Lavender
March 19th, 2002, 12:40 AM
Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) has long been the bane of many campers & hikers. Despite its nasty reputation as a stinging weed, nettles has a long history of uses ranging from folklore magic to medicinal to cooking and weaving.
Nettle was cultivated in many part of Europe to woven into linen and fishnet and other household cloths. The nettles would be cut & dried, then soaked in water. The fibres would then be separated & spun into yarn for weaving. Eventually the use of flax took over but, in some parts of Scotland, nettle fibres were still used until recently. Nettle fibres still makes a really nice sturdy paper. If anyone's interested, I'll post later about that.
Nettle makes a great companion plant for most garden vegetable & herbs. Just by growing next to the nettle, the vegetable will be healthier & more resistant to certain disease & insects. Growing nettles with your herbs can increase the potency of the herbs. Nettles in your compost will not only add nutrients but helps accelerate the breakdown of matter into humus. Usually, in any reclaiming of the land (like after a forest fire), nettles would be one of the first plants to grow back first. It would supply the nutrients and stability other plant would need to come back.
I drink a lot of herbal teas which nettle is a base for them. I like to pour the dregs into any plant that's not doing well. It's amazing how quickly they perk up. For a good quick light fertilizer, make a nettle tea & water your plants with it.
Steamed nettles tastes just like spinach and can be cooked the same way. They're best when the leaves are young & tender. They should be harvested early in the season before flowering. For medicinal uses, the leaves should be harvested during flowering. Once cooked, the leaves will lose it's sting. Same with when they're dried. If you do get stung, rub the juice of a crushed leaf on it to relieve the sting.
Nettles are high in all sorts of vitamins & minerals, good source of dietary fibre. All parts of the plant can be used in some form or other. The seeds are very high in fibre. The sting has been used for sciatica and arthritis. The sting contains chemicals that triggers the body's natural anti-inflammatory chemicals to deal with the inflammation.
Nettles is one of nature's all-purpose herb. According to the index of The Green Pharmacy by James Duke, nettles are good for treating allergies, Alzheimer's, arthritis, asthma, baldness, bladder infections, bronchitits, bursitis, coughs, gingivitis, gout, hives, kidney stones, laryngitis, multiple sclerosis, PMS, prostate enlargement, sciatica, tendinitis. Quite an extensive list!
Here are a couple of links for more information:
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/n/nettle03.html
http://www.holisticonline.com/Herbal-Med/_Herbs/h270.htm
Nettle was cultivated in many part of Europe to woven into linen and fishnet and other household cloths. The nettles would be cut & dried, then soaked in water. The fibres would then be separated & spun into yarn for weaving. Eventually the use of flax took over but, in some parts of Scotland, nettle fibres were still used until recently. Nettle fibres still makes a really nice sturdy paper. If anyone's interested, I'll post later about that.
Nettle makes a great companion plant for most garden vegetable & herbs. Just by growing next to the nettle, the vegetable will be healthier & more resistant to certain disease & insects. Growing nettles with your herbs can increase the potency of the herbs. Nettles in your compost will not only add nutrients but helps accelerate the breakdown of matter into humus. Usually, in any reclaiming of the land (like after a forest fire), nettles would be one of the first plants to grow back first. It would supply the nutrients and stability other plant would need to come back.
I drink a lot of herbal teas which nettle is a base for them. I like to pour the dregs into any plant that's not doing well. It's amazing how quickly they perk up. For a good quick light fertilizer, make a nettle tea & water your plants with it.
Steamed nettles tastes just like spinach and can be cooked the same way. They're best when the leaves are young & tender. They should be harvested early in the season before flowering. For medicinal uses, the leaves should be harvested during flowering. Once cooked, the leaves will lose it's sting. Same with when they're dried. If you do get stung, rub the juice of a crushed leaf on it to relieve the sting.
Nettles are high in all sorts of vitamins & minerals, good source of dietary fibre. All parts of the plant can be used in some form or other. The seeds are very high in fibre. The sting has been used for sciatica and arthritis. The sting contains chemicals that triggers the body's natural anti-inflammatory chemicals to deal with the inflammation.
Nettles is one of nature's all-purpose herb. According to the index of The Green Pharmacy by James Duke, nettles are good for treating allergies, Alzheimer's, arthritis, asthma, baldness, bladder infections, bronchitits, bursitis, coughs, gingivitis, gout, hives, kidney stones, laryngitis, multiple sclerosis, PMS, prostate enlargement, sciatica, tendinitis. Quite an extensive list!
Here are a couple of links for more information:
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/n/nettle03.html
http://www.holisticonline.com/Herbal-Med/_Herbs/h270.htm