BEAUTIFUL NETTLES. THE MASCOT OF SPRINGTIME!
NETTLES ARE GOOD MEDICINE!
A beautiful way to play, create, and honor this precious season and moment on Earth is to be in relationship with place! Here in the lowlands of the Puget Sound, stinging nettles are budding from the soil — maybe you’ve seen them on your forest walks.
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Plants are living, and their medicine is one that exists in reciprocity between our bodies and their bodies. It is our exchange of matter, energy, and life. The Honorable Harvest is an ancient practice, and applies to all exchange between human and Earth.
When harvesting plants from the Earth, a simple reminder to slow down to be in relationship while you harvest. We cannot photosynthesize, but we can offer our gratitude in exchange. Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, brilliant writer and spirit shares:
Ask permission of the ones whose lives you seek. Abide by the answer.
Never take the first. Never take the last.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
Take only what you need and leave some for others.
Use everything that you take.
Take only that which is given to you.
Share it, as the Earth has shared with you.
Be grateful.
Reciprocate the gift.
Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth will last forever.
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A beautiful way to play, create, and honor this precious season and moment on Earth is to be in relationship with place! Here in the lowlands of the Puget Sound, stinging nettles are budding from the soil — maybe you’ve seen them on your forest walks.
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
HOW TO HARVEST
Nettles are a great plant to practice Honorable Harvest with, especially because they’ll let you know when you’re not being mindful! Ouch.
I wear thicker leather gloves when harvesting, but many do not. Only pinch the top 3 inches or so off the plant, leave the stalk and roots intact, harvest sporadically across a nettle patch.
Harvest only the nettles that say “take me home!”.
The following is a recipe that I made over the weekend. Use gloves until the nettles are blended (they cancel out their own sting)
I HAVE HARVESTED NETTES IN THE SPRING TIME WITH MY KIDDO SINCE THEY WERE LITTLE.
NETTLE PESTO RECIPE!
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6 cups gently packed nettles, fresh leaves and tender stems
½ cups walnuts/pumpkin seeds/or sunflower seeds (or mix and match)
2 tbsp. sesame seeds/hemp hearts toasted
3 cloves garlic
1 whole lemon, juice and zest
1 tsp. sea salt
½ – ¾ cups extra virgin olive oil
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Combine all the ingredients — except the oil — in a food processor and blend until finely ground. Make sure the nettles are very well blended. If you prefer, you can also blanch the nettles prior to blending, but I haven’t noticed a difference. Scrape the sides. While the processor is running, slowly pour the olive oil until the pesto is smooth and to your liking. I paired it with some roasted baby potatoes and fish, and it was a treat!
