Is This The Most Useful 'Weed' for Self-Sufficiency?
2024 ж. 4 Мам.
94 866 Рет қаралды
I think it is!
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Not being the no weed police, but it reminds me of what my Grandma used to say. "There's no such thing as weeds, just Wildflowers without a home!" She was an avid gardener 🌹
In Italy we use nettle for gnocchi, ravioli and vegetables pies 😋
Nettles can also be used to create a fibre that is very similar to silk, it was called silk of the North or Nordic silk. It was considered such a luxurious fabric that in Norway ordinary people were banned from wearing it until 1720.
Nettles are extremely nutritious - in soups, stews, pestos, tea, etc. In Korea, a very long nettle was used to make Rami, the native cloth. In fact, other countries that had come into contact with the 'hermit kingdom' called Koreans 'the people who wear white' as the fabric from the nettles was always white and never dyed for everyday clothing.
One of my favourite fairytales was about a princess saving her brothers from the curse of a witch that had turned them into swans. To break the curse she had to weave and sew shirts made of nettles for all of them to put on. She had to do all the work herself. Cutting and preparing the nettles to the weaving and sewing.
@@typower9 Yes...Hans Christian Anderson, the writer of 'The Little Mermaid' and many many other stories.
I remember that one too! I used to love it as a child, was one of my favourite stories of Hans Christian Anderson. Except it was a prince , and they fell in love he always had one swan wing remaining as she didn't get it completely finish it in time..
@@TheSalmuse7 Maybe i just had a different version of the story. Or maybe mine was by a different author.
My granny always claimed she wouldn't have lived to be 97 years old if she hadn't eaten nettle spinach and dandelion salad almost every day. 😊 I love both!
Dandelion, Cleavers, Stinging Nettle for the win!
Hi! You forgot an essential thing. In Romania we eat it an buy it only when it has 3 or 5 cm high. Then when it s higher is very useful in the garden: it can fight againt any fungus an insects when we make a juice from it. We keep it a day or two in the water and then use it to sprinkle the garden.
Super fascinating!! Thank you so much!!
I just had steamed nettles tops as a veg with my cottage pie, been eating them for years, simply delicious. Use as a plant food too. Thanks for telling everyone, nobody takes any notice of me!
If you harvest the top three rounds of leaves, those are the best ones.
@@marilynstanbury5098 I know how it feels!
The Best soup whit bacon....yam
What a coincidence, I’ve just eaten steamed nettle tops as a veg with my cottage pie, simply delicious, been eating them for years! Also great food in the vegetable garden and I’ve also used them for years as a final rinse to my hair…..no dandruff and a good shine……just nettles steeped in hot water, like a tea. Thanks for the great video telling everyone how fantastic nettles are, nobody believes me.
Nettle soup; nettle stew; nettle pesto; nettle tea!
And shampoo, simply fabulous.
Ater they’re blanched, I like to fry them quickly in butter and black pepper. Delicious! It could almost pass for meat if it wasn’t for the texture.
When I injured my back I had to leave the gardening so it went wild and nettles sprouted up and grew 10 foot tall and huge leaves and cleavers grew so I added that to my greens smoothie. Dandelions, dock leaves, blackberries and alpine strawberries grew too so I had free food. I had to build a bamboo stick support structure for the tall nettles as the wind and rain tend to flatten them. I don't eat the baby leaves along the stalks, I let them grow for next harvest. I've noticed people harvest the whole stalk but then if you do that just like celery, cabbage, spinach and lettuce then it's gone so why not take what you need and let the vegetables carry on growing for more food. I only harvested outer stalks of celery and the middle just carried on expanding and each celery plant divided itself into five new plants and they survived for 7 years till the drought. They do require a lot of water. The stalks were three times wider than supermarket celery and were two foot tall. Also to grow larger celery the soil needs to be deep...they have long roots.
I’ve tried nettles half a dozen different ways ,it’s just such a strong unpleasant flavour I can’t eat it same with coriander so bitter it ruins food .fortunately I have sheep and ponies who love wilted nettles so they get used to
Im a permaculturist, its all fine and dandy ! 😂😂😂 I need this on a T-Shirt
Hahahahaha🤣
Dandelions should never be underestimated for the uses they can provide! thanks Hugh!.
