Last year we went on a foraging course with Taste the Wild up in North Yorkshire. This was an introductory course for those who have only dabbled with foraging through picking blackberries or elderflowers. This was very much my level (and remains my level to be fair). We were led by the lovely Fez who took us around the private woodland to find various plants that grow in a typical English woodland and hedgerows. Of these various plants and mushrooms, the least scary, most accessible, and therefore most useful appeared to be nettles. The lesson we came away with regarding mushrooms is that every edible mushroom has a poisonous and toxic lookalike … Still, that hasn’t stopped us from booking onto an autumn mushroom foraging course this year! Nettles were much less frightening and beginner friendly. Fez also showed us how to use plantain to soothe some of those nasty stings that come with handling nettles. I have collated some of the things that I learnt about foraging nettles from that course, and their numerous uses in the kitchen and beyond.
Stinging nettles
Identifying features:
I’m sure we all know how to identify stinging nettles. My method as a child was to touch it and then see if it hurt. If I then developed an itchy lump in the spot that the nettles had caressed, I could safely conclude that this was a stinging nettle. Apparently, there are better methods.
Stinging nettles have serrated toothy edges and the leaves grow up the stem in pairs, facing away from each other like a couple in the midst of an argument. Although the top appears a little fuzzy, it is the underside of the leaves and the reddish hairs on the stem that impart the upsetting poison. Nettles flower as they get older, arranging themselves around the stems and look a little like grapes. However, at the point where they are flowering, you don’t really want to be picking them to eat as the flowering highlights changes the chemical compounds produced by the nettle. These chemicals will interfere with kidney functioning. No thank you.
What to pick and how:
You should only pick the top 6 leaves. Firstly, this is because they are the youngest. The longer nettles are in the sun, the more bitter the leaves taste, so the younger the leaves the tastier the food. Tasty food is always my priority.
Secondly, when foraging you need to respect the natural environment and the creatures that use these plants for food, shelter, and resources. Only picking the top 6 leaves and no more than you need means that there is enough to keep the plant healthy and continuing to grow. Nettles often grow in patches so there should be more than enough for what you need. Fez didn’t seem to have a hard and fast rule about how much to pick, but the general rules were to only pick from plentiful populations, and to always leave more than enough behind for our insect companions. Luckily, in the UK nettles seem to be EVERYWHERE so I don’t think leaving enough behind will be much of an issue.
To pick the leaves without getting stung, you need to be speedy! Pinch the stem of the nettles just below the 6 leaves that you want to pick; then swiftly bend the stalk and pull upwards to detach your selected leaves from the rest of the plant. You have to be quick and fearless. The quick grasping on the stem will squash and break the hairs that deliver the poison, rendering them harmless. Or, you could just use gloves …
Uses:
In the 1970s program ‘The Good Life’ (see the “About” section on my homepage if you haven’t heard about this show), Tom and Barbara Good used nettles to make dye. From their nettle base, they dyed sheep wool which they used to spin yarn in order to make their own clothes. They also made nettle soup but that didn’t go down so well; I believe “it stinks” was the phrase used.
Turns out, nettles are very versatile beasts that can make much more delicious things than nettle soup. According to Fez, they are a good replacement for leafy greens such as spinach. This is something I plan to try with some of my favourite recipes like pick up lime’s creamy mushroom pasta or my red pesto pasta with spinach and mushrooms. When I get around to doing this, I’ll put a link to the associated blog. Foraging nettles is more complicated than foraging for spinach in Aldi. Writing this in the depths of winter, there just aren’t any nettles about for me to hunt.
