Stinging nettle is packed with vitamins and minerals, and contrary to its reputation as a stinging weed, it’s delicious eaten raw, cooked or dried. Head to the Vosges to meet Marianne Wolf, picker of wild plants.
We are in a corner of unspoiled nature, in the hamlet of Haut du Hercholet, in the town of Saulcy, located 540 meters above sea level in the Vosges. Marianne Wolf picks her wild plants there, which she transforms into herbal tea, syrup, jams,… in parallel with her production of vegetable replants and organic vegetables. Products that she sells on the markets and directly at home, in her boutique-workshop Le Champ du Chêne, where she also organizes cooking workshops on aromatic and medicinal plants.
In the spring, nettle picking begins. It is a plant that has a bad reputation with its pungent leaves that leave you with an unpleasant burning sensation. But Marianne will reconcile you with this savage, full of vitamins (it contains more vitamin C than an orange), minerals (iron, calcium, potassium, etc.), remineralizing, it is a tonic for our bodies often deficient.
Where and when to find nettles?
Nettle is picked from March until autumn. She is generous. Cut it, it grows back permanently. You find it mainly around human activities. No need to go very far to pick it up. At the edge of fields, near houses, on land left fallow, on embankments. It needs light, humus-rich soils. It is a soil rebalancing plant.
Pick the first four leaves, the most tender. To avoid stinging yourself, just take them the wrong way. But gloves are strongly recommended, the often close neighbors will sting you. Avoid picking them up on roadsides, places where waste has been dumped, find wild picking places.
Raw, cooked or dried, nettle on your plate
After picking, wash your nettles with a little white vinegar to eliminate bacteria and small animals, let soak for 5 to 10 minutes before wringing. The trick not to prick yourself, spread your nettles on a tea towel or a wooden board and crush them with a rolling pin. This will extract the stinging juice present in the leaves. You are now ready to cook your nettles.
Its pronounced taste of chlorophyll, not always appreciated, means that nettle is mainly used in addition to other foods, rarely alone:
- Chopped raw (add lemon juice to avoid oxidation), it can be incorporated into a salad, eaten on toast with cheese for example, in pesto, garnish your vegetable dishes.
- Cooked, nettle can be cooked in a quiche, in a soufflé, in soup, in a ratatouille…
- Dried, it is prepared as an herbal tea, transformed into powder or flakes that you can use all winter long in your dishes.
Read also – Cook nettles: add spice to your plates
The recipe: a boosting juice with nettles
You need four handfuls of freshly picked nettles, two apples and the juice of half a lemon for 3-4 glasses of juice. The apple will be used to bring taste and liquid, the nettle being fibrous and thick. Pass everything through a juice extractor, alternating apple and nettle. Taste! This juice is fortifying, it strengthens your immunity and provides many minerals and vitamins. To be taken as a cure or to be consumed throughout the season.
Garden, health, cosmetics, multiple applications
In the garden, nettle is used fresh, buried at the base of tomatoes, to protect them against diseases. Make nettle manure by macerating them for a few weeks in water and spraying them on your vegetables in the vegetable garden, it keeps mildew away. In cosmetics, prepare a nettle tea with which you rinse your hair to strengthen and shine. To combat arthritis, our elders rubbed painful areas with nettles.
In short, nettle is a real treasure with multiple applications. Don’t hesitate any longer, put nettle on your menu!
- To contact Marianne Wolf: The oak field, 3 Le Haut du Hercholet, 88210 Le Saulcy – Tel: 0688034435 – Mail: [email protected]
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