SPRING TONIC: It's time to search for nettles, a coastal forager's feast

Stinging nettles may not sound delicious, but if you carefully harvest these wild plants in the early spring, you will be rewarded with a healthy and tasty treat!

Rinse wild nettles and wear gloves to handle the leaves, before steaming to eliminate their sting

By CINDA CHAVICH

If you’re like most woodland walkers, you know it’s wise to steer clear of stinging nettles.

By midsummer these prodigious perennials can tower more than five feet tall and their stinging hairs can be quite problematic for hikers. But in early spring, young, tender nettles offer a forager’s feast.

Nettles are some of the first plants to push up through the leaf litter of the forest floor in March and April. The wet regions of Vancouver Island (and the neighboring Gulf Islands) are prime nettle territory, and you will find them along ravines and roadsides, often in areas where the soil has been disturbed.

Nettles are not only very tasty, they are medicinal marvels, used in folk medicine to treat hay fever allergies, arthritis, and eczema. Rich in Vitamin C, calcium and other nutrients, nettles are even a good source of protein.

So it’s not surprising that wild nettles are the darling of locally-minded island chefs.

FORAGING AND FEASTING

In fact, nettles are so prized in these parts that they are celebrated with an annual four-day NettleFest on Galiano Island (this year, April 11-13, 2025, at the Galiano Community Hall) with nettle cooking classes, foraging walks and even a nettle potluck dinner, with an award for the most creative and delicious dish.

Reed Osler is the Education Coordinator for the Galiano Conservancy Association, and a wealth of knowledge about nettles, and I met her among the towering old growth trees to learn more.

The CRD offers guided walks through many regional parks and, along the Elsie King interpretive trail, Olser points out these common plants, with their square, hairy stems and sharply serrated leaves. Always wear gloves to harvest nettles, snapping off the tips and the first leaves, or trimming tops with scissors, she says. Leave older plants behind – they will make you sick – so only forage the new growth in spring.

Back in the park’s cosy nature centre, we learn that the nettle’s stinging hairs are rendered safe to consume by drying or steaming. Because the hairs are on the underside of the leaves, you can also roll a leaf up like a burrito, tucking the hairs inside, and chew it up.

“As long as all of the hairs are folded inside you can eat nettles raw – their own juices will neutralize the sting,” says Osler, bravely popping a square packet into her mouth.

WALK WITH A CHEF

Chef Bill Jones is the ultimate local expert in foraged foods and spring is the time to join him for his wild food foraging experiences at his Deerholme Farm oin the Cowichan Valley.

Whether you join him for his Wild Food Foraging Weekend I, April 12 -13th ($250/person

or the Wild Food Foraging Workshop, April 26th ($150/person), you're sure to learn a lot about wild edible plants including nettles and spring morel mushrooms, with foraging along the nearby Trans-Canada Trail plus informative talks and tastings in his farm classroom.

Chef Jones also offers a seasonal Farm to Table Dinner series in his cosy farm kitchen and the Spring Wild Foods Dinner April 19 ($125 pp) features nettles on the menu, including the stinging nettle and potato torte appetizer with Manchego cheese sauce, Portuguese bread soup with stinging nettle and roasted garlic, a spring salad of wild greens, pickled sea vegetables, truffle honey vinaigrette, and halibut with a wild herb pesto, potato and morel terrine.

COOKING NETTLES

Blanching is the preferred way to neutralize the sting of nettles and render them safe for your recipes.

Wear gloves or use tongs to handle fresh nettles. Rinse under cold running water. Plunge into boiling water for a minute, then into ice water, and squeeze dry. Use blanched nettles in savoury fillings for pastries, soups or sauces, anywhere you’d use spinach. You can also freeze blanched nettles for later use.

To make tea, steep dried nettles in hot (not boiling) water– infusing for several hours unlocks more nutrients.

Look for recipes to incorporate this wild spring food in a variety of seasonal recipes. Try nettles in a filling for ravioli, saute with garlic and add to pasta, combine with spinach in spanakopita, chop like parsley to add to omelettes anad spring salads or whirl into salsa verde and pesto with jalapeno chilies, tomatillos, and olive oil.

