Grasp the nettle

The National Botanic Garden of Wales is urging you to ‘Be Nice to Nettles’ as part of their month-long celebration of plants and health.

‘Medicines in May’ is a fixture in the Garden’s event calendar and, this year, it focuses on how our ancestors made use of medicinal plants – right back to the 1600s, when the destiny of the very first Middleton Hall was forged on the fortunes of seafaring adventurers trading spices in the East Indies (May 3-4).

It’s been a little known fact that the Garden estate today really was founded on the profits to be gained from nutmeg, mace and cloves more than four centuries ago and we’ll be telling the Middleton story of fabulous wealth, courage and disaster in the fight against plague.

This time-travelling event also stops off in 1824, when the Regency Middleton estate was up for sale following the death of Sir William Paxton, who created many of the features we see in the Garden today (May 10-11). He introduced new and exotic plants to his garden, unusual fruits for the time and imported shrubs as well as the fabled Paxton’s pineapples, seen more as curios and conversation pieces than tasty treats.

On Saturday and Sunday May 17-18, take a trail around the Garden and meet the people, plants and places associated with the life and times of 1914, when the place was abuzz with news of the upcoming war. At that time, too, in those pre-penicillin days, plants were to play a pivotal, medicinal role in the carnage that was to come, with traditional treatments being so much more than “old wives’ tales”.

There’s a whole month’s worth of talks, trails, fun and games. But the sting in this particular tale is ‘Be Nice To Nettles’ weekend (May 24-25) when you can join modern-day herbalist Nicola Dee Kelly and discover the wonderful herbal uses of Urtica dioica. Come along and try Nicola’s nettle quiche and have a go at making nettle beer?

We also have a fabulous nettle recipe from Brecon-based forager, author and enthusiast Adele Nozedar:

Nettle Mushroom Crumble

Ingredients:

• 900g (2lb) nettle tops
• 225g (8oz) mushrooms
• Olive oil
• 300ml (1/2 pint) white sauce
• Seasoning
• 100g (4oz) breadcrumbs
• 50g (2oz) mixed chopped nuts
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 50g (2oz) grated cheese
• Decent knob of butter

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180c.
2. Cook the nettles as you would spinach, heating with just enough water to cover them. Drain, and then sautee the chopped mushrooms in the oil. Mix together the mushrooms, nettles and white sauce and add a sprinkle of nutmeg. Season, and spoon into an ovenproof dish.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and cover the nettle mix. Season again and them bake for about half an hour or until the topping is golden and bubbling.

And here are Adele’s unusual nettle facts:

• Nettles are rich in protein and vitamin C
• The nettle’s sting is removed by cooking
• The sting is thought to be effective in counteracting rheumatism and arthritis
• Only harvest the young tops
• Always use gloves when harvesting
• Try them chopped in an omelette (with wild garlic leaves)
• Or in Greek-style filo parcels with feta cheese
• Nettle fibres were used to make German army uniforms in the Great War

* For more nettle recipes and other plant-based remedies and rituals, buy Adele’s book The Hedgerow Handbook – the ideal backpack companion for country walks and hedgerow foraging

* Medicines In May is supported by Natural Resources Wales