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Picking and preserving nettle

We are fortunate to be gifted every spring with an abundance of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). While it’s sting can be unpleasant, it teaches us to pay attention to our surroundings and that’s a good thing.  It also offers food, medicine and fiber if one knows how to properly harvest it.

Don’t kill all the nettles out of your garden, because you might benefit from this weed-like herb! Not to mention, it is the perfect habitat for a lot of pollinator and predatory insects that will keep your other plants healthy.

If you would like to use nettle for food or drink (tea, beer, wine, kombucha), then harvest them before they flower. Picking the tender tops (usually 4-6 leaves) is the best for food. For fiber, harvest the entire stem, clip it near the ground. If you want to use the seeds, harvest them when they are still green and use them fresh or dry them for later use.

When harvesting nettle, use scissors and wear long sleeves, long pants and work gloves. When looking at your nettle, you can see little hairs on the stem and leaves. These hairs are hollow and when they get under your skin, the tips break off and allow the acidic juice under your skin. Even the lightest touch will get you stung, so don’t forget your gloves.

If you would like to dry your nettle for tea, there are many options. The simplest way is to make a bouquet of nettles and hang it to a dry place with a string and let the blowing air do the job. Once it’s dry, it’s much safer to handle since it loses the ability to sting. However, the hairs are still there and can be irritating to the skin or give you a sliver if you’re not careful. You can tell they are ready to store in a glass jar when the stems snap. Make sure not to dry the nettle to the point where it loses its green colour and turn brown or black. It’s just fine to use fresh plant material to make tea, but a lot of people prefer the taste of dried nettle.

Freezing your nettle for use throughout the year is also possible. Just toss them into a food processor and process until finely chopped. Then, put them into freezer-safe containers and store until you need them. The mechanical action of the food processor will break the hollow hairs so they are unable to sting you. Some people recommend blanching the nettles (adding them to boiling water, plunging into ice water, then using). Many of the nutrients are lost to the water and thrown out when blanching. Experiment and you will find a way that works best for you and your family.

Stinging nettle can substitute for spinach in any cooked recipe (they lose their sting when cooked). You can add them to lasagna, make pasta with them, throw them in soups or stews, etc. Online recipes abound.

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Nettle in Ayurveda

21 June International Day of Yoga

International Day of Yoga is celebrated annually on 21st June. It is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Yoga is an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition. This 5000-year practise was introduced to the West in the late 1800s, and has gained popularity over the last decade. Today, over 300 million people practice yoga across the globe, although studies show that 50% of all yoga practitioners are of Indian origin.

Yoga brings numerous mental and physical health benefits and promotes mindfulness. It is a holistic approach to health and well-being, it helps create harmony between man and nature. Yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual practice.

Yoga and Ayurveda are two interrelated branches of the same great tree of Vedic knowledge, a yogic system of medicine not simply in terms of asana or physical therapy, but also in regards to internal medicine or diet, herbs, and drugs. This holistic yogic system of medicine not simply for treating the physical body but also for treating the mind, emotions, and psychological disorders.

Ancient nettle knowledge

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is used in Ayurvedic treatment to cure various ailments. Nowadays, nettle has drawn a lot of attention, and plenty of research is being done on it. Due to its immense health potential, the popularity of stinging nettle is rising.

In Ayurvedic herbalism, nettle is considered cooling and pungent with an astringent taste. It is best aligned with Pitta energy, helping to gently cool and clear overheated conditions. From an Ayurvedic perspective, nettle is an excellent nourishing tonic and rejuvenative, particularly for the kidneys and adrenals. They increase ojas (the subtle essence of all vital fluids in your body), and are particularly good when run down from stress or illness or needing extra nourishment. 

Nettle tops have been used throughout history in food and drinks as a nourishing and detoxifying spring tonic. Nettle stimulates the action of the liver and the kidneys, thereby helping to clear aama (undigested food or other unmetabolized waste) from the body via the bowels and the urinary tract. According to Ayurveda, aama blocks the body’s channels and organs, preventing the body from absorbing essential nutrients. That’s why detoxification is so important to our health!

Milarepa is one of the most famous saints of Tibetan Buddhism. He is generally considered one of Tibet’s most famous yogis and poets. Traditionally depicted wearing white cotton, his skin was a said to be a slight greenish hue from a constant diet of nettle soup.

Mild astringency and general nourishing action of nettle, tightens and strengthens blood vessels, helps maintain arterial elasticity and improves venous resilience. By reducing excess Pitta in the blood, nettle helps clear inflammatory skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and acne. The herb also helps keep Kapha levels in check, improving overall vitality. Its carminative properties relieve intestinal gas, and its capacity to promote peristalsis is helpful for some common Vata-related intestinal problems. But taken in high doses can cause excess Vata. Ayurvedic practitioners also recommend taking nettle to stop diarrhea.

But the short and long for it is, yoga and nettle can help us find balance in our body, mind and soul.

Namaste!

