On Sunday….
I harvested nettles from our patch.
{bowl by Amy the Potter}
While I was harvesting nettles…
Jeff was planting seeds.
And Bracken took a little nap on his back.
When Bracken woke up, he played with his garden tools next to me while I harvested chives. Jeff kept planting in the greenhouse.
We chose chive plants to harvest and left others to go to seed.
The plant we wondered what it was and left it over winter out of curiosity turned out to be purple cauliflower.
We harvested some watercress (that grows wild around the garden) for salads and some parsley for salads too. The cauliflower was sauteed with eggs for dinner.
Handfuls of fresh nettles went in our homemade chicken soup with chicken broth, chicken, celery, carrots, parsley, and onions.
………………………………
On Monday……
We went to our neighbors’ place and harvested nettles in their meadow surrounded by woodlands. They didn’t want anything to do with nettles and thought it was quite funny that we would eat them.
Our timing was perfect. The nettles were vibrant with spring potency and there was a break in the rain for harvesting. Harvesting nettles is one of my favorite spring rituals. I love nettles, they are truly one of my favorite plants.
Ladybug on a nettle leaf.
We loved coming across surprises of color in the woods, like Salmonberry.
Bracken had a break from being in the pack on my back and rolled in the grass with Jeff
(far from the nettles.)
Our baskets filled up quickly.
We were surrounded in green goodness. The meadow was quiet and peaceful and we listened to the river flowing nearby.
There was a wet area with skunk cabbages where the nettles were thick. There’s Jeff in the thick of it (with gloves and long pants to protect from stings, though we both did get light stings even being covered.)
The skunk cabbage was so beautiful.
(Our friend wrote a post about them called Ode to the Skunk Cabbage.)
We collected some fiddleheads to identify when we got home and see if they were the edible kind. (They weren’t the best variety of fern for eating.)
Jeff started manicuring them, cutting all the leaves off the stems.
Every year we like to harvest nettles to eat fresh all throughout the spring and dry enough to have nettles in soups and teas until the following year when we can harvest again. This year we had more ambitious plans, we wanted to harvest enough to share some dried nettles with all of you, in our shop and market booth. When we got home we filled two dehydrators with nettles, many screens drying by the woodstove, the whole refrigerator full for fresh eating, more in a pot of soup, and Jeff even put some in our juicer and we drank fresh, raw nettle juice. We’re so grateful for these sacred greens, so rich in nutrients and bursting with green life force. And soon, they’ll be available in the shop for all of you to enjoy too (along with some dried chives!)
So great to hear about the new items… Yay for Nettles! xo
How fun, and what lovely pictures! I always like seein’ what you guys are up to. Nice that nettles harvest is in the spring and not the autumn like everything else.
That soup looks so incredible DELICIOUS!!
It’s embarrassing to admit but I’ve never even tried nettles! How do you like best to prepare them?
I love nettles too and they are just starting to come up here in Australia. Loking forward to them being as big as yours!
I didn’t know you could eat fern!
And I love nettle soup. Funny your neighbors don’t know about it. On another note – it is still too cold for anything to grow around here… so I can only watch and enjoy your photos dreaming of real spring!
Oh Taryn, this is wonderful. Such green goodness.
People think we are really weird for eating nettles and drinking nettle tea…. I think they are weird for not!
Much love to you.
Nettles. I love them so much! What a bounty – and fiddle-head ferns! My favorite. Nettle tea is so, so good for you – full of vitamins and minerals and iron.