Another piece of wisdom from Fez was that nettles can be dried out on the windowsill and then ground down into a powder which can be sprinkled in meals. This is less about creating a delicious taste and more about adding lots of good nutrients into meals. Given that nettles have antihistamine properties, it’s also a little bit of a medicine. Fez said he often put his nettle powder into meals to trick his kids into eating some healthy nutrient dense meals. Perhaps I could trick my husband into doing the same …
Furthermore, Fez gave us some tasty nettle syrup of his own creation which was surprisingly sweet and fruity. His instructions were to put the whole nettle plant in boiling water for 25 minutes, strain the water, and then add some sugar and citric acid (lemon juice will do). This can be a cordial or boiled down further to make the sweet syrup mentioned above for pancakes and other delicious treats. No quantities were provided, so I’ll be doing some experimenting in the kitchen to find my own recipe!
Now, one thing Fez did not mention about nettles was the uses for the stems. When I was 18, I remember going on my DofE residential somewhere in the peak district and making natural string from a variety of plants. I specifically remember using brambles and horse radish to make twine, but I wondered if I could do the same with nettles given how versatile they seem to be. With a quick google, there were lots of websites, videos and instructions on how to make natural cord from nettle stems.
I plan to try out a lot of these and will let you know my success with them, but this will have to wait until the spring. Our local footpaths usually lined by lively and thriving patches of nettles, but these have very much withered away.
Plantain
Given the toxic nature of stinging nettles, I thought it best to include a way to deal with some of the inevitable wounds that come with harvesting such a dangerous plant … dangerous in the UK at least. A way that younger me could have relieved the mild pain that came with those tests to identify the plant. I have fond memories or plantain crisps and fried plantain from my time in central American in 2019 and 2020, but this is unfortunately a different kind of plantain. Although not tasty, it is just as useful as the banana shaped goods found closer to the equator.
Ribwort plantain
Fez said that this was the best plantain. The leaves are long and narrow, growing from the base of the plant on the ground upwards. They have approximately 5 long unbroken veins which track the length of the plant, from base to tip.
Broad leaf plantain
Broad leaf plantain was the first one I learnt about and seems to be the one I see the most of often. It has the same distinct unbroken veins which track the length of the plant, but the leaves are smaller, fatter, and round as opposed to the long and narrow leaves of ribwort plantain.
I find the long unbroken veins to be the easiest and clearest identifier for plantain personally. Both Ribwort and broad leaf plantain can be found pretty much anywhere! Plantain is considered to be a weed so it’s a pretty hardy plant. They are commonly found in lawns, meadows, and on roadsides. After learning about plantain, I was suddenly finding it everywhere; on the roadside and alongside footpaths I frequent on my runs, and even in my garden. Once you know what certain plants are, they seem to appear everywhere.
Uses
The reason I’m mentioning these alongside nettles is because of their healing properties. Plantain contains a compound which is antiseptic, antihistamine, and antibacterial. I was first introduced to plantain on a short foraging walk we went on with Yorkshire Dales Bushcraft on a survival weekend. We were told that the original way plantain was used was to create a spit poultice. You could pick a couple of leaves, hopefully have the opportunity to wash them, and then chew them into a pulp which you smear over the wound or part of the skin that is experiencing irritation. Not very covid friendly. The compounds released would soothe the pain and/or itching and are effective in stemming blood flow. This is effective to soothe nettle stings when you are foraging.
Or, you could just use gloves to pick them …
Fez recommended a different technique that is perhaps more palatable for us with our modern ways of cleanliness. You can roll the plantain between your palms vigorously for about a minute. It will suddenly become soft, squishy, and ooze liquid. This can be squeezed onto the wound and the soggy leaf can also be draped over the area like a plaster. Alternatively, you can use the plantain to make a salve to use to soothe these wounds, but it requires a bit more prep.
Finally, the flowering heads of plantain taste a bit like mushrooms and can be used to make a stock. If using them for this purpose, they need to be picked when they have turned brown but before they are dried out.
I hope you have found this useful and at least interesting. When the weather improves and things start growing again, I will definitely be trying out some of these uses for nettles and will report back on my success. All my attempts at growing plants so far have not been successful, so foraging for things that I haven’t had a hand in growing might be more successful.