Stinging nettles superfood

 

 

Stinging nettles don’t get the respect they deserve. Although used for centuries, the Rodney Dangerfield of the plant world is treated as a noxious weed by the USDA, but thanks to folks who recognize the value of nettles the public’s view is changing.

 

Piers Warren’s new book 101 uses for Nettles spotlights the many uses of this underrated plant

“We are becoming aware that disappearing rainforests contain many plants that can be of great use to mankind – in combating disease for example – and let’s hope we are realising this before it is too late. But in our own back yards we also have many useful plants, most of which we think of as weeds and destroy. With our increasingly disposable and environment-damaging lifestyles it is important to value the resources that nature has given us.

Above all, nettles are extremely good for us. They are packed with vitamins, minerals and fibre, and have many healing properties. “

High in potassium, iron, sulphur, vitamin C, vitamin A and B complex vitamins nettles provide a high amount of dense nutrition with very little calories. The sulphur makes them great for the hair, skin, and nails. In addition, the tiny hairs, besides emitting histamine, also release serotonin and acetylcholine, two neurotransmitters that help to suppress appetite and also settle mood. Finally, nettles have gentle diuretic properties, which help relieve water weight gain, flush the body of toxins, and purify the blood.

Wear gloves and long pants (tucked in your socks) for foraging. Dunked in boiling water for a few seconds, the sting is gone.

Nettles first appear in spring and last all summer long in the Bay Area's fog belt. You’ll find nettles growing in abundance on moist grounds around swamps, marshes, along waterways and in open areas of woodlands. In fact, there will be a nettle patch thriving wherever the wind has carried seed. 

Star Route Farms sells them to area markets. You can find in them in most farmers markets in the Bay Area.

Nettles taste good too and  are easier than an artichoke to prepare and eat!

 

Euell Gibbons, an authority on wild foods and foraging, wrote an ode to the stinging nettle: “And yet, this detested weed is one of the finest and most nutritious foods in the whole plant kingdom. Unlike many health foods, nettle greens are really good, as well as being good for you.”

 

English cookbook author Jane  Grigson  shows her love of nettles in The Vegetable Cookbook.

 

Nettles are proof the best things in life are free.