Making Nettle Pesto

Since spring has arrived the land has been bursting with new green wild, and edible, plants!

A great way for children and adults to connect with the earth is through the practice of foraging and making wild food. Since the end of March, we have been making wild pesto's with lots of different groups of children. The children have loved the activity so much we are doing it additional times with the same groups, and they are coming up with their own ideas of what wild plants we can incorporate into the pesto.

One of my favourite things about being a forest school leader is witnessing children coming up with their own self inspired ideas. Community is about sharing skills, information, ideas and different strengths and this is exactly what happens at forest school. Often children come up with brilliant ideas or share interesting information and facts about the wild I didn’t know about. I think this is healthy as it removes the expectation of one person knowing and being “everything” and creates a holistic shared space.

So back to pesto making! The purpose of this post is to share the recipe and how we made it but also to share and educate what we are learning at forest school as we forage and work with the land.

Foraging Rules

• Only pick where the plant is growing in abundance and only take what you need. If there is only a small patch of the plant growing - don’t pick it. Let that plant cultivate in that spot so it begins to spread and maybe in the next year there will be a lot more.

• We need to remember plants are homes to other creatures so when we are picking, pick gently and mindfully. Look out for who is living on that plant and gently shake them off.

• Avoid picking near roadsides (polluted car traffic areas) or anywhere there is a lot of dogs around.

• Always be 100% confident that the plant your picking is the correct plant. At forest school we only pick with the forest school leader. If a child wants to forage a plant they must ask an adult first so we can correctly identify.

• Lastly to add a sprinkle of magic, before we pick a plant we ask. “May we pick you?” We wait and listen for the answer!

What we learnt about nettle as we foraged

• Nettles are known for their sting but what most people dont know is that nettles are actually incredibly soft – when you know how to touch them the right way! When you stroke top of the nettle leaf from the broad end of the leaf to the tip you don’t get stung.

• Only pick the top 4-6 leaves when foraging as this encourages regrowth of the leaves again within the same season

• Nettles are incredibly important for pollination. Butterflies and ladybirds lay their eggs on nettles. The stings on the nettle deter many grazing animals from eating the plant and bigger insect predators. This makes it a safe and protective environment for the smaller and more vulnerable creatures to nest and make it their home.

• Dock leaves, the remedy to the nettle sting, usually grow next to nettles. The part that helps most to relieve the sting is the juice from the stalk and then rubbing the dock leaf. Plantain is also brilliant at relieving stings but don’t always grow next to nettles.

Nettle & garlic pesto recipe

• Nettle Leafs

• Wild garlic or/and 3 cornered leeks

• Parmesan cheese

• Olive oil

• Pine nuts (optional)

• A dash of honey

• A squeeze of lemon

The Nettle pesto method

Step 1:

We foraged a small basket of nettle leaves picking the top 4-6 leaves of nettle. And we picked a handful of wild garlic or/and 3 cornered leeks.

Step 2:

We separated the nettles into 3 different bowls and the garlics into 2 bowls. The children were given scissors and they began working away to chop the nettles and garlic into smaller sized pieces.

While everyone was busy chopping away, I then introduced the parmesan cheese to be grated and the pine nuts to be grinded using a pestle and motor. Kids love healthy responsibility and it's incredibly important for them to be involved. Everyone wanted to have a go of grating the cheese and grinding the nuts – so we all took turns.

Step 3:

To remove the sting from the nettle you need to blanch them in boiling water. If you have access to a kitchen, this means adding them to a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds and then removing and straining.

As we were in the wild, I brought hot water with me. I put the nettles in a strainer and sat the strainer in a big bowl, poured the hot water on top and mixed the chopped nettles around in the water for a minute and then removed the strainer that was sitting in the bowl of water and shook it.

Step 4:

Mix the chopped nettles, chopped garlics, glug of olive oil, ground pine nuts and parmesan cheese together in a big bowl. Add a squeeze of honey and a squeeze of lemon. You can add more of the cheese, oil, honey and lemon as you taste it until you're happy with it.

Everyone took a turn to mix all the pesto ingredients in the big bowl. We passed the bowl around in the circle and put in happy words and feelings, things we were looking forward to, laughter, fairy magic!

*If you are at home you can blend the ingredients together to make a smoother consistency. It's great for children to have the experience of doing it by hand, like our ancestors would have!

We then laid out crackers and added the pesto to crackers and called the whole group in and ate together in circle. Some children loved the pesto, some were initially afraid to try because it was made of stinging nettles and thought they might get stung, others did not like it at all! It's fun to try something new and adventurous and work together as a group to make something we can share with the bigger group.

Hopefully the children will always remember the experience and share the knowledge and skills with friends and families. Learning that stays within your memory for life is a fun, creative and interactive experience.

A few images from some of the different groups of children we have being making pesto with.