I'm making a dandelion beer this week, haha! Collecting blooms for it now. For some reason, the greens of the dandelions in my yard taste a lot better than ones I've had before, too. I munch on them regularly.
Dandelion & lemongrass extract is useful in studies for prostate cancer, I was reading a paper some months back. I've made tinctures and collected more wild flowers two days ago.
@@Zoeybeau_1 Dandelion root, also destroys breast cancer. However please don't pick all the flowers in your garden, as the flowers have both pollen & nectar which are needed for bees.
@@carolineowen7846 You can make honey out of them too, tastes great! Not to mention all the different teas you an make. I hate seeing all the dandelions getting cut throughout spring and summer in urban areas for the sake of lifeless too short grass :(
All the variety of greens in right ratios keep you in good fettle along with nettle lol
As soon as I saw the title I knew this would be about nettles 😊 Such a valuable resource! My first experience with appreciating nettles was as a child, probably about 10. I was away at a week long conservation summer camp and one of the activities was a long hike followed by setting up a primitive survival camp for the night. We couldn’t bring food and instead were only allowed to harvest nettles and drink nettle tea that night. We were taught to tap the plant with a stick to loosen excess pollen and then pinch the individual leaves from the top, folding them downward on themselves because the underside has the most needles. Now I harvest them for drying for drinking teas and for making fertilizer in the garden.
Also you can make string from the long fibres in the stems. Sally Pointer has some great videos on making and using nettle fibre.
Boiled down... they're a vegetarian rennet that can be used in cheese making! Just in case you're fresh out of ruminate parts. 🐑
That’s a juicy bit of knowledge to pack away, thank you!
I had never heard of that before. It is well worth noting with different shortages and chemicals being put into our food ingredients. Thank you.
I still have nettles in my freezers and I'm desperately trying to eat it all to create space for this years harvest. (We still have snow). I use the nettles in soups, stews, pies, omelett and pasta dishes. It's a great vegetable AND it's great as a fertilizer for healthy plants! ❤
Makes a great pesto as well, made like the Genovese style of pesto. With walnuts. I also drink nettle tea, great for staving off seasonal allergies, like pollen, snow mold, etc. The old folk used to roll in a nettle bed if they had arthritis or rheumatism.
I live in the desert and I have planted yarrow, peppernint, oregano, thme, sage, lavender, dock and more. Then I have dandelions and plaintain that grows wild.
I have a treasure. I found a patch of nettle together with comfrey. The two plants grow right next to each other. Safe to say I harvest from this spot almost weekly.
If you have a nettle patch, you have super nutritious soil.
What do you do with the comfrey?
@@charleskelm3703 I use it in fertilizer teas with nettle. I let it steep until it stinks and then strain it and dilute it somewhat before watering my plants with it. I also put it in my compost to add even more fertility. The taproot of the comfrey is excellent at pulling up nutrients from the ground and making it accessible for the plant.
@@charleskelm3703 Fill up a barrel with water and add as many comfrey leaves as will fit. Cover and allow to ferment. It will stink. But it is a fertilizer tea and plants love it. I also make an arthritis cream with it and can it. It makes a great poultice for joint pain.
I was thinking black locust. Very useful tree. Wood doesn't rot. Edible seed pods. Attracts squirrels. Some people say that the spikes can be used as nails in softer woods. They are definitely straight and long enough, and probably hard enough. Black locust is very hard wood. I like plants.
Also one of the best for firewood, very high btu.
My Nan would make nettle wine every year, when I was allowed a sip it tasted nice 😄
What is the Recipe
Recipe please?
Do you know the recepie? And would shsre it?
