the next day pat and i dropped the boys off at grammie's and headed back to the nettle patch. in just a little bit we gathered a whopping 3 1/2 pounds of nettles... and that wasn't even a dent in this patch! among the nettles were wild violets, dandelions, burdock and cleavers, all within an arm's reach from wherever we were picking.
burdock ^^
stinging nettles ^^
this was my first experience with nettles. the earthy scent they give off is lovely, with a faint mix of garlic and onion. i immediately knew these nettles were going to make a debut on our homemade pizza that night. when we got home i whipped up some pizza dough and boiled down a heap of our nettles for about 5 minutes (saving the liquid for a cup of tea to enjoy while the pizza cooked). i spread our sauce on the rolled out dough then piled on the cooked nettles, covered with mozzarella and parmesan cheese, baked for 15 minutes at 430 degrees F, and voila! forager's pizza :)
i managed to dry about half of what we picked in our dehydrator right away, with the rest stored in our fridge being used for tea and our morning breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheese, and cooked nettles. i'm thinking a stuffed nettle and cheese bread is on the menu for this weekend! well, i'm off to fill the dehydrator again :)
12 comments:
That's really neat! I'm really interested to try nettles but they don't grow here in the Sonoran desert!
this looks wonderful and you have inspired me. i am still on a dandylion binge...smoothies, quiche, pesto, pasta, ...but watch out nettles, here we come!
hope your weekend is lovely!
Wow! Did you know what to look for easily - what kind of book did you use for identification? I'm intrigued. Also your dehydrator? I was given an old one that didn't work (so we got rid of it)...do you have a recommended brand?
Ah...nettles...this allergy sufferer's life saver. Aren't they wonderful?!
Yay for nettles!! Love that you put them on your pizza.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Awesome! I tried them this year like kale chips, which was really tasty. Love the pizza idea. Never done that. You can also cook them, squeeze out the extra water and freeze the cooked greens for later on.
pizza looks yummy! (I throw lots of stuff on my pizzas but never nettles....always a first time!)
yes yay for nettles!!! thanks for the tips amber!
ellen- i had a friend who is an herbalist identify them in the field for me- but they are easily identifiable by their "sting"- they will irritate your skin for a few minutes if you touch them (so bring gloves!). there's lots of pics of them online.
we have a really good dehydrator that a friend of mine scored us at goodwill- an excalibur dehydrator. so far i've been really happy with it and they get excellent reviews. hope that helps!
i really want to do this. we get into nettle every year and really hate it. so, i guess when you steam/cook it the needles loose their bite? your pizza looks yummo!
Thanks for your comment on my blog today.
We love nettles too!! :)
Love, Taryn
yes amy, the cooking gets rid of the sting :) and to my surprise dehydrating them got rid of it too!
Wonderful! Last year we gathered mint, yarrow, and plantain, along with red raspberry leaves and lavender. I have a good friend who is planning to come over for a herb walk so I can find more gifts of nature!!
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