This is just a note for all of you local to the Eastern Shore of Virginia folks, reminding you to sign up for our CSA. Starting in May and continuing into September, you will receive a weekly box of seasonal vegetables, herbs, and fruit. I grow each of the vegetables from seed all the way to harvest on your table, and each box is a labor of love designed to generously feed a family of 3-4 or a couple who eats a lot of vegetables. You don't want to miss out. Shares are going fast, so sign up today!
The following essay is free until you reach the recipe at the bottom, which is for paid subscribers only.
Here on the farm we have nettles, Urtica dioica, everywhere. When we first moved to this piece of land, there weren't any nettles. We looked everywhere but despite the abundance of thriving native species and fifteen acres of woods, no nettles, and so we brought them in. We got seeds that we started inside and once they were big enough, we planted them right behind our house, and they grew exponentially. Over the next few years, we began to dig them up and planted them throughout the orchard and garden. Despite warnings from local folks that they might not grow, that it was too salty and humid here for them, the nettles thrived. Today, I can get slightly annoyed with the fact that they are everywhere, especially in back of our house, where I might prefer something else that doesn't sting my legs every time I don't wear thick, long pants. Perhaps I should've planted flowers instead. I find myself occasionally chiding the younger me of fourteen years ago who hadn’t a clue but then the nettles emerge once again in springtime, along with the hellebores and crocus, just when I need them most for soup. All my annoyances are forgotten in that first green, velvety sip of soup or my afternoon cup of mint and nettle tea that I enjoy so much.
For thousands of years, humans have utilized nettle for medicine, food and fiber. It can be found growing wild throughout most of the world and its uses are many. This plant is a powerful ally which we underutilize today, though this was certainly not the case historically. Folklore around nettle and her powers exists across the world from the British Isles to Tibet. There's a favorite Hans Christian Anderson fairytale, “The Wild Swans,” where nettle and its potent sting feature at the heart of the story.
In Ireland, nettle was actually used to help mitigate starvation during the potato famine and indeed, you can find nettle used as a valuable native medicine and food source throughout much of the world. Springtime nettle pasta is an absolute treat across Italy. During the summer months, once the nettle leaves are no longer tender enough to ingest, she flowers into tiny clusters of seeds that droop all along her stems. These seeds contain a powerful array of adaptogenic herbal properties that nourish and revitalize our tired adrenal and nervous systems. The clusters can be picked and once dried, the tiny seeds can be sifted out to be used in a wide variety of ways: sprinkled like poppy seeds, tinctured or tossed into your daily smoothie. Each season nettle gifts us something different, but always powerful.
For most of human history, nettle used as a fiber for textile and rope rivaled flax, hemp and cotton for both its durability and the fact that it could grow across many different climates, unlike cotton. Did I mention it also makes the best compost? Tomatoes and heavy feeders in the garden love a good fermented spray of stinging nettles. But be warned, you know it's fermented long enough and is potent enough to be sprayed on the garden when the smell is pretty awful.
There’s an old Scottish poem extolling nettle’s virtues that the herbalist, Stephen Harrod Buhner, loved to quote that is a favorite of mine (read it aloud):
If they wad drink nettles in March,
And eat muggons in May,
Sae mony braw maidens
Wadna gang to the clay.1
The healing range and power of nettles are quite astonishing from lowering blood pressure to improving circulation and helping with arthritis and aches and pains throughout the body. High in iron and vitamin C, nettles contain every essential amino acid including formic acid and silica, potassium and histamines. Dried, nettles contain more protein than meat. Many herbalists recommend starting off your day with nettle tea for a boost of energy and to help purify and get your blood moving. I find myself drinking nettle tea throughout most of each day, especially in the spring when I need to get my body and blood moving after hibernating and being less active during the cold winter months. Nettle tea has a lovely green flavor and pairs well with mint to help mitigate what some might call its “grassy” flavor.
Nettles are one of the first real foods, along with dandelion greens, to emerge in these very early spring months. When we consume them, they act as a tonic to help us reawaken and energize along with the awakening of the nettle plant and the garden as a whole after a deep winter slumber.
In my nettle soup recipe, I share with you below, young, tender springtime nettles are the star of the show. This soup is incredibly nourishing and energizing. For me, I find this to be particularly so after a long winter of less movement and starchy root vegetables. This makes a lovely lunch or dinner, although I am also quite fond of it heated up the following morning for a warm, quick breakfast before heading out into the field.
The nettles give this soup a lovely spinach-y flavor. It tastes green, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, nor am I trying to put you off when I say this! It tastes like the freshness of spring and smells like lying in a meadow full of clover and wildflowers. You will notice that the recipe below uses chicken stock, although you can easily make it vegan by using a flavorful vegetable stock. I have done this many times and it is just as good, although I find the use of chicken stock to be even more nourishing for me. If you want to make it a little richer, you can use butter instead of olive oil and add cream or half & half at the very end. Personally, I find this unnecessary because the potatoes themselves add a lovely creamy quality already.
You can find versions of nettle soup across a wide array of cultures. Italians like a more rustic soup that often features tomatoes and beans. The Turkish version features mushrooms and white wine, and in Spain, they use pork stock, perhaps from a nice, thick jamon iberico bone. I like to keep my version simple, allowing the flavor of early spring and nettles to shine through. The most difficult part of this recipe will be picking the nettles! Even though I wear gloves and long sleeves, I always manage to get stung while picking them, meanwhile my husband picks them with his bare hands and says he barely notices the slight occasional sting, which only actually lasts for a few hours.
If you get stung, just remember that the sting of nettles is supposed to help with arthritis and rheumatism. Herbalists and healers would actually pick the plant and then flick it across the afflicted area. If I'm being honest, I rather like the after effects of a nettle sting. It isn't painful, just oddly prickly and kind of like the feeling you get when your foot falls asleep and just starts to wake up again. You might get some redness or if the nettles are particularly potent, as they are in summer, tiny blisters might form where the plant touched your skin. Traditionally, dock, which commonly grows alongside nettle, was an effective remedy if stung. Simply chew the leaves then spit it out onto the affected area.
For this soup and any recipe where you want to eat nettles, pick the tenderest of spring tips, without the stem which is the part with the most fiber that they use in textiles. Happy picking!
Recipe: Nourishing Nettle Soup
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