Imagine, there is a food growing right outside, that has the perfect complement of nutrients to feed and fuel the human body. That we have wild foods growing all around us, potentially the perfect food for a particular time in our life, is a deeply curious and wonderful mystery. You can mark the season by where nettle is in its life cycle. Yesterday, I had tea with some of my island neighbors, one of whom told a story of her Danish father staying healthy as he was surviving WWI. He was a General Practitioner, and by drying nettles on top of his tent, and adding the dried nettles into whatever they were being served in the mess tent, he remained relatively healthy. At the end of the war, he was in incredible health compared to the other veterans.
Nettles goes by many Native American names such as "Tlulu’qWay (Twana)", it's common name, "Stinging Nettle", and its latin name, "Urtica dioica".
Please learn some identifying features of the Stinging Nettle, before you eat it, to make sure you are eating the correct plant! The Nettle, is an herb with opposite deep green leaves with serrated edges and tiny greenish flowers. Stems are square. Plants grow 3-7 feet tall. The stalk and underside of leaves are covered with stinging hairs that rise from a gland containing formic acid. Nettle is common on the edge of forests and disturbed areas with rich wet soil. You can find it from the coast into the mountains and everywhere in between. Do not gather nettles along roadways because they may absorb pollutants from car exhaust.
Nettles contain an abundance of nutrients: formic acid in fresh plant, galacturonic acid, vitamin C, histamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, choline and acetylcholine, vitamins A and D, iron, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium (20 times more than spinach), magnesium, chlorophyll, silica, and those ever elusive but incredibly important trace minerals.
Gather nettles to eat fresh when they are very young – usually about 4-8 inches tall. The whole above ground part can be eaten, stems and all. As they get older they become tough and the stalks develop strong fibers, which are edible, and exactly the sort of fiber beneficial for our gut micro biome, however they are not a delicacy. Do not harvest nettle for food after they flower as old leaves may irritate the kidneys. This compound is destroyed when the plant is dried, so gathering nettles after flowering is fine to prepare dried herb tea or powder. There are many ways to prepare nettles for food. They can be boiled, sauteed, steamed, frozen........ My favorite is simply to boil them for 5 minutes in the morning, drink the "tea" and put the yummy greens in with my morning egg scramble.
Annette Marsden M.S., C.N., Washington certified nutritionist, recommends that the reader always consult a physician before beginning a new nutrition program.
To learn how you can appropriately use the plant "stinging nettle" in your own path towards health, contact annettenutritionist@gmail.com or call 360-376-6745.