Selfsufficientish.com

I will take your painful experience as all the proof that I need!

Andy, in your first post you ask for suggestions of possible ideas to write about...in 'Plants for a Future' it says of nettles:

The leaves are extremely rich in vitamins and minerals

Avoid older leaves as they develop gritty particles (cystoliths) which act as an irritant to the kidneys

Use the leaves to make tea

The stems contain a strong flax-like fibre that can be used for making string, cloth and paper

The plant is an essential ingredient of 'Quick Return' (??) herbal compost activator and are an excellent addition to the compost heap

They can be used to make an organic liquid feed for plants that also acts as an insect repellent

the growing plant increases the essential oil content of nearby plants, thus making them more resitant to insect pests

...and John Yeoman has a recipe for a savory nettle cake in 'Self Reliance'


You could possibly add that nettles aren't a very good salad vegetable

Cheers RWC

I can certainly see why Judy has decided to plant some!

Nettles dont lose their stings after being picked - you need to boil them first to get rid of any creepie crawlies and they will then lose their sting.

I am off tonight to pick some nettles for a good nettle soup:

1 pound of nettle leaves
2 Tbsps oil or butter
1 minced onion
4 tsps chopped chives
3 Tbsps flour
2 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup water
2 tsps seasoned salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 cup cream

Heat oil or melt butter in soup pot. Sauté onion until soft. Add chives and flour and stir until blended. Slowly stir in stock, beating with wooden spoon until smooth. Add remaining ingredients, except cream, and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add cream and heat to just boiling. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed. Rub soup through a sieve into heated tureen. Sprinkle with nutmeg, if desired.

Will let you know how I get on!

(How much is 1lb of nettles, anyway?)

As well as being very edible, and tough for making rope, did you know that nettles make superb cloth - until recently used in Scotland and now a top designer fabric!
Only went out of popular cropping when hemp, jute, sisal from the colonies became cheap and mass produced (with help from slaves).
Five minutes on the internet.

mmm I'm drinking nettle tea at the moment (but from a bag I admit!)

My father suffered from rheumatism in his shoulder, and as he is a very wild man, and heard through the grapevine somewhere, to rub fresh stinging nettles all over his shoulder and arm (where he had the pain)... so this he did, and he went very red indeed but didnt moan, and he has been pain free for years now.
I have read that nettles are very high in calcium in particular - so this must be one of the factors in aiding my dads rheumatism.

so there we go :)

Your father sounds like an amazing man Azura Skye!

Nev

hehe Nev - he sure is.

He's naturally self sufficient too, although he doesn't quite have a certain 'elegance' to his work (lots of stuff stuck together, but still somehow manages to work).

Apparently Roman soldiers used to whip themselves with nettles in the winter to keep warm. I don't know how I know this, I must have heard it somewhere.

According to a quiz in last Saturday's Independent newspaper, fibers from the nettle "... are so strong that Britain's Ministry of Aircraft Production (never heard of it - wonder when that existed) once used them as reinforcement for experimental plastic aircraft panels, gear wheels and other machine parts. Problems with the enormous quantities required, and processing, halted production."

I ask myself (and all of you), is there anything that nettles cannot do?!

greenbean wrote:I ask myself (and all of you), is there anything that nettles cannot do?!

Mow the lawn?

Alcina

Hi - I am back in the land of internet!!

Hello to you all - best wishes from Orkney. Sunshine at last (October) not bad!

Left the yurt - now live in comfort.

Anyhow, I am busy collecting nettles and making cordage, rope and other stringy things.

Also like the tea.

Not to be sniffed at.

garden shed technology - a life saver

Best wishes - Malcolm

Hello Malcolm, nice to hear from you again.

How's live on Orkney, then?

Yeah, Onya mate! Hows it all going?

Nev