Thursday 4 June 2015

Nettle Tea

I very much enjoyed the foraging demonstration from Anna Canning of  Flora Medica at the recent Big Nature Festival.  She made pesto from wild greens including nettle and it was very tasty indeed. She also extolled the virtues of nettle, which is very good for you in all sorts of ways. So I was inspired to try using nettle in some way or other in my cooking.

However, as stinging nettle, well stings, rather than foraging wild plants for the  30 Days Wild challenge, I thought I'd start by drinking nettle tea from tea bags I bought from Real Foods. In this way I could test whether the product was nice enough to risk injury in collecting the raw material.

I'm surprised by how much I like the nettle tea. It's got a rich flavour which is reminiscent of black tea but with a hint of mint. I'll definitely keep drinking it. I think though that I may stick to buying the tea bags rather than risking constant injury from nettle stings. Though I may change my mind!

Nettle grows abundantly in the UK and elsewhere. You can read more about how to forage it and how to use it here.

If you are foraging wild plants, please be sure to follow the Foragers' Code to ensure you harvest sustainably and avoid poisoning yourself.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more. 

3 comments:

A Cuban In London said...

I have heard so many good things about nettle. I have had the occasional beverage and quite enjoy it. Thanks.

Greetings from London.

Ian Doyle said...

Not tried Nettle Tea but I may give it a try after reading your post.

Bill said...

Nettle tea, eh? I'll think it over.