Nettle pesto puts sting in the tale of Wexford food company

Three years ago, Irish customers were not so quick to reach for the home-made nettle pesto. But that was then – now nettle products outsell Wild About’s other items six to one.

The food company’s co-founder Fiona Falconer said people had become more adventurous about food and were less inclined to go with the supermarket staples.

“When I started doing tastings people would run a mile when I said it was nettle,” she says. “Now it will attract them over and they’ll say: ‘Oh, I’ll give that a go.’”

Falconer’s company will be one of the producers at the first Bite Food Festival, which begins today in Dublin and runs until Sunday. Organisers expect about 20,000 people to visit the RDS to sample food and drinks from around Ireland.

Originally from Dublin, Falconer and her husband, Malcolm, moved with their children to Wexford from London about 10 years ago for quality- of-life reasons. They stuck a pin in a map and ended up near Gorey, growing elderberries, blackcurrants and other crops on a five-acre site near the sea.

About four years ago they decided to go into business, selling their seasonal produce.

The Falconers did not use herbicides, and so ended up with “meadows of nettles”. Research indicated the plants were linked to a range of health benefits such as good blood pressure and lower cholesterol.

They decided to try to harness that, first in raw nettle pesto, then in syrup and, next year, in “ready to drink” form which Falconer claims is “the best hangover cure”.

The syrup will be served on first- and business-class transatlantic Aer Lingus flights from next year, she said. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has tried it, as has the Taoiseach.