Nettle picking gloves?

[Broch]

I shall attempt Nettle cordage come Spring.
I’d eat/drink Nettle products before I’d starve but not much before.
Nettle tea is ……..tipi. I’m an espresso sort of guy.

Cream of nettle soup is as good as vegetable soup gets

 

[Pattree]

Aside - does a negative emoji detract from Broch’s rating in any way? I just meant that I disagree with his assessment of wee soup.

I think that should have been weed soup.

Nope, right first time.

 

[Toddy]

Nettle soup's good stuff and so is dried and finely ground nettle.....it's a salt substititute for those who aren't supposed to have much salt in their diet. Sort of a hidden unami kind of flavour.

M

 

[TLM]

We have here two species of nettle, one stings the other does not. They do look quite alike but can be told apart from the leaves without touch testing.

Also I wonder how the Germans processed nettle when using it for garments in 1800 and early 1900.

 

[Toddy]

Different plants. We call one the dead nettle.

The Germans harvested the dried stems as far as I know. They used a decorticorer machine, much as is used for hemp, to take off the fibres.

Lots of ways to do it, but retting nettles needs a lot of care, while allowing the plants to wither and dry naturally makes things easier.

 

[Pattree]

Is there/could there be a tutorial?

 

[Toddy]

Is there/could there be a tutorial?

On soup, salt or fibre ?

@John Fenna harvested masses not so long ago....enough that he even just made brushes from it.
Might be in his covid lockdown makes thread.....

Here, in the UK, we strip the stems of their fibre rich skins, but I met a Dutch lady who also had an interest in traditional textile crafts and she said that they just left the nettles to dry up and wither over Winter (it was she who told me about the Germans), and then they just rubbed the fibres off. She said it was much easier because that dry standing stuff loosened free from all the chaff really quickly.

Well, I tried it, but here it just goes to mildew because we are atlantic Islands and we have a very damp climate. The worst of the wet hits us before it hits the continent, if I make myself clear ?
So, unless you have a dry area, I found the standing withering didn't work. Mould took hold and rotted and weakened the fibres.
We generally have to do as John Fenna did.

 

[Pattree]

My garden grows World class nettles and there are everso many just lying about right now but they been soaked all winter. Probably rotting but I’ll collect some and have a go. We have all sorts of spinning devices here but I have never used them. So many crafts, so little time.

 

[TLM]

Well, I tried it, but here it just goes to mildew because we are atlantic Islands

You really should not tempt a male engineer with things like this. In the scale done by a hobbyist one just takes the bundle of nettle and puts it in a dry place in the attic or where ever and then goes on with the Dutch lady's advice. Industrial scale probably would be different but even then a slightly heated place is not that difficult to make.

Come on, even the Germans could make it!

 

[Broch]

Different plants. We call one the dead nettle.

The Germans harvested the dried stems as far as I know. They used a decorticorer machine, much as is used for hemp, to take off the fibres.

Lots of ways to do it, but retting nettles needs a lot of care, while allowing the plants to wither and dry naturally makes things easier.

There's confusion here of course because we call some of the mints 'nettles'. As you say we only have two true nettles, Common/Stinging nettle and Small nettle, which are in their own family (Urticaceae) – for anyone not aware, all the other ‘nettles’ such as White Dead-nettle, Red Dead-nettle, the Woundworts, and the Mints (the list goes on), are in the Lamiaceae family (the mints) and don't sting.

 

[Broch]

Aside - does a negative emoji detract from Broch’s rating in any way? I just meant that I disagree with his assessment of wee soup.

I think that should have been weed soup.

Nope, right first time.

I think, if your soup looks like that, it's not been made properly. It should be bright green before adding the cream, seasoned with plenty of black pepper and a little salt. It really is tasty

 

[TLM]

With some further reading apparently the two "tall" nettles here are close relatives and are considered subspecieses: Urtica dioica subsp. dioica and Urtica dioica subsp. sondenii. The latter has no or few stinging hairs.

 

[Toddy]

You really should not tempt a male engineer with things like this. In the scale done by a hobbyist one just takes the bundle of nettle and puts it in a dry place in the attic or where ever and then goes on with the Dutch lady's advice. Industrial scale probably would be different but even then a slightly heated place is not that difficult to make.

Come on, even the Germans could make it!

The problem is that the nettles don't come dry.
They're wet, so you have to dry them anyway before you can store them....'cos if you don't they just rot. They make really good compost though.
Also, since we want as long a growing season as possible, we're really well into Autumn before we cut them....again, cold damp and not much sunshine.

So, it's honestly easier here to just cut and peel and store the peeled dried skins.

I am told that the East coast is drier and windier and that there it is sometimes possible to standing rot them.
In sodden wet Lanarkshire, I haven't a hope

 

[Toddy]

My garden grows World class nettles and there are everso many just lying about right now but they been soaked all winter. Probably rotting but I’ll collect some and have a go. We have all sorts of spinning devices here but I have never used them. So many crafts, so little time.

It's worth rubbing the stems (wear gloves, it's sore on the hands) and seeing if you can get fine white fibres, about finger length, free from them.
It's a beautiful fibre to spin, lovely to weave with, makes beautiful cloth. But you don't get a lot per stem compared to flax or hemp.

M