Stinging Nettles Uses and Benefits in Nettle Tea, Beer, Juice and Chicken Feed

Stinging Nettles, or Common Nettles, are one of the most useful weeds going. One can use nettles for medicinal purposes, making soups, beer, tea, cheese, chicken and livestock feed, increase egg production, enriching compost heaps, it's a fantastic liquid manure.... The list goes on. So next time you curse it for stinging you rather be grateful for its usefulness.

Common nettles grow on ditch-banks, and among rubbish. It flowers in the month of July in the northern hemisphere. This species has a square, firm stem, three or four feet high, with long-pointed, serrated leaves, that come with stings which, on being touched, causes a burning and painful sensation.

Eating Stinging Nettles

   Picture courtesy of Uwe H. Friese, Bremerhaven 2003
Stinging Nettles are generally considered as a noxious weed but it has many benefits and uses. 

Its young tops may be boiled during the spring and summer, and eaten as a substitute for greens. However, in lates summer and autumn they are not good to eat as the leavs are not tender at this stage. 

They are extremely nourishing, but don't eat too many as it acts as a mild laxative. Stinging Nettles have a flavour similar to spinach when cooked and is rich in vitamins A, C, D, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium. 

By soaking stinging nettles in water or by cooking them will remove the stinging chemicals from the plant, which allows them to be handled and eaten without incidence of stinging. You can improve the nettles by serving them with some melted butter, or by making a thick white sauce as you would for creamed spinach. Nettles can be used in a variety of recipes, such as polenta and pesto. Nettle soup is a common use of the plant, particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe.

Stinging Nettles and Cheese Making

In the Western Islands of Scotland stinging nettles use to be used as a natural rennet for cheese making. The nettles were prepared by adding a quart of salt to three pints of a strong decoction of nettles. 5 tablespoonfuls is enough to coagulate a bowl of milk.

Here is an old recipe for using nettles in cheese:

Take two pints new milk, curdle it either by slow heat, or by rennet, lemon juice, fig juice, or bruised nettles. Turn the curd into a cheese cloth or butter muslin (coarse canvas will do), previously scalded, tie loosely and hang up to drain. After three or four hours tie again tighter. In twelve hours it is fit to eat, but if preferred it can be pressed and turned every day till as firm as ordinary cheese.

Yarg is a semi-hard cow's milk cheese made in Cornwall, United Kingdom from the milk of Friesian cows. Before being left to mature, this cheese is carefully wrapped in nettle leaves to form an edible, though mouldy, rind.

The nettles, though being the ingredient which gives Yarg its unique flavour, were originally used as a preservative. However, this ingredient is what now delights many, described as having "a delicate, almost mushroom flavour." As well as the taste of the nettles, an interesting flavour is added by the mould allowed to grow on the cheese, which is not harmful.

Drinking Stinging Nettles

Nettle cordial is a soft drink made largely from a refined sugar and water solution flavoured with the leaves of the nettle. Historically it has been popular in North Western Europe; however, versions of a nettle cordial recipe can be traced back to Roman times. It is an aromatic syrup, and when mixed with sparkling water, is very refreshing.
Nettle tea is said to have very good medicinal properties. A tea made from young nettle tops is a Devonshire cure for nettlerash which you get after being stung. However, don't make it too strong, and don't drink too much of it as it can actually cause the body to come out in an additional rash.

Nettle Beer uses a large amount of young, green stinging nettles which are boiled up in a gallon of water, with the juice of two lemons for a sharp flavour, and a teaspoonful of crushed ginger. Then, for sweetening purposes, a pound of brown sugar is mixed in. Then some fresh yeast from the brewer is to be floated on toast in the liqued when cold, so as to ferment it; and it may be afterwards bottled as a specially wholesome sort of ginger-beer.

Stinging Nettles for Chickens And Livestock Feed

Nettle leaves are excellent for feeding poultry; and especially in the winter. When boiled and eaten the stinging nettles promote the laying of eggs right throughout the winter. If horses, sheep, goats, cows, and pigs are given nettles fresh they won't eat them, although donkeys and asses love them. When nettles are dried they are eaten by cows resulting in an excellent food that helps to increase the quantity and quality of their milk. It also makes their coats shine.

Sometime back I came across instructions on how to get a capon to look after chickens using nettles. I have never tried it, so I cannot tell you whether it works or not! Perhaps some of you have, and will let us know!

Apparently capons can easily be taught to clutch a fresh brood of chickens : First, the fowl is made so tame that it will feed from your hand. As evening approaches pluck some feathers from his breast and rub the bare skin with some nettles, placing the chickens beneath him. This is repeated two or three nights in succession, till the capon takes to his brood. When one brood is grown up, another nearly hatched may be placed under him in the same way and he will apparently make a jolly good substitute for a hen!

Stinging Nettle Root for Dyeing

But the most valuable part, is its fibrous stalk or stem has been used in the past to make a very good cloth, similar to hemp. A coarse kind of durable canvas was also produced, which was considerably harder than the cloth manufactured from hemp or flax. Making fabric from nettles is not new; fabric woven of nettle fiber has been found in burial sites dating back to the Bronze Age.

A very good white writing paper has also been made using nettles and nettle seeds were used in the past as a good oil for lamps.

Nettle is used in homemade beauty products - hair shampoos to control dandruff and is said to make hair more glossy, which is why some farmers include a handful of nettles with cattle feed. It is also thought nettles can ease eczema.

Arthritic joints were sometimes treated by whipping the joint with a branch of stinging nettles. The theory was that it stimulated the adrenals and thus reduced swelling and pain in the joint. A 2000 controlled study supports the effectiveness of this treatment. (Randall C, Randall H, Dobbs F, Hutton C, Sanders H (2000 Jun)). I cannot say that I have tried this method myself, but I can say that I received fantastic relief  from drinking rosehip tea on a daily basis - but I digress!

Stinging Nettles and Frogs

If you plant the stinging nettle plant anywhere near places where frogs frequent, you will soon chase the frogs away. For some reason they do not like stinging nettles at all and will soon find another home to croak from.

Stinging Nettles and Your Garden

Nettles are high in nitrogen and therefore are excellent, either for your compost heap after they have been pulled up, or as a liquid nitrogen fertilizer for your garden and vegetables. Nettles don't just add nitrogen to your compost heap, but they actually accelerated the breakdown of your compost heap.

To make the liquid manure, you can fill up a bucket of nettles, fill the rest up with water and allow to steep for a couple of weeks until the water is a browny color. Now you can take it an use it on the garden, but you have to dilute it 1:10.

If you don't know what a dock plant looks like here is a picture:

Another cure is putting on calendula cream which also helps in soothing the pain. As is using aloe vera although it will relieve the pain, it won't reduce the swelling. You can also try a paste using bicarbonate of soda.