Stinging nettles for dinner

[Don Boucher]

Hello,

 

Lisa and I picked some stinging nettles today. It's a ritual that marks the end of winter. See attached photos. Right now, through March, or wherever and whenever the plants are 10 inches high or less, is the ideal time to pick. In summer the plants can be 5 to 10 feet high.

 

Wear gloves and long sleeves to pick. The slightest brush against the stinging hairs can cause and uncomfortable burning and tingling rash. It typically goes away within two days or less. Pinch off the first two or three leaf pairs at the top. The stems are tender now and can be firmly pinched and twisted off (scissors work better if you remember to bring them along). The plants grow in loose soil near streams. It's easy to accidentally uproot the plant so pluck firmly, and give it a sharp bend and a twist. The remainder of the living plant will continue to grow throughout the season, though not as tall if was left undisturbed.

 

To process before cooking, wear gloves and rinse. Picking with gloves tends to introduce unwanted plant material. It's possible to find poison hemlock (not commonly) growing along side stinging nettle so sort through your harvest. Save the stems, they're tender and delicious at this stage.The simplest way to cook is steaming. Steam lightly until the plants wilt, like you would steam spinach. Steaming ruptures the plant's stinging hairs, making them harmless, but they will retain a somewhat hairy texture.

 

We made a tofu scramble, which more or less tastes like an omelet. See the photo of the skillet with mushrooms, onions and nettles. We put the lightly chopped (wore gloves to chop them) fresh nettles during the last few minutes of cooking. We placed the lid on to allow the nettles to steam and then briefly mixed in the nettles.

 

Nettles are full of vitamin C, A and iron. Later in the season, the leaves are too tough to eat but can be picked for use in a nutritious tea.  In early fall just as the leaves have died but the stem is slightly green, the long stalks can be made into string or cordage. It's a lot of work and I may cover the process in a future post.

 

Don Boucher
Corvallis, OR
www.Neighborhood-Naturalist.com

[Margi]

Harvest nettles for food or herbal tea before they flower in order to avoid the crystal cystoliths which form at the time of flowering.  Cystoliths could be harmful to your kidneys.  The light green flowers are tiny and rather inconspicuous.  Harvested prior to flowering, nettles are a great source of minerals!

Don Boucher wrote:

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[Lisa Millbank]

Hi Margi and everyone,

 

I wanted to learn more about nettle cystoliths, and Googling it brought up all kinds of conflicting information.  I mostly found out that the internet is full of misinformation about nettles; what a surprise!  The crazier sites said that raw nettles were poisonous (toxic in general, not just stinging), which contrasted with other sites that enthusiastically promoted juicing nettles and drinking them raw.  

I found lots of warnings about older plants causing kidney irritation, but none of these cited actual research on this phenomenon.  An almost equal amount said nettle was supportive of kidney function and acted as a diuretic, and some recommended picking the leaves during the flowering stage.  I couldn't find any scholarly articles about post-flowering nettles and kidney irritation. 

 

I found one publication about wild plant gathering from Royal Roads University (Vancouver, BC), which was the only discussion of both the chemical composition of cystoliths and the symptom of kidney irritation (http://cntr.royalroads.ca/files-cntr/Good%20Wildcrafting%20Practices.pdf, page 78 of the PDF).  Reliable information about this is lacking, and one paper with a brief mention does not make a particularly convincing case.  In the paper, it said that Stinging Nettle cystoliths are composed of calcium carbonate, which suggests that the cystoliths are not the cause of kidney irritation (as calcium carbonate is the basic ingredient of Tums and many calcium supplements).  In the publication it did address the idea of kidney irritation occurring from consuming post-flowering nettle leaves, but it said the mechanism was unclear.  A couple of botanical sites agreed that nettle cystoliths are calcium carbonate, but didn't discuss medicinal or culinary use of nettles.  If a tea made from the leaves of a mature plant can cause kidney trouble, then the chemical constituents that are responsible for it must be water soluble and are seemingly mysterious without further research.

 

However, the American Botanical Council specifies that pharmacopeial grade nettle leaf and stem must be collected during the flowering period.  It lists no known side effects or contraindications and doesn't mention the cystoliths at all: http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalmedicine/StingingNettleherbandleaf.html.  This makes me wonder if the tasty, tender young nettles are perhaps not as potent in some way as the maturing, flowering plants. 

 

I don't know what to make of it all, but I did learn about cystoliths, which I had not heard of before.  Nevertheless, the best leaves are the young ones anyway, so by not using the tough old ones, your nettle tea or vegetables will be of better quality, regardless of their potential to cause kidney irritation.  And since nettles don't flower until much later in the spring, there is a lot of opportunity left to enjoy them steamed, in a dish in place of spinach, or as a tea with no risks except some nettle stings.  Happy nettle picking!

Lisa
www.neighborhood-naturalist.com

[Margi]

Hi Lisa et. al.

I appreciate you looking into the cystolith issue.  After reading your response, I too did a little research trying to find scientific validation for my statement regarding cystoliths and older nettle plants.  Medical herbalism relies on both scientific studies and traditional knowledge, and in this case, the latter seems to be the primary source of this bit of information.  There are a few references to the cystoliths/older nettle leaves/kidney irritation claims in the edible plant literature and in some herbal medicine books, but where does this information come from?  Probably not from scientific studies, but more likely from personal experience and observation by the authors.  While some might dismiss herbal medicine as folkloric because of this sort of thing, I tend to trust tradition, at least to an extent.  Having been trained as a scientist (botanist), I am certainly aware of the value of the scientific method, don't get me wrong.   But IMO scientific research is not always the only way to validate something.  Just sayin'.  If you wish to discuss this further, we should probably take it off list unless others express an interest, since we are veering off topic.  Now let's all go find some young nettles and steam them up!

~margi