Comments on: Friendly Stinging Nettles

By: Greta

Greta — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:30:11 +0000

I landed on this page trying to find growing instructions. The single plant is not growing well. It is for use in Biodynamic preparations. The plant has been the same size for some years. Odd, I know.

By: Grtea

Grtea — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:27:48 +0000

I always have at least 1 pot of nettle soup in the spring. I make a base of onion, leek and celery. The nettles are washed and cut small. I add them raw at the end and use a handblender to mix them fine. Delicious and cleansing after a long winter.

By: Nadya

Nadya — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:51:41 +0000

Re: raw nettles in smoothies, etc – the enzymes are what are so helpful for asthma! The capsules are probably from freeze-dried nettles (which retain those enzymes)!
I took a wild crafting class with Ryan Drum over 20 years ago, & his young son showed us how to CAREFULLY smooth down the nettle hairs & eat a raw nettle ‘pill!’ I’ve also had them juiced with carrots, & make a barely cooked nettle pesto (Ryan says that they retain the enzymes if you steam < 3 minutes) using your normal pesto recipe, substituting nettle for basil.

The post from Tshering points to the fiber use – 'Ramie' is made from one of the nettle relatives. Like Flax & hemp, it's a 'bast' fiber – as long as the plant is tall! & can be coarse or fine, depending on how much you process it. I knit little bags for sprouting seed using nettle fiber from Nepal (from our local yarn shop)
I love this bit from Grieve (Modern Herbal) "The poet Cambell tells us: In Scotland, I have eaten nettles, I have slept in nettle sheets, & I have dined off a nettle tablecloth. The young & tender nettle is an excellent potherb. The stalks of the old nettle are as good as flax for making cloth. I have heard my mother say that she thought nettle cloth more durable than any other species of linen,"
This was the plant that supplied thread used in the Germanic & Scandinavian nations before the introduction of flax, the name may be derived from 'noedl' (a needle) (Modern Herbal, p 575)
Nettles & flax take a lot of work to process, as you have to rot off the outer fiber, & then 'break' the stalks to soften before you even get to the spinning part … but baskets? Intriguing!

By: Barbie

Barbie — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:13:04 +0000

I have taken Nettle capsules for asthma and allergies, and it really works! I have read it has many healing and nutritional qualities. I have tried to grow it from seed but haven’t had success.

I was in Santa Fe last Oct. at the Farmers Market and one of the vendors had plants for sale, but I couldn’t take them home on the train. However, I think I shall try again to either order live plants next season or else attempt to grow from seed again, this time more carefully. It’s odd that I’ve never found or known of any wild nettles in this area. I know any dark green one can cook or steam is a healthy addition to the diet, and the garden. My substitute last year and this is Tuscany Black Kale also known by other monikers. It is very delicious, and grows well all season even here in our hot summers in NE Oklahoma.

By: Tshering Milarepa

Tshering Milarepa — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:59:03 +0000

I grew up with nettles soup and millet dough in the southern foothills of Bhutan. It had been in our diet ever since Bhutanese larnt to cook and eat. It is the best thing in the world. Nettles grow everywhere in Bhutan and nobody complains. Parents use it quite well to tame their wild children with a bundle dipped in water and placing on the thigh. We never worry about harvesting the leaves. Gloves are largely unknown to us. We simply have a thin piece of bamboo bent to make a pair of tongs. Keep picking with force by breaking at the end where the leaves join the stem. Bring them home, wash and boil them and serve 50-50 to you and your cattle alike. It only needs a little bit of salt and red hot chilly peppers. Two weeks of nettle soup and millet dough – you grow red on your cheeks.

We make ropes for every thing with nettle. Tea and soup mean the same with our nettle. Very strong lasting nettle baskets and clothes can be made from stinging nettle fibre. There is more than one type of nettle in Bhutan. My friend Raman form Surey knows about turning fallow land into cultivable land using stinging nettle. He is great in making nice liquid manure mixing so many things including Khenpa sing ( a bitter plant -tete pati in Lhotshamkha), thengye-timur. That manure is rich-oh rich one cup is too much for many plants. He loves it and I love this great plant. Hurry up for a great receipe under the blue sky in the hills of Bhutan.

Tshering Milarepa

By: BJ_BOBBI_JO

BJ_BOBBI_JO — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:34:05 +0000

Do stinging nettles lose their ability to sting?
I ask because this year I have been going to the same old yearly patch of stinging needles in my woods. I wanted to pick them to make my own homemade hair rinse but they seem to have lost their stinging abilities this year so I figure something is wrong with them so I leave them be.

By: siberianwolf

siberianwolf — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:43:57 +0000

Hi Kenny from a chilly but sunny wintery (straight off Antarctica!) morning. Many thanks for your reply! No! I have not noticed any internal irritation at all. I just rinse the nettles and throw them in with whatever else I am smoothying! They are delicious with pineapple and or pear….whatever takes your fancy. I use a very big hanful of nettles. I must say that I love the nettles steamed with mushrooms, steamed chestnuts and mandarins… its to die for. In fact you have just talked me into making that for lunch today! Come on Kenny…I challenge you to down a nettle smoothie and I’d like to hear your comments! Are you up for it???????

By: Kenny Point

Kenny Point — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:02:10 +0000

Hmmm, that’s a good question… never heard that one before and I never would have considered eating stinging nettles in their raw state. Sounds like you haven’t noticed any irritation from consuming your nettle smoothies, so it could be that the blending and crushing of the plant fibers breaks down the stinging properties just like cooking does… but that’s just a guess on my part, I can’t say for certain! Anyone else with any information regarding consuming raw stinging nettles? I think I’ll stick with cooking this wild edible plant!