Monday, May 6, 2013

Urticated!

Yesterday afternoon, I picked a bumper crop of stinging nettles on the job. Regular readers of my blog will know that I subsist largely on nettle-related dishes in the Spring. Typically, I make a whole lot of creamed nettles (use your favorite creamed spinach recipe, just substitute nettles for the spinach) which are delicious served on toast, topped with an egg. I also make a spanakopita variant with nettles added to the spinach. This year, I am definitely adding nettle pesto to the repertoire.

Even though I wear gloves while I pick nettles, an occasional stinging hair gets through sometimes. The sting of the nettles of North America, while painful for a short duration, is harmless (this is not true of New Zealand's death nettle- there's a "death nettle/death metal joke in here somewhere) and has been used as a folk remedy for osteoarthritis throughout history. As someone who's experienced the mild "burn" of nettles with some frequency, I can see that it would make a good substitute for IcyHot- as the current indie pop hit goes, it's better to feel pain, than nothing at all.

Stinging nettles grow all over the various worksites that I cover, so I will have delicious, nutritious nettles to feast on until June, when the plants start to flower and accumulate cystoliths. As I do every spring, I am urging you to try stinging nettles- they are easy to identify and they are ubiquitous. With food costs being high, and food quality being low, what could be better than high-quality free food?

12 comments:

  1. what could be better than high-quality free food?

    High-quality FREE BEER.

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  2. "Even though I wear gloves while I pick nettles, an occasional stinging hair gets through sometimes."

    Axed and answered, B^4.

    Redbud won't sting you, and is delicious.
    ~

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  3. your favorite creamed spinach recipe

    You have left me with zero recipes.

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  4. High-quality FREE BEER.

    Touche! OTOH, NETTLE BEER!!!

    Redbud won't sting you, and is delicious.

    Redbud is good, but the nettles are so plentiful, and more versatile.

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  5. You have left me with zero recipes.

    Substance is banned! That would make him a banned substance...

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  6. Um, I'll just stick to Asparagus Syndrome...

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  7. I have a field full of nettles......
    Perhaps Trelawnyd is not quite ready for nettles on toast just yet

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  8. sh' is start..g to look in here this mornig , nettles , oh ,.. that's why the biGhealthyhumblebeast , he likes to prepare foood ,said sh' is not very good at boiling eau

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  9. and ..oh .. tindersticks .. where has my mind been.. .

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  10. small en fre ud en ..to bald's ads

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  11. Um, I'll just stick to Asparagus Syndrome...

    What a pisser!

    Perhaps Trelawnyd is not quite ready for nettles on toast just yet

    Don't resist their siren song, John, they are one of the best green vegetables EVER, in terms of both taste and nutrition.

    that's why the biGhealthyhumblebeast , he likes to prepare foood ,said sh' is not very good at boiling eau

    My first job in high school was working in a local delicatessen. My potato salad is second to noones. I can also cook enough bacon or ham and egg sandwiches to feed multiple landscaping crews without getting stressed out.

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