Springtime is almost here! Or at least here in Kamloops we’re still waiting for the last of the snow to disappear, but I know from my newsfeeds that many of you live in warmer places. Some of you are even enjoying your first nettle harvests! Since I had a few cups from last year stashed away in the freezer I thought I’d share a recipe that woulds satisfy my craving for spring flavours, and maybe give you some inspiration.

There are a few recipes that I feel are my family legacy, and pancakes is definitely one of them. Big pancakes breakfasts have such a strong association with family for me that we decided a pancake brunch was the perfect meal to serve at our wedding. This recipe is strongly based on my mother’s, but with quite a few tweaks.

{Jump to the Recipe}

You might be wondering - why nettles? Despite their sting, nettles are a fantastic spring green to forage for, and a bonus is that no one who has them on their land really wants them. When I gathered mine I secured an invite from a perplexed farmer who was more than happy for me to come hack away at the patch of nettles invading their beautiful garden soil. When you are gathering nettles make sure you wear gloves - I used rubber kitchen gloves - and long sleeves. I also used long handled kitchen tongs while picking, and when I brought them home to process. The good news is, once nettles are either dried or cooked they lose their stinging properties, so you can handle them without so much caution after that.

I find it really useful to blanch up all your nettles, and pack them into one cup portions for the freezer. I also roughly chopped mine before freezing so that they would be super easy to use in recipes. Throw in a bag in whatever recipe you would use spinach for. They work great in smoothies, curries, soups, and baking. Nettles have such a gorgeous green colour, and they hold their colour beautifully even after cooking or baking.

For these pancakes the green comes from blending the nettles in with the milk. The result looks like something that Luke Skywalker would drink, but I find it’s the easiest way to incorporate them for baking. I wanted the green to look more like food colouring than flakes of leaves, so I threw them both in my Vitamix blender, and pulverized it until it was smoothie-textured. I would think that you could probably sub out milk for another liquid if you are wanting these to be dairy free. I’ve never tried it, but I’m guessing it would be fine if a bit less rich.

The sky is the limit for toppings, but I used unsweetened vanilla whipped cream, maple syrup macerated strawberries, and candied lilac petals. I really wanted these to taste of spring, and I felt those flavours encapsulated the season for me.

I’ve also done these pancakes twice - once using grapefruit, and once using orange. I think I like the grapefruit better because it is a sort of unexpected flavour that pairs really well with the slight vegetal taste that comes through with the nettles. I was a little worried that either the taste or the colour would stop my children from eating them, but so far the “green pancakes” have been a hit for both the one-year-old and the four-year-old.

I think these have great holiday potential - a little late for your St. Patrick’s day celebrations this year, but perfect as “Grinch Pancakes” at Christmastime! I could also see using these if you wanted to make a bunch of other colours (not totally sure what to use for the other colours though) and have rainbow pancakes for Easter or Pride celebrations. Basically they are delicious, fun, and they add two cups of greens into your pancake meal so all in all it’s a total win in my books. If you try them out let me know what you thought in the comments!

Nettle Pancakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups sifted or all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 grapefruit, zest and juice only
2 cups stinging nettles (blanched and frozen - can sub frozen spinach if no nettles are available)
2 cups milk

Takes 30 minutes, serves pancakes for a family of four.

Instructions

Begin by heating your griddle or nonstick frypan, or heating butter/oil in a regular frying pan. You want it to be preheated well before you pour any batter.
Mix dry ingredients together.
Thaw nettles and drain of excess water. Blend milk and nettles together to a smoothie-like consistency.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add eggs, oil, vanilla, grapefruit, and milk. Mix just to the point where the batter is well combined and there are no lumps.
Ladle out the pancake batter onto the pan to your desired size. Make sure you keep a good amount of space around them for ease of flipping and because these do tend to puff up a bit.
Your pancakes are ready to flip when you see bubbles popping up in the middle, and when the outside edges are less shiny with bubbles that pop there staying open.

I first connected with Melissa on Instagram, as a fellow gardener, homesteader, and lover of the outdoors. I’ve invited her here today to share some stories of her spring foraging aventures! Make sure to stop by her site, Quarter Moon Living, and say hello! Melissa Keyser is a writer, naturalist, garden designer, blogger and educator. Growing up without electricity in the central coast mountains of California, she is a lifelong lover of nature and is passionate about self-sufficiency, sustainability, local food, and organic gardening. She encourages people to reconnect to the natural world through slow, simple, and seasonal living. On her blog, she shares recipes featuring truly seasonal produce, gardening tips, traditional food skills, and tips for general wellness. She holds a degree in Environmental Studies from University of California, Santa Cruz, and has completed additional studies in Horticulture and Landscape Design. Currently, she lives in Sacramento, California.

In my part of the world, in central California, our spring actually starts in the early winter. After a dry, hot and dormant period of our Mediterranean climate summers, the first rains of the season wake up our parched soils, bringing the earth back to life. And while the branches of the trees are still bare, almost overnight the hills and fields suddenly shift back to green. For me, this is when the spring foraging season for tender wild greens begin.

