Triumph of Nettle
The nettle has triumphant qualities often used in times of crisis for food, medicine and fibres. Now is a good time to connect with the nettle and now more than ever to draw upon its triumphant qualities. I write this in my one-bedroomed flat in central Hove and still I feel nature's heart as the memories of my plant friends come to me when I can't get to them.
So sit back, breathe, put your worries aside and immerse yourself in the qualities of nettle.
Latin : Urtica diocia Family: Urticaceae
History and/or use: Making of fabrics and dyes. Edible leaves full of iron, protein and beneficial minerals
Wildlife Value: Butterfly food plant.
Nettle, despite it being a noxious weed everyone is trying to destroy, is a ‘super’ plant that can be used for food, medicine and the making of cloth and cordage.
Nettle Cordage
Cordage making begins in the summer once the plant is more mature usually from June/July onwards. Remove the leaves, bash the stem and then open it up to remove the pith. The outer fibres can be plaited or twisted to make strong string or rope. I have found it as enduring as any plant fibre and as strong as deer sinew when made into cordage.
So sit back, breathe, put your worries aside and immerse yourself in the qualities of nettle.
Latin : Urtica diocia Family: Urticaceae
History and/or use: Making of fabrics and dyes. Edible leaves full of iron, protein and beneficial minerals
Wildlife Value: Butterfly food plant.
Nettle, despite it being a noxious weed everyone is trying to destroy, is a ‘super’ plant that can be used for food, medicine and the making of cloth and cordage.
Nettle Cordage
Cordage making begins in the summer once the plant is more mature usually from June/July onwards. Remove the leaves, bash the stem and then open it up to remove the pith. The outer fibres can be plaited or twisted to make strong string or rope. I have found it as enduring as any plant fibre and as strong as deer sinew when made into cordage.
The first picture on the left above shows the stages of the creation of the nettle cordage from the freshly picked plants to the stems once the leaves and hairs are removed through to a reel of cordage. This first step can be done using gloves although it is said:
'Tender handed touch a nettle and it will sting you for your pain, grasp it like a man of mettle and it soft as silk remains.'
The above statement is true but you must be confident and firm. It is also important in the first step that you do remove all the hairs so that the cordage doesn't continue to sting you after its creation.
The second picture shows three types of cordage, from left to right the first cordage is made from the bark of Clematis vitalba often known as old man's beard. The second reel is made of the bark of the lime tree which was prized by our ancestors for making cordage which they called 'Bass'. When we discover woods with the word 'Bass' in its name this is referring to the use of the lime tree's phloem (inner bark) layer to create cordage. This material would have been used to hold medieval scaffold poles together but unlikely to have competed well against the 1500 year old cannabis industry which produced high quality material. The third reel is the nettle cordage.
The last picture on the right is a canvas tarpaulin being held up by hazel poles with nettle and lime bark cordage as guy lines to hold it all in place. I have found nettle to be the strongest of the cordage that I have made. I tend to cover it in beeswax to help waterproof it, traditionally pitch would have been used especially on hemp ropes.
The nettle fibres can also be used to weave cloth; a bronze age Dane was discovered wrapped in nettle fibres.
Even as late as the Twentieth century the nettle was still being used to make table cloths and bed linen in Scotland.
Nettles as food
Nettle leaves are full of minerals and contain many vitamins especially A and C. They have a 2.3% iron content and 5.5% protein content by weight. Nettle puree can be made by simmering the leaves for 5 minutes adding butter and seasoning with onion as a tasty alternative to spinach. You can simply boil and steam the nettle leaves if preferred.
To make nettle crisps just simply shallow fry the freshly picked nettle tops being careful not to burn them and then dab dry with an absorbent paper.
'Tender handed touch a nettle and it will sting you for your pain, grasp it like a man of mettle and it soft as silk remains.'
The above statement is true but you must be confident and firm. It is also important in the first step that you do remove all the hairs so that the cordage doesn't continue to sting you after its creation.
The second picture shows three types of cordage, from left to right the first cordage is made from the bark of Clematis vitalba often known as old man's beard. The second reel is made of the bark of the lime tree which was prized by our ancestors for making cordage which they called 'Bass'. When we discover woods with the word 'Bass' in its name this is referring to the use of the lime tree's phloem (inner bark) layer to create cordage. This material would have been used to hold medieval scaffold poles together but unlikely to have competed well against the 1500 year old cannabis industry which produced high quality material. The third reel is the nettle cordage.
The last picture on the right is a canvas tarpaulin being held up by hazel poles with nettle and lime bark cordage as guy lines to hold it all in place. I have found nettle to be the strongest of the cordage that I have made. I tend to cover it in beeswax to help waterproof it, traditionally pitch would have been used especially on hemp ropes.
The nettle fibres can also be used to weave cloth; a bronze age Dane was discovered wrapped in nettle fibres.
Even as late as the Twentieth century the nettle was still being used to make table cloths and bed linen in Scotland.
Nettles as food
Nettle leaves are full of minerals and contain many vitamins especially A and C. They have a 2.3% iron content and 5.5% protein content by weight. Nettle puree can be made by simmering the leaves for 5 minutes adding butter and seasoning with onion as a tasty alternative to spinach. You can simply boil and steam the nettle leaves if preferred.
