Stronsay Junior High School's Blog

Wednesday, 19 May 2021

Nature Walk

We had a lovely visit to the beach today and discovered some more new plants. I have included some photos in the video. We talked about why Nettles sting and thought about how other plants prevent themselves from being eaten by prickles, thorns and tasting awful etc. We reassured the children that boiling the nettles would stop the nettles from stinging and then set to work picking the tips for our soup. The children wore latex free gloves to prevent them from being stung. There was some superb teamwork preparing the rest of the ingredients and the fire ready to cook up our delicious soup. It was pretty well received on the taste test with four children going for seconds. Rosie thought the nettles tasted of broccoli! It must have been good as it all got eaten up with nothing left to bring back to school. Here's Marion's recipe for anyone that would like to recreate it:)

Spring Nettle and potato Soup

Ingredients

200 g nettle tips
500 ml stock
Half an onion
1 medium sized potato

Method

1. Put gloves on

2. Pick the nettles tips only.

3. Get rid of any stalks and wash the leaves.

4. Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and potato, and cook for 10 mins until the vegetables start to soften. Add the stock and cook for a further 10-15 mins until the potato is soft.

5. Add the nettle leaves, simmer for 1 min to wilt, then blend the soup.

Season to taste. Season to taste.