A Spring Superfood. 

I consider local and seasonal food eating to be a core practice of Radical Self Care. Sustainable collection of wild food is an easy delicacy during the early spring when nettles are abundant in the Pacific Northwest.  Nettles can help with mood, energy, and focus. Let’s get your nettles collected and prepared so you can feel the powerful benefits!

Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are harvested and dried or heated to remove the sting. Nettles can be prepared similarly to spinach in soups or like basil in pesto. The nutrient content of nettles is incredible- we recommend nettle as a staple for people who are dairy free, as a tonic in pregnancy, and as a general restorative for all. Research supports the use of nettles as a general health tonic, as well as for pain, drippy allergies, childhood eczema, and men’s health.  

The nettle root holds some particularly healing properties, and is currently most commendable for its antiviral activity. We focus here on the health tonification and benefits that come from leaf collection and preparation. 

When to harvest stinging nettle: 

Nettles are best collected before they are in flower, while they’re most tender and young. In the Pacific Northwest, this is April. 

Where to harvest stinging nettle: 

Nettles grow throughout the entire United States. Nettles  are one of the first plants to grow after a fire and they hold their delicate ground well with their off-putting stings. Often, they’re on disturbed edges of forests. Or in the yard I live in, near the woodsy edge where the ground was disturbed for septic tank work. 

Nettles growing in heavy metal contaminated soil- near a dump site, a mine or next to a railroad- can contain contaminants. Don’t collect there.  But if it’s growing out of a pile of poop, no problem!

Are you outside the PNW? Where are you and where have you collected the stinging nettle? Please leave a comment to let us know.

How to harvest stinging nettle: 

You need gloves. The fine hairs of the nettle are basically fine silica glass needles. As they sting you, they introduce histamine (and other medicines) to create a healing reaction in surface of the skin.

Watch Video for a live demonstration!

How to prepare stinging nettle:

Dried Nettle leaf and stem:

If you will be storing dried nettle for tea, you must ensure the nettle is dry to a crisp- so that it easy crushes and breaks apart. There can be no water remaining in the dried leaves or else they will mold in storage. Or, they’ll stick together in dry lumpy clumps and you’ll wonder if your nettles are attempting to transmute to a worm fairy life form to live among the forest roots (Chickens love them at this stage).

Here in the Pacific Northwest, I prefer using a dehydrator because keeping the spring air dry enough for storing very dried leaf is impossible. I use a homemade dehydrator that keeps barely warmed air moving through screened trays at low heat. I strip the stems and lay leaves out in a single layer on the drying screen.

Nettle as a delightful herbal tea

Herbal tea paring with nettles: 3 teaspoons of nettle steeped in hot water for a full dose. Or, combined with other herbs for daily consumption. Raspberry leaf and catnip make lovely tea companions and are also ready for drying in early spring. Lemon verbana offers a delicious companion but is ready much later in the season. 

Nettle cold infusion 

Cold infusion is also a favorite family preparation.  3 teaspoons dried herb per cup of water soaked overnight will yield a mineral rich beverage. This could also be a soup base.

Nettle Tincture

A tincture can also be made by soaking nettles  in a 40% alcohol solution, then plant matter is removed. 

Nettle as fresh local wild food

I often like blanching nettles to prepare for frozen storage. 

Nettles can be prepared and stored like spinach and used as a replacement in your spinach recipes. 

Or, they can be used like basil in pesto recipes. 

Click here for Dr. Sunshine’s Nettle Pesto Recipe

Nettle is a Superfood.

The mineral content of nettles is one of the highest of any food. I believe this level of nutrients, if consumed consistently over time, could help restore function in most organs. Nettle has more protein than wheat or any other plant. The leaves have a taste like zesty spinach or collards. They can be added to soups in abundance.

Nettles as Medicine.

I use nettles to help support all vital functions of my body. Nettles “helps all protein pathways in the body- digestion, immune response, liver metabolism, skin reactions, and kidney elimination. It contains chlorophyll, indoles (including histamine and serotonin), acetylecholine, flavonoids, vitamins, proteins and dietary fiber. (Wood, 2008)”

Nettle leaves are used to decrease inflammation. Naturopathic doctors often prescribe encapsulated nettles for support with hayfever. 

I am increasing my nettle intake currently because of a lecture I saw about nettles inhibiting viral replication. The medicine for this action is found in the root of the nettles. I’ve begun creating root preparations for food, but I haven’t found a recipe sexy enough to share here. Still, I use the leaves as a general health tonic to help build my immunity. 

You can also purchase prepared nettles from my online Fullscript Dispensary.

Nettles can help improve…

Eczema: Nettles are used successfully to treat childhood eczema and as part of a plan for adult eczema. 

Pain: Nettles can be use for pain in joints and muscles by way of self-flogging. For real, a hardy nettle-stinging of your aches and pains can relieve inflammation for 4-8 days. Your skin will look and feel like you’re having an allergic reaction to the nettle. 

Men: Nettle root is famous for treating conditions associated with men’s health. Study’s show the root improves urine flow and reduces urinary frequency day and night for men with BPH (Benign prostatic hyperplasia).

If you have seen a medicinal benefit of stinging nettle in your personal experience, please post a comment to tell us about it- how long did you use stinging nettle as a tonic before you noticed the benefit?

Traditional uses of stinging nettle

Nettle stalks are weaved to create a strong rope for nets. I am not an expert with this, as my efforts to make rope ended after a day of weaving and only coming up with a very short useless bit. A pity. I’ve lost the patience of our ancestors.

Safety precautions with stinging nettle

People who are taking diuretic medications (for blood pressure), warfarin, lithium, and insulin, may need to be cautious about their nettle intake due to nettle’s healing actions. Check in with your naturopathic doctor to understand how your medications interact with herbal medicine. 

I offer nettles in my online Fullscript dispensary. They are included in the catalog favorites called “Allergies.”

If you know of a food product available on the market with stinging nettle, please post a comment!

My bias and story on nettles

I am in love nettles. When I was studying medicine at Bastyr University, nettles were the first edible wild plant I learned to harvest. Nettles became a close friend whom I would visit in the woods. In the early spring, they would pop up out of the forest floor so fast I could watch them grow. Standing along side the nettle, I marked their height into my favorite pants so that I would be reminded to go check in on their progress. I felt well-nourished by the nettles endless abundance. 

Nettles have a delicate power: self-protected yet rich with a depth of complexity. I eventually began to feel we were aligned, me and the nettle. I felt stronger the more I used her medicine. I once collected a chest full of only the top hearts of the plant to gift to a friend to say I love you. I thought, it’s a perfect way to tell a vegan “I love you”- give them the highest protein and mineral rich wild food available. They weren’t able to receive the message and when I presented the chest of nettle hearts, they said, “Hmmm, people at Bastyr really seem to be obsessed with nettles.” I am.  

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Resources: 

Bone, Kerry. and Blumenthal, Mark. and Dixon, Michael. and Mills, Simon.  Principles and practice of phytotherapy : modern herbal medicine / Kerry Bone, Simon Mills ; forewords by Michael Dixon, Mark Blumenthal  Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier Edinburgh ; New York  2013

D’adamo, Peter. https://dadamo.com/dangerous/2020/03/24/covid-19-stinging-nettle-lectin/

Hoffmann, David. Medical Herbalism: The Science and Practice of Herbal Medicine. Rochester, Vt.: Healing Arts Press, 2003. Print.

Natural Standards Database

Wood, Matthew. The Earthwise Herbal. Berkeley, Calif: North Atlantic Books, 2009. Print.