Wild Food Feature - Spring 2009

This month our featured wild food is stinging nettles. Nettles are easy to prepare and are at their best at this time of year. Another wild food to look out for at this time of year is wild garlic (Ramsons). You will often know where they are growing by the garlicky smell which they exude. Look for broad spear like leaves and from April onwards, white star-like flowers growng in a rounded umbrel. These are not as strongly flavoured as the smell would suggest but the leaves do add a lovely garlicky taste to stirfrys. Simply roughly chop and add a few minutes before the end of cooking. For more on Wild Foods, get hold of the classic book by Richard Mabey "Food for Free". Its a wealth of useful information and will help you ensure you correctly identify any wild foods you pick.

Stinging Nettles  

Stinging nettles are very high in vitamins A & C and also contain lots of iron and protein. They are easy to find in most town and country environments, thriving on waste ground, verges, hedgebanks, along rivers and in woodlands. Late March to May is the perfect time to pick them when they are less than 20cm high. After this they become coarse and bitter (Mabey 'Food for Free' 2007). As well as being used for food (probably for thousands of years) they have also been used to make cloth and cordage (rope). In fact making cordage from nettles is so simple that we do it as one of the activities on our Wild at Heart holidays. See pictures below, the last one shows the final product - bracelets this time.

Eating nettles has a long history in the Highlands and in fact nettles were preferred by Highlanders to kale - the eating of which was seen as a symptom of effeminancy demonstrated by lowland Scots (McNeil 1974). In Marian McNeil's book "The Scots Kitchen: its lore and recipes", she cites a Gaelic poem which refers to Mackay's defeated soldiers (from the lowlands) as men of "kail and brose" - as opposed to sturdy Highland nettle eaters. Another quote in the same book, this time from the poet Thomas Campbell, goes on to say "In Scotland I have eaten nettles, I have slept in nettle sheets and I have dined on a nettle tablecloth...I have heard my mother say she thought nettle cloth to be more durable that any other linen". 

We don't expect you to go quite this far! However, eating nettles is easy, healthy and very tasty. Just make sure you wear gloves when gathering them. One of the quickest and simplest ways to prepare them is nettle soup.

 Nettle Soup

 You will need:

• 4 large handfuls of young nettle tops (or around half a pound)
• 2 large potatoes (approx 1lb)
• 1 large onion
• 50g/2oz of butter
• 1 litre (2 pints) of vegetable of chicken stock (I like the Marigold vegetable bouillion)
• 1 tablespoon of creme fraiche or sour cream
• Salt & pepper
• Pinch of nutmeg

Optional: you can also add other green veg such as leeks or spinach. For the meat eaters, chopped up cooked sausage is also good in this soup.

Preparation:

Strip the nettles from their stalks (using gloves) and roughly chop the leaves. Finely chop the onion and simmer in the butter until golden. Add the nettles (and other veg if using) and the potatoes (also chopped into chunks). Cook for 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the stock (and cooked sausage if using) and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the seasoning and nutmeg to taste. For a rustic style soup just break up the large pieces of potato with a wooden spoon or potato masher. For a smoother soup liquidise the whole lot. Serve with a swirl of creme fraiche or sour creme.

Enjoy the taste of Spring!

Note to wild food foragers

Please take a good identification guide with you when foraging. Or even better, go on a wild food foraging course with an expert. Wild at Heart cannot be held responsible for any mishaps occurring if you forage alone or are inexperienced. If you would like to learn more about wild food foraging come along on one of our 'Wild Woods, Wild River' days, which include wild foods and basic bushcraft skills. Call  01309 674768, email enquiries@wildatheart-ecoholidays.com or use the Contact Form for more details.