Love it when Huw says “we’re all part of nature, it’s all fine and dandy…”SO true 👍🏻😃
I live in a desert alpine valley in Colorado. To get nettles at all, I have to treat it like a perennial vegetable in a raised bed. I haven't managed to get mine to weed status yet... life goals!😂
😂😂Same here the living in a desert part. Namib desert in Namibia 🇳🇦. Cannot even find nettle seeds here 🤦♀️. So yes not status yet for them for me 😂😂
Surely you have something local that is more suited? A milkweed perhaps?
@@jackiethiardt2127oh, they'd grow in hot climates? Guess I'll ask family in Europe if they can find me nettle seeds.
@@nunyabiznes33 I have no idea if they will grow here. To be honest I have never seen a nettle here in the wild but would love to grow them in my garden.
@@pattheplanter Can I use this similarly to nettles? We have this growing wild along our main roads. Not that I knew that 😮. Google just told me that the wild flowers here we call something else are actually milkweed. I am a very very beginner gardener but it actually excites me when this happens. Me learning something at my age that have me go oh wow I did not know that. Thank you!!
Huw, blimey you've come a long way. well done
I love nettles. you are amazing man. Been watching you grow for years.
I was collecting the tops of nettles for soup just this weekend. Trust me, they will more than recover lol. And I have to go to some wild land to get mine. So while I was there foraging, I had the joy of coming upon that rare beauty white trillium. As a forager I know that this is a plant that can be easily damaged by human interference and often doesn't recover very well. I don't need white trillium for anything except that mood boost I get rounding a bend in the trail to discover one in all its glory so I left it alone and took nothing but joy and pictures away. True foragers know these things. Yes, some people don't know these things and know how to manage the land they forage so that nature can be successful and other foragers can also benefit. Yes some people may indiscriminately damage things, but these aren't knowledgeable foragers. However I guess there is a.point to be made that some people may watch a video like this, get a little knowledge on foraging and then tromp destructively through the woods. So maybe it's worth making a video on some.of the dos and don'ts of foraging if you are an influencer. Now I am just playing devil's advocate lol. Anyway. Thanks. I love your videos...and to anyone who has never eaten a good nettle soup, you aren't truly living! The soup I made this weekend had nettles and onions and carrots and a dash of milk and cheddar. Yummm!
Excellent points to make 🙏💚
“We are a part of nature” … l love it! I share my cabbages, they share their nettles. Great job, Huw! Keep us balanced in our thinking.
I've got a small bunch growing on the side of my garden, just peeping through the fence. I put up a sign for the council not to mow them "I standing here for Butterflies". So far so good. As an artist I also use them to make/add to handmade paper. And of course (like mentioned) liquid feed, or simply composting/mulching. Super versatile. Thanks Huw!
Nettles are my best friend for allergy season. A gardeners fix, for a sniffly gardener! I couldn’t believe it would work but sipping nettle tea throughout the day keeps me off all those allergy pills!
They're full of antihistamines, that's why they work. And none of the drowsiness that comes with those pills!
I have received my book yesterday. Thank you Huw and Sam for a fantastic book. 🎉🎉
I made a tea from stinging nettle, and it was delicious! There's also a soup recipe made with it and potatoes, carrots and almost anything else you want to add - yummy!
I eat, infuse and powder nettles.. Nature's perfect 💚
But how do you avoid having the needle like hairs sticking into your throat?
@@greghayes9118 drying and cooking in water or butter takes care of that.. 🙏
@@user-eg7wi8xr2f Now I am interested in tasting it. A few years ago, I booked a lady who does group seminars, outdoors on edible weeds. It was a hit. I know that I have seen nettles somewhere in my area. Thanks for the info..
I love nettle soup - similar flavour to watercress soup. Just recently I've been drinking nettle tea - reminded me of eating sushi - it's just like the seaweed wrap. I didn't realise it was analgesic - goodbye paracetamol! Yum! Did like the look of that toasty dish! Thank you Huw.
I like the flavour and texture of nettles more than spinach. I just finished my dried nettle seed from last year, had some on my soaked oats every morning! Must save more this year! ☺️
I love nettles, there a great food source for us and creatures. They are also great for making cordage and textiles!
In Greece the old folk used it in soups, stews and as the greens instead of spinach in spinach pie. In Crete they use it as a staple green and people in the know pick it and cook it. Its very versatile.
