CHARD AND NETTLES

Stinging nettles, despite seeming scary are one of the most nutritious greens you can consume. They tend to leech all of the nutrients from their surroundings, making them jam packed with goodness. - However, be mindful of what those surroundings are if foraging as they really do absorb it all. They contain  iron, magnesium, potassium, b6, vitamin c and K, they’re 29% higher in calcium than than spinach making them one of the best sources you can get. Whilst giving you fibre. I had an abundance surrounding my compost heap which need to go, but I won’t be wasting those vitamins. The method I find easiest for harvest is simply holding a bowl underneath them whilst cutting the leaves into the bowl. If mindful this avoids any stinging and having to mess around, but wear gloves if you need. The rest of the plants will be transferred to the more natural side of the garden for the wildlife. Chard just like nettles is also a nutritional powerhouse, with 44% of your recommended vitamin a, 3 x vitamin k and again fibre. Fibre is incredibly important to our bodies as it absorbs water in the digestive tract acts as a brush to clear everything you don’t want out along the way like cholesterol, the waxy substance our bodies need but gets built up from consuming too much of the wrong foods. It has been shown to reduce the risk of bowel cancer and heart disease, aid digestion and keep you fuller for longer. Your gut biome, possibly the most important thing you own, also benefits by using these compounds to create energy. Rainbow chard I find especially enchanting as it is so vibrant in colour and tastes great. You’ll want to harvest the leaves slightly younger than I have in the video, but they remain just as edible throughout their cycle. The best part is both of these greens can be easily grown, blanched and frozen for a constant supply of vitamins that are as easy as just throwing in a meal at the end of cooking. To prepare the nettles for storage, you will need a bowl of ice water and a saucepan. Wash, drain, cover with boiling water and let boil for 2 minutes and immediately dunk into the ice water, you can then drain them, shape them into small hand-fulls and freeze (make sure they’re separated when you freeze them so they don’t stick together, once individually frozen they can be transferred to a bag or container and keep that water! Not only is it good to prevent waste It contains any vitamins that were lost and you can use this to water your plants. The process is the same with the chard however you’ll want to remove and process the stems separately. As this harvest was quite large I separated them first to make washing (and checking for stowaway slugs) a bit easier.I then separated the leaves from the stems. Make sure you prepare a new bowl of ice water each time. Leaves, 2 minutes, stems a minute or two more. Store in the same way.if you don’t fancy eating the nettles, their nutritional value makes them an invaluable compost for your chard and they can speed up the process of composting, simply remove the roots, chop them up and mix in. I have found despite benefiting from nutrients, chard loves sun but will grow anywhere with a bit of it, this is something you can very easily grow in containers or in awkward places if you don’t have a lot of space. I use the taller plants to provide shade for the smaller greens that prefer a less sunny environment.  IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Do not harvest nettles when flowering. Do not harvest nettles from roadsides as they may contain heavy metals. Happy hunting!