Tag: 2021_August

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Nettle for your Nails

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a nutritional powerhouse. More than 100 chemical components have been identified in nettle, including minerals as well as vitamins. Nettle also contains phytonutrients: chlorophyll, beta-carotene, lutein, quercetin, all of which are incredible for hair, skin and nails. Nettle is a natural beautifier herb. 

Let’s have a closer look at how nettle can help your nails!

Vitamin C is widely regarded as great for nails, so it’s great that nature provides us with nettle which contains a lot of it. Nettle also contains vitamin A, that enhances the production of keratin – the main building blocks of nails – and protects them from the destructive influence of toxins.

You can find nettle based dietary supplements in every health store to promote your nail growth and strength, but if you don’t want to spend too much money on them, you have an easy homemade option to increase nail health.

You can soak your nails in a strong nettle tea. Just brew the tea stronger than when made for drinking (add 3-4 teaspoons) and soak the nails for approximately 15 minutes once a week. You can also add oil and mix it with tea. Olive oil is an extremely moisturising and healing oil and is easily absorbed into the skin making it an excellent choice for nails. Another good choice for nails is grapeseed oil that is loaded with antioxidants, vitamin E, vitamin C, beta-carotene and vitamin D. 

After a few weeks of nettle tea and oil treatment, your nails will be beautiful, healthy, and strong.

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Beat allergies with Nettle

If you have seasonal allergies, you know they can be challenging, the symptoms can become difficult to tolerate.

Allergic rhinitis is increasingly common. Although this shares the same symptoms as hayfever, these can occur all year round rather than just through the pollen season. Allergic rhinitis can also be triggered by house dust mites, animal hair, traffic fumes, plant moulds, feathers in pillows, cleaning materials, air fresheners, perfumes, aftershaves and deodorants.

Allergies are an immune response to an otherwise harmless substance that comes into contact with cells in the mucus membranes of your nose, mouth, throat, lungs, stomach, and intestines. In a person with allergies, this ends up triggering the release of the chemical histamine. Histamine is a part of the immune system that causes all the symptoms you associate with allergies. Antihistamines block histamine activity, seeking to stop the allergic reaction.

Many allergy medications on the shelves of the drugstores work as antihistamines. But there are also certain foods and plant extracts that may similarly block the effects of histamine.

Did you know that stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a natural antihistamine?

If allergic rhinitis brings out itchy skin, bumpy red rashes or inflamed skin you may benefit from nettle. Nettle tea and nettle tincture are widely available. But nettle soup made from freshly harvested nettle leaves is also a great help to ease allergy symptoms.

For a nettle tea, measure one teaspoon of dried nettle to one cup of boiling water. Allow it to steep for 10 minutes, then strain and drink. 

3 cups of nettle tea a day gonna blow your allergy away! 🙂

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Eco-Textile Made Of Nettle

“In some parts of the world you can sleep between nettle sheets, eat off a nettle tablecloth, dine in nettle-enriched steaks and eggs ordered from a nettle-paper menu, in an emergency fish with a nettle line, and in the springtime especially revel with delectable nettle dishes washed down with nettle beer. In fact, this is only a portion of this wild edible’s capabilities”. ~ Angier

Nettle is among those plants – beside bamboo, eucalyptus, cedar and Indian lotus – in the world that has several areas of use. It is not only a common herb that you can make tea of, but nettle kept generations alive and healthy by providing food, drink, paper, clothes and other equipment for surviving in the wild (e.g. fishing net).

Prehistoric textiles were made of nettle, started to spread in the Bronze Age and were popular again during the World Wars, mostly because it was the only available material for clothes. It was widely presumed that production of plant fiber textiles in ancient Europe, especially woven textiles for clothing, was closely linked to the development of agriculture. Researchers discovered that ancient people were conscious users of wild plants too, they not only used cultivated flax and hemp to make clothes. They even trade nettle textiles in the continent. The nettle cloth found in Denmark – tells a surprising story about long-distance Bronze Age trade connections around 800 BC – was made in Austria.

The royals favoured the finest nettle in their clothes and home textiles, the use of which was forbidden from the rest of the citizens! The nettle fibres were a highly respected fibres among the people.

Today, the world population is on increase, but land doesn’t. The demand for sustainable textiles is increasing, which is great news. By converting nettle stalks into a linen-like fabric, some companies have started to create an eco-fabric out of natural rather than synthetic materials and employ thousands of artisans across the globe. Their project has benefits beyond the current generation. With the success in nettle eco-fiber production, they will reduce the need for conventional fiber and in turn the amount of greenhouse gases produced during conventional fiber production.

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Nettle Beer

6th August 2021 International Beer Day

International Beer Day is a global celebration of beer, taking place in pubs, breweries, and backyards all over the world. It’s a day for beer lovers everywhere to celebrate the craft of brewing and to show appreciation for those involved in the making of beer.

The majority of beers on the market today are either ales or lagers. Lagers tend to have a more smooth and mellow flavor, while ales are more full-bodied and slightly bitter, due to the yeast and fermentation process. Lagers are fermented for longer at lower temperatures, while ales are fermented at higher temperatures for a shorter period of time.

The hop (Humulus lupulus), which is now the quintessential aromatic and bittering herb of our contemporary beers, was often completely unknown in some brewing areas of Europe. In fact, hopped beer has only been popular in the UK for the last five hundred years. Instead, brewers relied on a healthy collection of herbs. This was the unhopped Gruit Ale. For example, yarrow ale was the traditional wedding beer in some cultures. 

Today, Gruit is making a comeback, as many breweries are riding a wave of interest in speciality beers. There are hundreds of ingredients they use to taste beers, like fruits and herbs.

The Celts have started to use nettle (Urtica dioica) for making beer as far back as the Bronze Age. The brewing of nettle beer is mostly unrecorded, probably because it was strictly a rural activity carried out by the poor and illiterate. Most recipes miss out both hops and malt. 

Modern enthusiastic foragers who become talented homebrewers, usually use fresh nettle tops, ginger, lemon or orange to make nettle beer. If you are planning to impress your friends and loved ones with your homemade nettle beer on International Beer Day, you can find several nettle beer recipes on the internet. Don’t hesitate to brew your own beer!

Happy International Beer Day!