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Nettle in the Sushi

18 June International Sushi Day

International Sushi Day celebrates this potentially delicious meal and seeks to raise awareness about the truths and fictions surrounding it. Sushi had changed from a way to preserve fish to a new form of cuisine. But this wasn’t the last stage in the food’s evolution.

It was in between 1600 and 1800 AD in Japan, that the traditional form of sushi we know today came to exist. At this point it was unique to Japanese culture and consisted of fish and vegetables wrapped in rice, that was mixed with vinegar. This form of sushi had regional variations, but the basic idea is still one of the most popular forms of sushi today.

Making your own sushi is always fun, isn’t it? It is not going to taste anywhere near the standard of a proper sushi chef, but worth a try. Enjoy Sushi Day with your friends today!

Nettle and algae are a combination of elemental force. It is not common at all, using nettle in sushi, but sounds like a promising experiment.

Let’s see how to make an easy sushi inspired nettle-nori superfood…

Ingredients:

  • 200 g cashew
  • 300 ml water
  • a small bunch of parsley
  • 3 tbsp dried nettle seed
  • 1-2 tsp tamari
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 2 nori plate
  • 1-2 tsp tamari or wasabi to taste

Preparation:

  1. Soak cashew nuts in water for 2 to 3 hours, drain and rinse. Put them in a blender with parsley, nettle seeds, tamari and salt and process until creamy.
  2. Spread the mixture evenly on a nori plate. Place a second sheet of algae on top and press lightly (and evenly) with a board. Put the whole thing in the dehydrator and let it dry for 8 hours or overnight at 42 ° C.
  3. Then cut it even to rhombus shape and serve with tamari or wasabi as a sophisticated nettle superfood snack.
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Wellness with Nettle Chips

12 June 2021 Global Wellness Day

With the slogan “One day can change your whole life“, we celebrate Global Wellness Day on the second Saturday of June every year as an international day. 

All of us would like to be healthier, to look better, and to live well both physically and spiritually. Living well is almost the entire world’s shared dream.

Today is about adopting nutrition, exercise, and healthy living by eating healthy, sleeping on time, and spending more time with loved ones. Wellness and healthy living is everything. Without good health, happiness, and peace, there is no point living and nothing really matters if we don’t have these key aspects of life in place or in our control.

Healthy food comes from natural ingredients. Today, try to cook your own meal. Try to go outside in nature, take a walk in the forest or by the river. Breath! Pay attention to herbs, as they are nature’s gift to us to restore and maintain our health. Illness takes a long time to develop, so medicinal plants take a long time as well to cure the illness. Be patient and give your body and soul a pause to relaxation and healing from everyday rush and stress.

Use nettle to clean your system and charge your batteries. Slow down a bit, have a cup of tea and enjoy the moment you spend with your family and friends. Let nettle tea detoxify your blood, clean your veins, upload you with lots of useful minerals like iron, magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, vitamin K and other nutrients.

Fresh or processed nettle is recommended as a high-protein, low-calorie source of essential nutrients, minerals, and vitamins. Let’s try the easiest and most delicious Nettle Chips recipe!

Nettle Chips Recipe

1. Preheat your oven to its hottest setting, around 220˚C.

2. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Arrange the nettle leaves in a single layer and lightly spray them with olive oil. Turn the leaves over and spray the other side, then put the tray into the oven for 3-5 minutes, until the leaves are crisp, bright green and slightly translucent.

3. Season with salt and pepper, and eat.

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Nettle in a Cheese?

In order to preserve milk, it needs to be transformed  into cheese. This process involves coagulating milk and draining off excess liquid. Humans realised the usefulness of this technique very early on and began to produce curd cheese in the 5th millennium B.C. Hard, cooked-curd cheeses appeared in the late Middle Ages. There are thousands of types of cheese in the world today.

Did you know that nettle leaves serve as a preservative in cheese making?

In the United Kingdom, cheesemakers use stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) as a natural preservative. Cornish Yarg cheese is a semi-hard cheese made in Cornwall with a distinctive rind made by wrapping the cheese in nettle leaves. The earliest recipe dates back to the 13th century. “Yarg” is simply “Gray” spelt backwards. It is named after Alan and Jenny Gray, enterprising farmers who found a 1615 recipe for a nettle-wrapped semi-hard cheese in their attic. Today, the cheese is produced at Lynher Dairies Cheese Company on Pengreep Farm, by Catherine Mead.

Cornish Yarg wins international awards every year. Leaf-wrapped Yarg takes about 4-5 weeks to mature, by which time a beautiful white bloom appears on the nettles.

Made from grass rich Cornish milk, Cornish Yarg is tangy under its natural rind and slightly crumbly in the core. The nettle leaves, which attract naturally occurring moulds, are brushed onto the cheese in concentric circles. As the cheese matures, the edible wrap imparts a delicate, mushroomy taste and develops its unique bloomy white appearance.

And finally an English cheese joke:

“What would be a Cornish pirate’s favourite cheese?”/”Yarrrrg.”