Elsewhere in the world, the seasons follow a more logical pattern. Spring starts when it’s supposed to, or at least, theoretically. This year, for so many, it seems that winter is stretching on forever. If this sounds like you, just know the Earth has not forgotten you, she is simply sleeping in. But in her slumber, she is gathering strength, and when she emerges, it will be with full force, her lands awashed with bounty.

It will soon be the time for spring foraging.

The first to appear are the stinging nettles.

Urtica dioica might be the best all-purpose wild green out there. They are highly medicinally, good to drink in tea or take a powdered form. The stems contain fibers that can be spun into thread or braided into cordage. They are also highly nutritious (in vitamin A, calcium, magnesium and iron) and, the big draw, they are also delicious!

But, remember, they have their name of stinging nettles for a reason! When harvesting, make sure to wear leather or rubber gloves. Once home, either blanch, steam or dry the greens, which will kill the sting.

Stinging nettles are native to Europe, but have now naturalized throughout most of the North America. Look for them in wet areas, alongside creeks, edges of damp woods, and areas with rich soil. The easiest way to identify them is to brush against them. You’ll know from their sharp sting! Otherwise, you can look for the hairs on the stems and the leaves. They have square stems and opposite leaves, with prominent veins and are shaped like an oblong heart, with the edges sharply toothed.

Nettles will continue to grow throughout the year, and you’ll find them standing tall by autumn, but they are best to eat when they are fresh and young. For the tenderest greens, start harvesting right after the emerge from the ground, snipping off the top few sets leaves. Once they start to flower, it’s best to pass them by.

I love to eat nettles in soup or folded in with cream and butter served over spaetzle. They also make a delicious ravioli filling! I add them to my tea during my monthly cycle to help replenish iron, and my husband drinks them in tea to help with his allergies.

As the days get longer, and the rains have come and the frost has subsided, the wild asparagus starts to appear.

Asparagus is herbaceous, meaning the plant dies back to the ground in the winter, and it’s near impossible to find asparagus spears growing green grass if you don’t know where to look. In my area, I start the process of foraging for asparagus in the fall.

The tender tips have long since grown tall, and are now a bush of fine foliage and the red berries containing the seeds stand out against the dark green of the leaves. Sometimes 6′ tall, these fronds leave no confusion that there is a healthy crown of asparagus growing there. By fall, the fronds start to die back, turning brown and dropping the berries (which are poisonous, so don’t eat!). This is when I make mental note, remembering where to look when spring arrives.

In North America, there is no actual wild asparagus. It’s native to Europe. Any that you find foraging is the same as the stuff you buy in the store or grow in your home garden, it’s simply escaped and is now growing in the wild. Feral, or perhaps rouge, asparagus.

You will find wild asparagus growing in the sun and close to (but not in) water. Look in drainage ditches, edges of marshes, or along river or stream edges. To harvest the asparagus, use a knife or clippers and cut the steam off right at or slightly below ground level. If you don’t have any equipment with you, you can dig into the soil with your fingers and snapped the spears off.

Choose spears that have tight tops and are firm. Asparagus grows fast, about an inch a day, and as the individual stalk starts to age and stretch up, the little triangular leafs tips start to branch out and become ‘looser’. You’ll want to avoid those!

Just like in the garden, asparagus crowns (that’s what the roots are called) will continue to produce spears for several weeks, so return often. Leave several spears to grow up. Otherwise, you may weaken or even kill the plant. If the spear emerges the width of a pencil or smaller, the plant is exhausting itself and you should let it be.

The Spring Foraging season is rounded off with the wild greens like dandelion, dock, chickweed, and my personal favorite, miner’s lettuce.

Miner’s lettuce, known in Latin as Claytonia perfoliata, gets its name from the miners of the California gold rush. They ate the wild green in order to prevent scurvy, which they learned from the native peoples. These are a great source of iron and vitamins A and C.

This was first wild green that I learned about as a child, because they are incredibly easy to identify. Just look for the round leaf. When they first emerge in the spring, they are somewhat spade-shaped, then later form the circle as they mature. Each plant grows in a clump of about 5 thin, smooth stems, each with the single round leaf on the top. The flower stalk emerges from the center of the circular leaf and is a delicate, nodding cluster of small, white blooms.

Once you find one, you’ll find many. They grow by reseeding and you’ll find entire hills and meadows filled with them. I spot it most frequently in woodland, forest or riparian ecosystems.

Miner’s lettuce has a delicate flavor and crisp texture. The leaves hold lots of water, and make it almost succulent, slightly like purslane. It lacks the acid that many other wild greens have, making it buttery, tender, and sweet. The stem, leaf, and flower are all edible, and you can enjoy at any stage in its growth cycle. However, they are best when harvested in the spring during cool and wet weather. I like to eat them while hiking as a trail snack, or bring the home and add to salads or use on a sandwich!