Spring Foraging Begins!

Spring is a wee bit late in coming this year, thanks to a mamma-jamma of a snow fall in February burying everything for a week. But it's here now - better late than never!

Last year was a whirlwind, so I didn't get around to many of the springtime activities that I/we usually do - fishing, mushroom hunting, wandering through the woods, and picking stinging nettles. I more than exhausted my cache of nettles - and the two whole morels we found last year - so I had to, had to get 'er done this year.

This is today's haul, from the southern side of our property. Eight ounces of delciousness!

Do you suffer for your art? Well, my fingers feel weird, if that's what you mean. 

Half-a-pound isn't a bad afternoon's take. I have my eye on another nettle patch down the road a piece that looks pretty promising. Believe it or not, it's entirely possible that someone will have already nabbed them by the time I get down there with my trusty scissors. Olympians are nuts for wild foods!

If you're unfamiliar with the many uses of the humble stinging nettle, please check out my blog post from a few years back about making nettle pesto & nettle egg noodles. This year's leaves will probably end up as both of those things, plus I may dry and powder some to use as colorant in our homemade soaps. It depends on both my ongoing energy level and whether or not someone has already hit that patch I've been scoping out.