Nettles again

 [Update, Sunday 24 October 2010: Lus at Wild*crafty has written a brilliantly informative blogpost about New Zealand nettles. A must-read.)

I wrote briefly about nettle last year (after my great excitement at finding a single plant in our local neighbourhood). I had been inspired to forage for nettles by a woman I met online through Transition Towns and also the Wild Foragers email list - Maryanne.

It was a great pleasure on this month's foraging show on This Way Up, to actually go and meet Maryanne, and we had a fantastic morning sampling lots of her amazing nettle recipes. Simon Morton took these pics at the This Way Up page.

I really enjoyed meeting Maryanne and talking with her, and after Simon had to dash away to record his next bit of the show, I stayed for a bit. Maryanne showed me some nettle fibre, dried, spun, and woven into a bag. I'm not sure what variety of nettle is best for this, but apparently it's the stalks that are used, giving a rough, strong fibre.

Who knows which bits of our long and fascinating conversation with Maryanne will appear in the show today, and which will need to be edited out to fit into the 10 minute time slot ... but after I listen I'll blog any extra details that I remember!

Nettle (Urtica species)

The leaves can be used in cooking just like spinach, and lose their sting when exposed to heat.

Use the highly nutritious leaves for tea - fresh or dried.

I've received this recommendation for nettle tea from mother of five, Cynthia Skagen:
Stinging nettle tea is an excellent tonic for promoting milk production and uterine tone. It's rich in vitamins and minerals, especially potassium and vitamin K and is high in calcium. After drinking it regularly during pregnancy and breastfeeding five children I highly recommend it.

Some people seem to have developed a technique for picking nettles with their bare hands, but I would always wear gloves!

(Thanks to Maryanne for her inspiring enthusiasm for nettle's nutritional and medicinal properties.)

Nettle links:
Google Images
Plants for a Future database