Nettles and Recipes

We are now at the right time of year to collect nettles.  Just the tops of them which are the sweetest leaves and I was always taught that this is the best time of year to harvest them because of this.  The stems get woodier as the year goes on, where in Spring the plant has new growth and is at its freshest.

I have been on a foraging trip to collect lots of nettle tops to turn into some useful items for the Pantry Shelf.  This primarily stems from the fact that many years ago my mum used to make nettle wine which is absolutely delicious.  It is also reputably very good for arthritis. I have a yearning for it and so I am listening to my body in this respect.  My mum always used the C J Berry recipe for this which included dried ginger root.  This lifted the sweet wine and gave it more character.  I cannot locate my book at the moment but have found a recipe which is more or less the same here:

Nettle Wine with Ginger

I also have plans for drying the leaves to make tea and also wine or beer during the winter months, some nettle cordial. some nettle pesto which I intend to freeze, fresh nettle frozen so that can use in home made pasta and I also intend to freeze some nettle soup.  A good purgative/detox for the system which is purely natural.  

I have never had the beer before although I also understand that this is also delicious, so some of the nettles are going towards this.  Most of the recipes don't use root ginger in the beer, however knowing how nice the wine is with the touch of ginger I was eager to find a recipe that included this.   I have managed to locate one here:

http://www.ediblewildfood.com/stinging-nettle-beer.aspx

I have also found details on how to make a stinging nettle rennet and nettle and wild garlic pesto and nettle pesto.  The links are here:

https://thethingswellmake.com/stinging-nettle-recipes-20-surprising-things-make-nettles/

With regard to the Nettle Rennet, this again falls in very nicely with my plans to play at home with making my own cheese and hopefully saving some pennies in the long run.  There is also a hair wash which I am interested in having a go at.  I get psoriasis and have had it since birth (apparently from what I have read, this can be a tell tale indicator with people who have arthritis).  I know if I use a hairdryer, I get the awful flaky skin so I let my hair dry naturally wherever possible, and this wash may well help.  I can only try.

Nettles for using and cooking should be treated very much like you would Spinach.   So if you have a recipe using the Spinach you could always supplement the nettle instead.  I have recipes for Ravioli, pasta, pizza, Risottos

Anything you can forage from the wild all supplements "Your Pantry", but the only way you will find out whether you will make them again on a repeat basis is to make a batch, use it and see.  I have a rule in that if we do not like something or do not feel it works then I do not repeat the process.  However, just because it does not work for me does not mean to say it will not work for you.  We are all individuals, have different tastes and different needs.  However, using the "Wild Larder" to supplement your pantry, especially as the base ingredient just takes a little time and effort but does not cost you a penny.  That is one of the kinds of preserving I like to do.  We should all take advantage of the "Wild Larder" especially in view of current events.  All we need is a very bad winter and the lack of resources again and things will be more difficult than they already are.  It makes sense to put things by for a "rainy" day.

I also intend to make green powder from the dried nettle leaves to add to stews, gravies etc. to give the meal more flavour.  Health is a very precious thing.

Whilst out I also collected some Hawthorn blossom yet again for wine, for infusing with Brandy and for drying for food use.  So plenty to go at and to keep me out of mischief for the time being.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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