I love your attitude about nature, permaculture, and no dig. Thanks Huw for another interesting and useful video 👍🌟✔
I harvested, steamed, cooled and froze a large batch last year in very little time and it was light work too. Very like spinach. I only pick the top four leaves so I'm less likely to disturb insect eggs etc. Good to remind us of nettles Huw😊
I just put another set of nettle leaves in the dehydrator about 1/2 hour before seeing this video... It will go EVERYWHERE, and I would consider it a weed. Last year I had one plant, and this year I have a patch about 3x4 feet large.
I use nettles in soup (my fav), stewed as sidedish, in pies, pastadough or like lasagna or sauce, gnocchi and the seeds on top of youghurt or in smoothies. Living up north in Sweden we have a short growing season and have to wait for the harvest of veggies so they are a nice contribution to my food in May/June. After a couple of harvest I cut them down, put the stems in a waterbarrel and make fertiliser from them, Then I got a second and fourth harvest from the plants I have cut down. So versatile, love them!
Another edible "weed" is the similar but non-stinging white deadnettle & purple deadnettle plant. They are amongst the first to flower along with spring bulbs like daffodils, crocuses, tulips & muscari, but bumblebees seem to overwhelmingly prefer the nectar of the white deadnettle & dandelions.
Thank Huw!! it is always a delight to listen to your very useful videos!! keep on doing them!
I had a big, creamy (blended cashew cream) nettle soup yesterday. I just added some onion and salt. So delicious!
Many years ago, I was lucky enough to attend a ‘local delicacies’ dinner in Finland that included cream of nettle soup. I’ve been hoping and wishing for it to be served to me again ever since! So so so delicious.
Could you please make a really close-up video on exactly how to pick the nettles with bear hands please? I love them too! And I had actually made a dish years ago when my kids were young and they like it too. Saute tender nettle leaves with red onions in butter and then put these with some feta cheese on top of pastry dough. Wrap them into a sort of a box or a croissant and bake. You can eat these pure or with some glazed orange or tomatoes or both. So add finely chopped oranges with peel and tomatoes anrich brown sugar or coconut sugar and a pinch of freshly milled pepper if you like. Perhaps you could swap oranges with lemons.
This sounds absolutely WONDERFUL!!!!! Thank you ❤
Just picked nettles today! For fermentering into plant juice and for food. Such a lovely gift of nature. My experience is that they grow back just fine when harvested sensibly.
Nettles grow back no matter how hard you harvest them rip them out, at least that's my experience on my smallholding in the UK
@HuwRichards, great info as always and am loving my signed copy of your terrific book which arrived in New Zealand in perfect condition after 12,000 miles in a very clever cardboard container with no need for any sellotape, brilliant! 😃
Wonderful! Looking forward to adding it to my garden. ❤
I only made your nettle juice ferment yesterday, as well as first nettle & seaweed with comfrey into a bucket and way at the other end of the garden for early fertilizer two weeks ago. Last year I sown a lot of medicinal herbs into the garden. Thanks for your insight, loving the book by the way!!
The greatest plant on the planet. I ferment the young plants, using them to feed the rest of the plants, nettles having _everything_ any and all other plants require and that's without even touching on their benefits outside of gardening! Weed, indeed?!
LOL, you can come and have some of ours then. They are taking over our farm and the animals don't want to eat them so we have to cut them down constantly. A few patches are fine but they will take over everything before you know it. AND they come back in the same places year after year. There's only so much nettle soup and nettle tea that one can consume, believe me. 😆😭😭😭
They are also good for chop and drop mulching and for composting.
I have rather a lot too, constantly digging up those thick yellow roots. Leave a bit behind - and it regenerates as readily as bramble. I had a suspicion that goats eat nettles, looked it up and so they do. Maybe you should diversify into goat milk and cheese. Or you could make a 'roving pen' for them and put it over nettles where they are at their worst.
@@Debbie-henri If I recall correctly, chickens are also very fond of nettles.
