Harvesting Nettles

Two of my favorite wild harvested edibles are cattails and stinging nettles, both which are picked in different seasons from each other and really give me something to look forward to in February(nettles) and june(cattails)


Every February we get our scissors and plastic bags ready and we go to our favorite patch of spring nettles.
First, you don't want to eat nettles after they flower.
So early spring is when they first shoot up with the most tender, nutritious leaves.
You'll want to harvest the ones that are under knee length.


You will use you scissors to cut off the top of the plant (new leaf cluster) carefully use your scissors to pick it up and put it into your bag.


Then trim the other leaves off with your scissors and pick them up carefully with scissors and put them in the bag...leave the last 2 inches of stalk with leaves still on it.


Once you get a bag or two fulls of leaves and crowns. You will have more than enough for a family of 4 or more...


I then take them home and fill a large bowl with water and (do this in batches)
Ill take a couple tongs full of leaves and submerge them and agitate them a tad to clean them, then put them in the pot you will be using to boil them in....


Keep doing this until all your leaves are in your pot...


Fill your pot with water and boil for 10-20 mins until wilted and as tender as you desire...


Strain and season with butter, salt and pepper......


(Yes, you can still see the stinging bristles but they don't sting and wont bother you once they are wilted.....)




This is a picture of my pot full of nettles before smashed down and water added

 I chopped a complete stalk off, about 2 inches above the ground to adequately show the process in pictures (this is the crown of the plant which you would snip off from the stalk of the plant while still upright

 Bag full of nettles, makes for happy bellies

 Here are the chopped off tender leaves of a stalk ready to be put into the bag carefully

 My scissors are marked as a guide to show you, take leaves above it and the crown, leave everything below

 A beautiful new shoot

 Ive only been stung twice in my life by nettles, once as a child while helping my parents harvest them and once as an adult....If you happen to have this occur...find the closest plantain plant and pick a leaf...mash, rub, bend, rip it and make a mess of it until it begins to let its liquids run and rub it all over...it will help bring relief....