Nettle, Bramble, and Seaweed
3 of the main characters from this past weekend.
My parents are visiting, so we spent the weekend working on our place at the little island. It’s amazing how much you can get done with 4 people! My dad is basically a professional bramble remover at this point. And my mom has been helping us with the polytunnel and gardens (my corn has germinated, and there’s already little peppers forming!).
Many of the areas with bramble are also home to nettle, which makes for a fun spikey combo. Before my dad got stuck in I made sure to select the tallest, straightest nettle and spare them for cordage. Last year I processed some, but like most things, my first attempt took ages and wasn’t up to standard. I decided to try again. I learned all my nettle fibre knowledge from Sally Pointer, who has an amazing informative YouTube channel that teaches everything you’d want to know about processing lots of different fibres. When I process the nettles, I also harvest the seed, which make a tasty and nutritious sprinkle. We use them instead of hemp seeds. I can usually harvest about 4-5 cups of dried seed just by what we remove when weeding. Nettles really are a wonder plant, providing fresh greens, seed, tea, and cordage while asking for no water or care.
The bramble (Himalayan blackberry) is a tough plant in it’s own right. It forms huge, gnarled roots that require either machinery or a special tool to remove. Our pattern for removal looks like this: Year 1, cut them back to the ground. Year 2, cut them back again and remove roots. Year 3, continue cutting them back, and finally in year 4, cut them back.. The reality is that removing the bramble will be a job we always have to do, trying to prioritize where we really don’t want it and where we’re okay with it staying, at least for a few more years. I do really value the fruit (we still have some in the freezer, and will be picking again in a couple months) and don’t want to remove them entirely. But they have claimed areas of the property that have beautiful soil for growing food and we’d like that back, one day.
We took a break from all the hard work to take a hike down to the beach. My mom wanted to see Starfish and we had spotted loads when checking out a new spot a few weeks before. We checked the tides and headed out when it was nice and low - we were not disappointed! There were loads of bright purple Starfish hiding in crevices between the rocks. I brought along a bag and knife and took the opportunity to harvest some seaweed. I love that we have access to such an incredible variety of food, and seaweed is one of those things where a little bit can go a long way. Traditionally my ancestors in Ireland and Scotland would have eaten a lot of seaweed, including one recipe I had been wanting to try for a while: Lavercakes. Luckily I knew from experience that purple Laver grows happily on our rocky beaches, and I was able to harvest enough to experiment with (I also grabbed a few handfuls of Wrack to dry & grind for seaweed powder). I brought it home, and spent all day yesterday simmering it on the stove before blending it up with some oats to make Lavercakes (I followed this recipe from Mo Wilde). They made for a delicious lunch with some vegan sour cream and kimchi, perhaps not traditional but tasty nonetheless!
Unfortunately today I will have to keep it short and sweet. Things are getting rolling with the house build and while usually summer is a slow season for me at work, the opposite seems to be happening! Both good things overall. I hope you’re all enjoying the first tastes of summer and I hope to be back with something interesting for you before I do my summer solstice garden update.