Wild Food - The Stinging Nettle

To my Irish peasant ancestors the worst time of year was April and May, the hungry gap. Last years crops and food stores were close to running out and they were still waiting for the first harvest of early potatoes in June. The great standby food crop in this lean time of year was the stinging nettle, Urtica dioica.

The traditional Irish balled the Town of Ballybay has a verse
She had children up the stairs, she had children in the byre
And another ten or twelve sittin' rottin' by the fire.
She fed 'em on potatoes, and soup she made with nettles,
And lumps of hairy bacon that she boiled up in the kettle.

Nettles are a perennial flowering plant, a native of Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. Anyone who has ever been stung by it will know it well. It is a persistent and tough weed, difficult to control in the garden.

Nettles are rich in vitamins A, C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium. Traditionally in Ireland the growing tips were harvested at this time of year and used with potatoes and leeks (another great hungry gap crop) to make soup. Old people swore by its properties as a spring tonic. It was also used extensively in herbal medicine. The leaves when soaked in water make an excellent liquid fertiliser for the kitchen garden.

The website Edible Ireland has an excellent recipe for traditional Irish nettle soup

According to Wikipedia while the plant is widely distributed in North America it is not quite as common as it is in Europe. If any North American readers are in an area where the plant is not common and wish to propagate it as a food crop, it will sprout freely from any sliver of root. It will not however grow well in very dry soil.

The Stinging Nettle in Wikipedia.