-and wife-team, Clare and Phil Moran. They’ve taken the traditional Tupperware style business concept of home demonstration parties and turned it into a wonderful food tasting evening, where the host and his/her friends have an enjoyable time experiencing unusual and different foods, sharing recipe ideas in a warm relaxed non-pressure environment.

The business concept has proven to be a great success in the economic downturn for food lovers who are looking for an extra income and have joined My Secret Kitchen as a consultant, earning money from showing all the great foods.

If you're interested in spreading the word about some weird and wonderful foods, or would like more info about the idea of helping people earn an extra income by indulging their love of food or simply looking for a feel good story about a family who are leading the way in innovative food concepts.... or maybe would just like some samples to try then contact Phil Moran at:- philmoran@mysecretkitchen.co.uk
0845 094 5319
www.mysecretkitchen.co.uk

Hot spring means bumper crop for wild fruit jam makers

Jam-makers are excited after an expert predicted what could be the best ever year for wild fruit and berry harvests in the UK.

Leading foraging expert Chris Bax said the warmest spring on record has filled the nation's trees and bushes with blossom, which points to a bumper fruit harvest.

Wild raspberries and strawberries are already starting to show and there are good signs of a fantastic blackthorn crop; meanwhile, commercially grown strawberries are already 150 per cent up and grape harvests set to create new records.

All of which is music to the ears of the nation’s jam-makers. Once considered the preserve of older generations, it's enjoying a renaissance thanks to celebrity jam-makers like Kate Moss and Zoe Ball who have helped jam jars sales double in the last 12 months.

Mr Bax, who runs Taste The Wild and is an advisor to British cooker manufacturer Stoves, said: “We’ve had optimum growing conditions with a harsh, cold winter and a spring with little frost and the warmest ever temperatures – a perfect climatic event for our nation’s wild fruit and berries.

“I expect the country to be laden with fruit, and with wild species such hawthorn and wild cherry in abundance, it’s great news if you want to make your own jam with free fruit.”

To capitalise on the bumper fruit harvest and the appetite for jam-making, Stoves has commissioned Mr Bax to produce an iPhone app showing how to collect free wild fruit and berries with recipes for home-made jam.

The ‘Wild Jam Maker’ app lists fruits and berries growing wild in the UK and recipes include Sea Buckthorn Jam and Wild Cherry Jam. The free app can be downloaded from the Apple App store.

Jane Rylands, Stoves’ brand manager, said: “Jam-making is very much in vogue at the moment and with such a bumper crop of fruit this year, our free app will help Britain’s jam-makers find new and interesting recipes using ingredients direct from the land.”

Free fruit is bursting not just from the great British countryside, but also in our towns and cities too – you can pick rowan, blackberry and cherry plum in urban areas.

The world’s biggest jam festival – the WI Stoves Real Jam Festival – will take place in October this year. Last year’s event attracted more than 500 entries from men, women and children across the

For more information on Stoves follow @StovesUK on Twitter and www.facebook.com/StovesUK

FACTFILE:
Founded in 1920, Stoves is one of the UK’s best loved cooking brands. It is also one of the only major kitchen appliance brands still committed to manufacturing in the UK with 100% of its freestanding cookers, built-in ovens and hobs and range cookers assembled at its Merseyside headquarters. All products are designed and built in the UK specifically with British cooks in mind. Visit www.stoves.co.uk to view the full product range.

(EDITOR: When foraging for fruits always ensure you are legally entitled to do so. For example, it's best not to encroach on private land, without the permission of the owner)