@@Debbie-henri We have had goats for years and they will only eat nettles AFTER you cut them down. At least that is how ours have been. 😭 The chickens don't want them (although they might be pecking at seeds that fall on the ground but I have not seen them go after a nettle on the stalk. They DO like to hide in them though and sometime lay their eggs in a clump - those are fun to retrieve!). The sheep, the cows and the horses ignore them. It would be helpful if they would stomp on them but they steer clear of them. Sigh.
Just found your video Huw and am Sooo pleased to see you’re back! Thanks for being there!
Brilliant tips as always! That PSB sourdough looks scrumptious 💜
The long stems that are left can be made into really good cordage, nettles have more vit c than anything else we can grow, interestingly enough and the green dye you get from them is quite lovely
Well timed! was just about to weed a bunch of nettles out of my yard this afternoon but now I will leave them and see how it goes!
Just a heads up: when harvesting your nettles, do it before noon and only take the three top rows of leaves. Never eat nettle when it flowers, or right after it flowers (silica) - eat it only in the spring and fall when it is young. Soup, stew, pesto, tea, etc.
I make all the edible and medicinal things from nettles, including hair and skin care. Would never want to be without them! They’ve helped so much in so many ways. Even tho they’re all different plants, the ‘weeds’ with “nettle” in their name are all incredible for many reasons.
Great to promote the humble nettle, thank you and love all the ideas
Offgrid on a shoestring here, im surrounded by them its nearly time for a harvest to make some nettle stew fertiliser. The rest go on the compost pile. The spuds foliage is vibrant from the compost made with nettles and old guinee pig hutch bedding. Found someone who farms guinee pigs so no shortage of supply.
Great video, thanks I make nettle pancakes when there is fresh nettle about. NB they do thicken the mix considerably consequently it's best to start with a more fluid mix.
fab video, thank you so much, Huw - and appreciatel the comments - so valuable
Everything your saying is so true and young dandelion is delicious aswell keep up the good work Huge love watching your videos
I like to use nettles in the garden. My favorite herb 🌿 is dandelion 🌼🌱🌼 I was considering to get some nettles for the new compost heap because there is a lot of dry material in there already and I need some greens to activate it.
Thank You , I love nettles in all their ways 😻
I enjoy the added flavor in soups and stews. I also started making my own fertilizer that I used for the first time this week. I look forward to the results. Started using nettle a year ago. Love it! And to think it was only a obnoxious weed growing up - lol
I didn't have any stinging nettle in my garden so I sowed it. People thought I was nuts! But it's useful for so many things.
Great present Huw. Been very busy and need to catch up on your posts. Nettles. Bloody marvellous!!
Nettle seeds are so underrated! Fun to forage, easy to dry for winter storage, sprinkle on your salad, soups, anything really
I love your mindset. We are all part of nature. Have had nettle seeds for years and have never known where to plant them. I think this year it's time.
I also dry nettles, add to soups or make nettle tea for yourself; end out with a tasty snack , especially when they are seedy. I have to semi cultivate nettles here in Portugal. They are annual! Maybe due to the heat.
I understand that dried nettle leaves, brewed as a tea, really helps againsr Hayfewer!😊
Hi! In Greece and Albania (probably also in other balkan countries, though the first two i know for a fact and have tasted both variants), there is a baked nettle crust pie (pita with fillo) recipe that is simply delicious!
Lovely video Hugh. I have plenty nettle patches in my allotment which i cherish. They attract so many benefical insects, enhance the compost heap and make great health giving tinctures. I agree we are not seperate from nature and when you garden with principles of biodivesity you create with nature abundance. Embrace the nettle ❤
Here in Australia many seed companies sell dandelion & nettle seeds 👍 Thank you for the video Huw 🙂
My Mum used to make Nettle wine back in the day, I can't say it tasted good but I was pretty young. Thanks for the Video.
They're my favourite green foraged food. I used to have a go-to patch next to a creek, but the little trail is now paved, and the area is sprayed for weeds. I would harvest cleavers / stickyweed from there as well.
