Equinox Nettlefests
Islanders Eat the Landscape
Nettle Season is upon us. Now is the time to harvest these abundant, wild leafy greens that thrive in moist temperate climes like ours around the globe. Nettlefest is celebrated by several Southern Gulf Island communities. Do you have springtime nettle traditions?
Pop Quiz: What Celestial Event do we celebrate with Nettlefest?
Answer: Spring Equinox!
The early spring growth of nettle greens coincides with these days when light hours surpass the darkness of winter. Stories of nettles from around the world feature themes of respect, protection, healing, and magic. In Celtic lore, nettles grow where faeries dwell. Nettle celebrations offer us nature connection through traditional plant knowledge.
As a perfect spring tonic, nettles contain many vitamins (A, C, K, B, Iron, and more) and offer many medicinal benefits. Abundant and free, nettles are an important food source for sustainable and resilient Island food systems.
Enjoy nettle tea or cook the leaves and soft stems like spinach in any recipe. Each spring, I make enough enough nettle-garlic pesto to freeze for the year. Nettle lasagna is a real treat, and nettle spanakopita is our Easter weekend tradition. Read on for more tasty nettle ideas!
While Saturna celebrated Nettlefest this past Saturday March 28 with an inspired six-course Nettle Meal, you still have time to partake and participate in Mayne and Galiano’s upcoming celebrations: April 11-13, 2025!
At nettle workshops this past weekend on Saturna Island, Sharon Kollis, author of Common Threads; Weaving Community through Collaborative Eco-Art and lead instructor with EartHands Society, wore an entire outfit she’d woven of nettles! She also brought cordage, dyed yarns, and nettle baskets. Participants foraged for Saturday’s fabulous nettle feast.
Throughout these Islands, fibres from dried nettle stems were used by W̱SÁNEĆ and other peoples to twine cordage, then woven into fishing nets and ropes in the winter.1 Interestingly, the SENĆOŦEN name for nettle, ȾEXȾEX, is also used for “Oyster”, because, as Carl Olsen explained, when harvesting, they both make your hands sting.
Nettles sting because they protect themselves with trichomes full of formic acid and other chemicals—think tiny hyperdermic needles that break off into your skin, squirting in the same acid that ants use to bite. That is why the deer leave them be. However, when nettles are harvested and dry even slightly (no sting after a day stored at room temp), or are cooked, or are frozen, these tiny hollow hairs lose their ability to wound us, making the leaves quite palatable.
The best way to harvest nettles for eating is with rubberized garden gloves, latex, or other thick mitts and a big bag with handles. Gently snap off the tip and the top six leaves or so of each nettle plant and stuff them into your sack, compacting as you go. This allows the plants to resprout and feed wildlife. Make sure and leave some whole plants for the many species of pollinators who depend upon them for early nectar and caterpillar food.
For the Sixth Annual Saturna Nettlefest 2025, Chef Hubertus of Saturna Island transformed heaps of nettles into a six-course feast for 31 people this past Saturday night! He was assisted by Sam Fache in the kitchen, with dessert made by Peggy Warren. Shirlanne Johnson decorated the space with wild edibles and spring blossoms and served alongside Raeanne House. Paired wines were from Sage Hayward Vineyard.
The menu ranged from Nettle Soup (a French delicacy) to Haida Gwaii Halibut with Nettle Pesto, and was topped off with Nettle Ice Cream with Nettle-Lime Macarons!
The jolly event featured Nettle Poetry by Ralph Cartar, Nettle Trivia with Robin Jenkinson and Ryan Dentry, a Toast to the Nettle by Sharon Kollis, and random readings by Athena George from 101 Uses for Stinging Nettle, describing applications from ulcer treatment to erotic flogging.
Next day, I’m enroute home to Salt Spring. My body feels replete and I’m well-provisioned with nettle breakfast. I feel better connected to this community and landscape through my primal belly. One of my fingers still tingles from nettle stings.
A sackfull of freshly-harvested nettles hangs from my bicycle handlebars… What would you make? Perhaps Deb Foote’s almond-nettle cake recipe (from her great nettle article here)? Perhaps a warm honey tea for the bathtub? Or maybe they’d best be blanched and frozen in anticipation of the upcoming nettle potlucks at Mayne and Galiano Nettlefests, the weekend after next?
The window for harvesting young nettles here is short. They’re stringy and less nutritious once they flower. Luckily in this area, seasonal locavores are spoiled with a diversity of wild and farmed foods (check out maple flowers, clams, and over-wintered carrots & beets right now). Otherwise, we’d run the risk of ending up nettle-green, like Milrepa, the 11th-century Tibetan Buddhist disciple who meditated in caves for years, eating only nettles, which turned his skin green, gave him a green aura, and contributed to his enlightenment.
Thank you to Shirlanne Johnson and Heather Michaud for sharing their photographs.
Addendum: My dear friend Elizabeth Buchanan has just emailed me these great articles about her fabulous Nettle Chai Tea and wild and healthy foods business Salt Spring Savouries” at South Ridge Farm. My kids say: “Her tea is SOOO good, it’s addictive!” And, she’s packed me enough tea bags to award to the Mayne Islanders as Nettle Triva prizes!
So, I ebiked over to Mayne on Friday afternoon for their wonderful Second Annual Nettlefest at the Ag Hall, sponsored by the Mayne Island Conservancy. Mike brought his hand-cranked juicer, and we were all infused with shots of pure nettle juice — a powerful elixer. Other notable dishes included Nettle-Artichoke Dip, Nettle Hummous, Nettle-Mushroom Stroganoff, and Nettle-Pine Nut Pesto.
The potluck was followed by my presentation, including a fresh trivia and slideshow. At the Lions Club Garage Sale that morning on Salt Spring, Valdy had spontaneously gifted me his sunglasses, so I felt I had some magic mojo riding with me to Mayne.
And the evening ended with a great, if somber film called The Nettle Dress, about a man gathering, spinning, and sewing a nettle dress for his daughter over the course of seven years… allowing the nettles to transform him and his grief after losing loved ones… “Woven from Tragedy, Magic, and Love.”
The bikeride home was late, but my body and spirit were again fortified by this nutritious and globally-important food, fiber, and medicinal plant.
Post-script: Other events on Salt Spring and Galiano were also shared with me.
And on Galiano Island, the Community School celebrates Nettlefest with an all-school nettle meal: “Nettlefest 2025 - what a nettletastic morning! This would not have happened without the incredible work of so many volunteers! Thank you to our Galiano Community School staff as well as Quentin, Amanda, Kealani for leading art, songs and drumming and Shayce for supporting throughout (all of whom made an early morning trip to be present today). And finally thank you to the parent & community volunteers for bringing their wide range of skills and experience into the mix, all the while supporting students: Ria, Katherine, Emily, Ana, Josli, Cedana, Sarah Anne, Stephen, Rachel and Giovanna! Huy tseep q'u!”
And additional resources include Alison Colwell’s Galiano Nettle Recipes, available at their library, and The Nettle Cookbook, by Vivian Tuffney.
“The Saanich Year” Author Earle Claxton; Author/Illustrator: John Elliott. Published by the Saanich School Board #63
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArB3TUYe3/ - Salish textile artist Myrna Crossley Elliott @salishweaverdreamer shared nettle dyes she uses in her Coast Salish weaving.
And has also led to my speaking at this Friday's April 11, 2025 Nettlefest on Mayne Island, right after the Nettle potluck and before the film about crafting a dress from Nettle-fibre. Come join us! https://mayneconservancy.ca/event/nettle-fest-2025/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=the-oystercatcher-aug-2023