Nettle Foraging

Written by Polly, April 2026

Why eat nettles?

Nettles are a free superfood! They are a great source of iron and also contain calcium, manganese, vitamins A, B and K.

How to harvest nettles

The best time to collect nettles is when the young shoots are just a few centimetres high or if plants are bigger, just cut the young green leaves off the tops of the plants. Don’t harvest nettles after the end of May, as in high summer the leaves become coarse in texture and bitter to taste.

Wear gloves (I put on some clean marigolds), cut the nettles with scissors and place them in a basket or colander. Some nettle patches we harvested from had aphids on them, so we gave them a good shake to get as many aphids off as possible, before bringing the nettles into the house where we washed the nettles in the kitchen sink. Before cooking remove any tough stems.

Always follow the foraging code – pick sustainably, identify with 100% certainty, and avoid picking from polluted or private land.

Identifying nettles

Well, there is the painful way of identifying stinging nettles, but best to look for the hairs on the stem, its drooping catkin flowers and oval toothed leaves.

Don’t get confused with white and red dead-nettles, which don’t have hairy stems and have hood shaped flowers arranged in a whorl around the stem.

Recipes

First we tried nettle crisps. We preheated the oven to 220C. After the nettles had been washed and dried, we cut the leaves off the stems and laid them on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Then we sprayed both sides of the nettles with oil and put them in the oven for 3-5 minutes until the leaves are crisp, bright green and slightly translucent. After removing them from the oven, they can be seasoned with salt to taste.

Next we made some nettle soup, following the River Cottage recipe. It was delicious and I’ll definitely be making it again.