Excellent video Huw. I really need to plant some nettle. Hopefully it won’t mind our hot dry climate (New Mexico High Desert). Can’t wait to receive your book…
Champion weeds, and your a champ too mate, great content to help people grow healthy food in the simplest most effective and efficient ways, life can be so simple yet so enriching if we go back to basics, thankyou for being dedicated to show and demonstrate that!
i am waiting for a dry spell to harvest nettles. it makes a great hay for my rabbits. I feed my rabbits well and they feed me and my garden. rabbit manure is balanced like a NPK fertilizer.
I had this for dinner last night for the first time. Highly recommend!
I have fond memories of my grandmother picking nettles with her bare hands (we kids were totally amazed 😧) and cooking a delicious soup 👩🍳with them. I still couldn't convince my wife and my daughter that it is both safe and tasty 😐
Just ordered some seeds! Thanks! Your book looks good!
It is rare to find nettles here where we live but dandelion,plantain and many more are abundant. I would love to have nettles not only for their food value but the wonderful fibre one can extract.
Brilliant , informative, inspiring
I FINALLY got some in my yard last year. Gonna go pick some right now and make a tea. 😊
❤ Brennessel ist ein Muß im Garten. Greatings from Vienna.
Another awesome video! Thank you!
Nettles are lovely as a tisane/tea and it tastes just like the color green.
Wonderful, thank you. 🙏
Good one Huw. To avoid them spreading, I grow nettles in a tub. No maintenance.
Having a french mama we ate young dandelion leaves,. Stinging nettles are also great for herbal remedies
this is wonderful video! That little nettle currently growing in our raspberry edge, will stay 🥰
We make fresh pasta with spring nettles and a filling with ricotta for ravioli.
Yes...I make a Genovese style of pesto, for my pasta.
I just realized how much Huw has changed. Still seems like he should be the teenager he was when first starting KZhead
I have a big patch of nettles at the bottom of my allotment. I’ve been using them to make nettle fertiliser and as a strulch…I’ll have to give eating them a go 😊
Me too 😊. But the butterflies also breed on the ones in the sun which brings more summer joy! 🦋
I remember going to a seaside place as a kid with my parents where we could buy delicious homemade nettle beer.
Lovely, what a useful plant! Here in the US, I live in a state that maintains a database on plants. Stinging Nettle has many attributes indeed and is host plant to oodles of butterflies. Thanks for the heads-up on this one. I don't seem to have this on my ppty as they need a moist environment. I’m a huge fan of biodiversity and native plants - but, DANG - our weeds and saplings will take over if I’m not diligent. (Note: I’m NOT quite diligent enough, ack! 😱). Thanks, Huw!
Good show, cheers Huw. If you look up the mineral analysis of nettle and comfrey in the apendix of Nigel Palmers book (The regen growers guide to garden amendments) you'll be able to see that mixing the two 50/50 in compost/ferment provides one of the best all round mineral amendments you could need in the garden. I make an excellent liquid extract by mixing the two in a wheely bin with a tap on the bottom, scrunch up some old chicken wire to put in the bottom ~a ft thick to act as a filter, fill the bin with the 50/50 mix and weight it down with a large stone, open tap to harvest runoff, it'll store well for years in old plastic milk bottles. I use it diluted 16:1, 1 pint jug goes into a 2 gal watering can.
I just watched your stinging nettle video of 12 years ago yesterday. You have come a long way since!
Oh wow!! Thank you!!
Hi,thank you for sharing❤
I ate raw nettle tips while backpacking the Long Trail in Vermont. They are very prolific all along the southern half of the trail.
Excellent video, thank you
I actually plant dandelion in my raised bed as well as in a windowsill over the winter simply because it is good to have in my diet and because it has so many uses. And yes, you can buy dandelion seeds! I also have a patch of nettles in the yard.
Yes I have had nettle omelette and found the flavour quite mild not over powering. I just sweated them down a little in butter.
The weeds i always grow are Dandelions and Purslane. I never tried the stinging nettle because of the work required to make it edible. I have 5 different types of Purslane and those go in salads with the dandelions.