It’s Easter weekend and with the sunshine pouring over Cornwall, I’ve been spending my days in the most nourishing way I know—running along the Cornish coast path in search of wild nettle, then slipping into the sea to forage for kelp.
There’s something quietly magical about this time of year. The cliffs are glowing with golden gorse and the ocean feels so inviting after months of heavy swells and brutally cold water. April has a rhythm of its own—it’s not quite summer, not quite spring—but it holds a raw, bright kind of energy that makes it one of my favourite times to be out in nature.
One of the first plants to have burst back into life at this time of year is the humble nettle. Most people think of it as a stinging weed, but I see it as a bountiful botanical—especially this early in the season. In early spring, the new shoots are tender, vibrant, and packed full of nutrients. Nettles are rich in iron, calcium, magnesium, and chlorophyll, making them a brilliant tonic for skin.
By April, nettles are thriving in the damp soil along the windswept stretches of the coast path. The beauty of nettles is that, when harvested properly, they regrow quickly, making them a wonderfully sustainable wild plant to work with.
Meanwhile, underwater, the kelp forests are stirring too. By now, species like oarweed (Laminaria digitata) and sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) are stretching toward the light, growing rapidly as the days lengthen and the water begins to warm. These early spring blades are young, fresh, and full of life. This is when kelp is at its most vibrant, both visually and nutritionally. At this time of year, the kelp's cell walls are still plump, giving it that beautifully crisp texture and a high concentration of iodine, potassium, and alginates—nutrients that make it such a powerhouse for skin health.
There’s something deeply grounding about this dual rhythm—gathering nettle from the cliffs and kelp from the sea, both in their earliest flush of life. The contrast between the cool, briny depth of the ocean and the sun-warmed cliffs is a reminder of just how abundant and generous our coastline really is.