To make nettle crisps just simply shallow fry the freshly picked nettle tops being careful not to burn them and then dab dry with an absorbent paper.
Pictures- Left to Right- nettle crisps- freshly harvested nettles- nettle soup
Nettles as Medicine
As a medicine nettle can be collected just before it flowers to relieve high blood pressure, cystitis, anaemia (due to mineral rich leaves) and can act as a diuretic. Use the leaves fresh or dry as an infusion as discussed earlier in the course. The root can treat diarrhoea and dysentery and be made into a tincture for eczema.
In World War Two the plant was gathered to supply chlorophyll for medicines and dye for camouflage nets.
Nettles for Wildlife
Nettles are also very important for wildlife as they support beautiful butterflies such as the comma, red admiral, peacock, painted lady and the small tortoiseshell.
The caterpillars of these species depend on nettles often for a whole month in the summer as a food source so do require large patches of them. The painted lady will use nettles but mainly will lay her eggs on thistles and the small tortoiseshell will also lay eggs on the small nettle (Urtica urens) which is especially common in Eastern England including Brighton where I live. The comma will lay single eggs fluttering from one patch to another whilst the peacock my lay up to 400 eggs in a single patch. The red admiral caterpillars are easy to find as they are grouped in silk tents.
So do keep a patch of nettles and look beyond its spiky appearance to its wealth of uses.
Qualities of Nettle
Let us for a moment enter into the imaginative realms of the nettle. Nettle grows in clumps, its distinctive yellow roots form mats which cling to the soil and are difficult to remove, it has hairs all over its stems and leaves which release an acid that stings the skin and yet it is full of life-giving properties.
Nettle once again proves that nature does not fit into neat label of good or bad and the biting, stinging poisonous world of nature always without question feeds into the eternal beauty of a balanced web. The minute humans stop trying to control and pigeon-hole concepts is the moment we are open to all the aspects of nature.
The plant to me feels brittle and empty, determined and tenacious and that quality creates strong rope, effective medicine and food not only for humans but for many invertebrates. Imagine all those caterpillars we spoke of growing on the nutrient rich food of nettle. Nettle contains the key minerals which are strong building blocks to maintain our good health such as iron and calcium as well as being rich in protein. This enables it to help many conditions as well as help maintain good bone health and reduce inflammations of the joints such as in arthritis.
In this country we have around 2000 plant species which all have a gift to give to the world, may we continue to reap the rewards of connecting to our precious world and help in our own unique way to bring harmony to the web of life.
I would like to conclude with the words of John O'Donohue 'In praise of Earth' :
'Let us remember within us,
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the winds,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.
That we may awaken,
To live life to the full
The dream of the earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit and light.'
Nettles as Medicine
As a medicine nettle can be collected just before it flowers to relieve high blood pressure, cystitis, anaemia (due to mineral rich leaves) and can act as a diuretic. Use the leaves fresh or dry as an infusion as discussed earlier in the course. The root can treat diarrhoea and dysentery and be made into a tincture for eczema.
In World War Two the plant was gathered to supply chlorophyll for medicines and dye for camouflage nets.
Nettles for Wildlife
Nettles are also very important for wildlife as they support beautiful butterflies such as the comma, red admiral, peacock, painted lady and the small tortoiseshell.
The caterpillars of these species depend on nettles often for a whole month in the summer as a food source so do require large patches of them. The painted lady will use nettles but mainly will lay her eggs on thistles and the small tortoiseshell will also lay eggs on the small nettle (Urtica urens) which is especially common in Eastern England including Brighton where I live. The comma will lay single eggs fluttering from one patch to another whilst the peacock my lay up to 400 eggs in a single patch. The red admiral caterpillars are easy to find as they are grouped in silk tents.
So do keep a patch of nettles and look beyond its spiky appearance to its wealth of uses.
Qualities of Nettle
Let us for a moment enter into the imaginative realms of the nettle. Nettle grows in clumps, its distinctive yellow roots form mats which cling to the soil and are difficult to remove, it has hairs all over its stems and leaves which release an acid that stings the skin and yet it is full of life-giving properties.
Nettle once again proves that nature does not fit into neat label of good or bad and the biting, stinging poisonous world of nature always without question feeds into the eternal beauty of a balanced web. The minute humans stop trying to control and pigeon-hole concepts is the moment we are open to all the aspects of nature.
The plant to me feels brittle and empty, determined and tenacious and that quality creates strong rope, effective medicine and food not only for humans but for many invertebrates. Imagine all those caterpillars we spoke of growing on the nutrient rich food of nettle. Nettle contains the key minerals which are strong building blocks to maintain our good health such as iron and calcium as well as being rich in protein. This enables it to help many conditions as well as help maintain good bone health and reduce inflammations of the joints such as in arthritis.
In this country we have around 2000 plant species which all have a gift to give to the world, may we continue to reap the rewards of connecting to our precious world and help in our own unique way to bring harmony to the web of life.
I would like to conclude with the words of John O'Donohue 'In praise of Earth' :
'Let us remember within us,
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the winds,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.
That we may awaken,
To live life to the full
The dream of the earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit and light.'