#spring foraging

I'm too tired to tell y'all about the greenbriar pizza, but I'm posting so I remember to tell you in the morning. Smilax rotundifolia

Stinging nettles are a legendary spring herb: edible, medicinal, and packed with vitamins & minerals. Nettles are covered with tiny silver stinging prickles, but the sting is disarmed when the leaves are cooked or dried. So put on some thick clothing, pop on some gloves, and let's go forage for stinging nettles!

Stinging nettles are widespread. Nettles grow in dense colonies through spreading rhizomes and grow widely throughout the temperate world. They tend to grow along stream banks, waterways, and disturbed areas with damp and fertile soil.

Stinging nettles are a tasty spring treat. The leaves are best when they're young, only pick before the plants flower. The little tendrils of flowers droop down off the stems, flowering causes the plant to produce cystoliths which can affect our kidneys & urinary tract. So check for flowers, wear gloves, and take the tender upper leaves (about the top 6 leaves or so) when the plants are about knee-high, usually March through May is the best time.

Stinging nettles have no dangerous look-alikes. Wood nettles and purple dead nettles may be mistaken for stinging nettles but they're both edible.

Stinging nettles are a highly nutritious superfood. The leaves are packed with vitamins A and C, iron, potassium, manganese, calcium, and chlorophyll. *They must be cooked, processed in a food processor, or dried to get rid of the sting.* Here's 40 nettle recipes to give you some ideas of all the delicious ways to use this plant!

Stinging nettles are a perennial food crop. You can enjoy nettles year after year and when you pick the greens repeatedly they'll grow tender new regrowth throughout the spring. The shoots that emerge in spring can be harvested weekly!

Stinging nettles are a potent medicinal plant. They are commonly used for kidney and bladder problems, as a tonic for women's reproductive health, as an energy tonic to help when feeling tired or depleted, and as a nourishing tonic that can help with bone ailments like arthritis or osteoporosis thanks to all of it's vitamins and minerals. Stinging nettles are also used to combat seasonal allergies, eczema, psoriasis, and acne, and they're excellent for the hair and scalp.

Nettles can be safely consumed frequently. Since nettles are a food plant as well as a medicinal plant they can be consumed more often and with less attention to dosage compared to other herbs. Nettles are a great herb for learning herbalists for this reason.

Stinging nettles make a delicious tea or infusion. Drying the leaves will get rid of the sting and can easily be done in a dehydrator or on a drying screen. Nettle tea is tasty on it's own but also excellent mixed with other herbs like red clover, burdock, oatstraw, or whatever you like! Nettles are a great base for creating your own herbal tea blends.

Violet Sugar<3

Hello my buttercups! It is violet season and I bet you’re seeing loads of them. They’re my favorite little spring edible <3 But they’re only out for a few weeks, so I blend them with sugar to keep them around a bit longer. You can make anything you like with the sugar once it’s done! I’ll be making violet shortbread cookies :) I have the butter softening on the counter now!

If you want to make some violet sugar, which I highly recommend that you do, all you need are these 5 items:

1 cup of violets, loosely packed

2 cups of granulated sugar (white sugar will allow the purple color to shine the most)

Food processor or bladed coffee grinder (you could even probably do it with a blender but that would only be if you had no other option)

Baking sheet

Strainer/sifter

Step one: Pluck the petals from the flowers. Discard the green calyxes.

Step two: Wash your petals. Wash em good! Then dry them very thoroughly. You may need to set them out on a parchment lined (they stick to everything when they’re wet) baking sheet.

Step three: If you’re using a food processor, put all the sugar and all the flowers in and pulse until combined, but NOT until the sugar becomes fine. If you’re using a coffee grinder, put a modest amount of sugar and violets in the coffee grinder. Shake and pulse until mostly homogenous. Repeat this process until all the sugar and violets have been processed.

Step four: Set the now quite sandy sugar out on a baking tray overnight in a not-humid area to dry out

Step five: Once the sugar is dry, sift it through your strainer/sifter. Re-grind/food process any remaining lumps and sift again.

Step six: Your sugar is done! You can use it for any applications you would use regular granulated sugar for. You could roll sugar cookie dough in violet sugar to make violet snicker doodles (give em to your crush to make use of violet’s love magic vibes,) or you could try the shortbread recipe I’ll be posting tomorrow. Or anything else your spring heart could desire!

Made dandelion jelly 💛