That old time feeling: Stinging Nettles
Posted on March 28, 2007, by kiliii.
Filed Under Washington |
Spring is in full sting here, and apparently, it is in Olympia too. A few of us took a trip up to Olympia, Washington to collect baskets of the wonderful Stinging Nettle, a blessing of the spring foods.
Nettles are amazing. I once asked a group what they would eat if they could eat only a single food for the rest of their life, on nutritional value alone, and one herbalist answered, “Dark Chocolate. And then after that Stinging Nettles.” So there you have it. It’s hard to compete with Nettles for nutrition, and they are easy to harvest in large bunches. Checking in the wet meadows and forests for this newly native plant (introduced by the 1700s) can yield a a great harvest.
But you can’t (or maybe shouldn’t) eat many without cooking or drying them first. Nettles make a first rate tea, and instantly become full size again when the dried plants are put into hot water. We collected forty pounds of dried nettles in two days of easy foraging.
A nice thing about going places to harvest are the connections we make with other communities and other lands. We met up with Benjamin Pixie and some of his wild foraging community in Olympia and we wandered the wetlands there, encountering a great many things, including a fallen cedar tree. The cedar had many exposed roots, and we collected a few for the daunting future task of weaving water-tight baskets, which are possible because roots swell when exposed to water, sealing the basket.
Here Thaddeus plays on a pan flute made from Scouring Rushes which grew by the side of the river. We spent much of our time simply walking, exploring and playing in the wet wild woods, by our wild lones.
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