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Herb of the Month: Nettles Urtica dioica
In the garden
During March and early April the nettles emerge from their patch of fertile soil. Not only does the nettle flourish on rich soil, it creates fertility, making wonderful compost.
A good recipe for a year-round ‘compost tea’ is to fill a bucket
or large bowl with water, and add:
• a handful of fresh cow, horse or chicken manure
• a handful of home made compost
• a handful of nettle tops.
Leave the bucket somewhere warm that you pass regularly,
and stir it frequently, until yellow scummy bubbles form. In 48 hours your compost tea is ready, with bacteria raring to feed your soil. Dilute it 1:10 with water and use it to water both vegetable and flower beds.
and stir it frequently, until yellow scummy bubbles form. In 48 hours your compost tea is ready, with bacteria raring to feed your soil. Dilute it 1:10 with water and use it to water both vegetable and flower beds.
In the kitchen
Nettles tops as tea, or in cooking, are good food; a nourishing spring tonic for weakness and debility. Pick the top four leaves in young plants (with scissors, and wearing gloves!) and dry them easily in a colander in the kitchen, or on a wire cooling tray in an airy room. Then chop them up (e.g. in a food processor) and store to use as ‘tea’, a heaped teaspoon to a mug of water. Or make wonderful nettle soup, which freezes well.
Nettle soup
Soften a chopped onion or leek and garlic in butter; add a diced floury potato and cook it gently for a few minutes, then add two handfuls of cleaned nettle tops. Cover with good vegetable stock, and simmer until the potato is cooked. Season to taste, liquidize or whizz, and add full cream milk or single cream. Reheat gently: do not boil.
In herbal medicine
Nettles stimulate the liver and kidneys, cleansing the body of toxins and wastes. Nettles clear the skin in eczema and urticaria. It’s a diuretic, relieving fluid retention, cystitis and urethritis. It softens kidney stones and kidney gravel. Its astringency makes a useful wash for external bleeding. It’s good for hayfever, bronchitis and asthma. It is a tonic for the digestion, and relieves diarrhoea, flatulence, ulcers, phlegm
and intestinal worms. It helps reduce blood sugar.
and intestinal worms. It helps reduce blood sugar.
For more information call:
01453 884 092