Chef Bill Jones serves nettle soup after a foraging walk at Deerholme Farm

After a foraging trip near his Deerholme Farm outside Duncan, chef Bill Jones serves up stinging nettle pesto, rich miso and nettle soup, and Nettle Gomae, barely blanched and chilled stinging nettle tops, dressed in soy sauce, sesame oil and sweet mirin and sprinkled with white sesame seeds.

Local chefs love to include spring nettles in their seasonal menues, too, whether blended into a green hollandaise at House of Boateng, used by the creative chefs to fill their fresh pastas at The Courtney Room or End Dive, or in the nettle-flecked Gouda from Smits & Co. Farmhouse Cheese in Chilliwack.

Various local shops sell nettle teas and herbal products, too. Check out the offerings from Saanich based Ravensong Seeds and Herbals. They offer pollinated, farm-grown Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) seeds for organic growing in your own garden, and have their own nettle-based products, whether nettle tincture (to ease allergies) or Spring Tonic Vinegar with nettles and other wild plants like horsetail and fir tips.

Unless you're part of a guided walk with a park employee, foraging for nettles in CRD parks is not allowed so you’ll need to confine your nettle hunting to private or Crown land (always ask for permission).

But you can also check out local markets, including The Root Cellar or weekend farm markets for nettles during the months of March and April around Victoria.

There's a Nettle Festival coming up April 11 at the Agricultural Hall on Mayne Island, too, the place to learn all about this tasty wild plant and join their Nettle Potluck to try some delicious nettle dishes.

If you’re accidentally stung by nettles – their tiny hairs actually poke into the skin to deliver their venom — you may feel itchy pain for hours or days.

Some recommend antihistamine creams or calamine to calm the sting, but you might just need to tough it out.

Or just get even — with a little nettle pesto for your pasta!

Steamed nettles seasoned with sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin and sesame seeds

STINGING NETTLE GOMAE

Chef Bill Jones swaps out nettles for spinach in his take on traditional Japanese gomae, but you can also use this recipe with a variety of wild and domestic greens.

8 cups stinging nettle tops, stems removed

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon white sesame seeds

Wear gloves or use tongs when handling fresh nettles. Soak the stinging nettles in plenty of cold water and swish around to clean (lift out of the water to leave any grit behind) then drain well.

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the clean lentils for about 30 seconds, until dark green and soft. Lift the lentils from the water using a slotted spoon and transfer directly to a large bowl of ice water — this will stop the cooking process and retain the colour of the lentils. Save the cooking water and drink as a nutritious tea.

When the nettles are chilled, drain an squeeze out any excess moisture (they're now safe to handle without gloves). Chop leaves or leave whole.

In a bowl, whisk togethe the soy sauce, canola and sesame oils, and the mirin, then add the nettles and toss to coat. Arrange on a serving dish and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

Serves 4.

PASTA WITH NETTLES AND PARMESAN

This is an easy was to add healthy nettles to the menu.

1.5-2 cups nettle leaves, woody stems removed

1/4 cup butter, divided

1 large clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon chili flakes

1/4 cup cream

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon zest (from 1/2 lemon)

salt and pepper

500 g dried pasta

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Use nitrile or rubber gloves when handling raw nettles. Remove the tough stems and wash the leaves well in plenty of cold water. Drain.

Fill a large pot with water, add a teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Add the nettles and cook until dark green and tender, about 2-3 minutes. Remove nettles from the water with a slotted spoon, squeezing out excess moisture (save the water for cooking the pasta), then chop the nettles.

In a large saucepan, melt the 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and chili and cook for a minute, until the garlic is starting to colour, then mix in the nettles, cream, lemon juice and zest. Season well with salt and pepper. Add a splash of cooking water if the mixture looks dry.

Meanwhile, return the nettle cooking water to a boil and add the pasta. Boil for 8-10 minutes, until just al dente, and drain, reserving a cup of the cooking water.

Add the cooked pasta to the saucepan with the nettles and stir to combine well. Stir in the remaining butter and a few splashes of the reserved cooking water, and cook together over medium heat for a couple of minutes, until the sauce is somewhat glossy, and absorbed by the pasta (adding a little more cooking water if necessary).

Stir in the Parmesan cheese and serve immediately. Serves 4.

©Cinda Chavich