Stinging nettle time

Winter is the season for stinging nettles in my garden. Urtica dioica is considered to be the best species for food, but all native species can be used in the same ways and that includes Urtica holosericea which grows wild in my garden.

At first glance stinging nettle would appear to be an unlikely food, but to the initiated it is one of the most useful common wild foods. It is very nutritious, widely available, easy to identify, often available in abundance and it tastes good enough that it has been cultivated as a food crop. Of special importance is that it appears very early in the year (from mid winter to late spring), when few other foods are available. In fact it is only useful at this time of year, while the plants are young and up to 8 or 10” high. Not only does the plant get tough as it gets bigger and summer progresses, but inedible crystal deposits form in the leaves.  

You sometimes hear stories of people reduced to eating nettles during wartime, but this gives a false idea of them as purely a famine food. Nettles are actually extremely nutritious and in such circumstances you couldn’t eat anything better. They contain more protein than almost any other green leaf, large amounts of chlorophyll, vitamin A, several B's, lots of C and D and an abundance of minerals including calcium, iron (one of the richest plant sources), manganese, phosphorus, potassium, silicon and sulfur. All of these nutrients would be tempting to any self-respecting herbivore, which is why it has to protect itself as it does.

If you are familiar with this plant and its propensity to sting anything that touches it, you will already know that it can’t be eaten raw. In fact you will have to protect your hands with gloves (or anything that comes to hand) while gathering the young shoots and leaves. Only a few minutes cooking are enough to wilt the tiny needle like hairs that inject their poison and make it perfectly edible. A few minutes of boiling, steaming or stir-frying are necessary to produce an excellent potherb and they can be used in any recipe that calls for spinach (I like to use it in sag aloo, an Indian spinach and potato curry). They are probably the greenest thing you are ever likely to eat and will make anything a deep green color.

If you really get into nettles they can be dried and powdered for adding to bread, soups and other dishes to increase their nutritional value (and turn them bright green too).

Though you can’t eat older plants, they have been used as a source of fiber for cordage, rope, netting, paper, sail cloth, sack cloth and even fine fabrics (it was said to be better than flax).