Can I make a suggestion? Maybe an opportunity to get out in the back 40 and spend some quiet time this spring...
...but anyway, you living where you live, the nettles are going to be coming up soon. Fresh spring nettles, if you trim off the top "new" shoots (usually the top 5-6 leaves or so) are like spinach from heaven. They taste great. Nettle is considered a 1 to 1 replacement for spinach in any recipe, and it's got ten times the iron and other vitamins in it that spinach has.
Good stuff.
If you get the older leaves down low, you can dry them on an old window screen in a dry place, and use them to make tea, which I also very much like.
The stems are some of the best cordage material you can find, if you ever get in a survival situation...
Of course, wear gloves and long sleeves when harvesting. The sting dies when you dry them or cook them. I usually gather up a big bunch of them and blanch, vacuum pack, and freeze them every spring.
Don't use the leaves for anything other than tea once the plants flower in August. The leaves get some clacium thing or whatever in them after that time, and it's hard on your kidneys. THey're fine for tea then, though, because the drying gets rid of the bad stuff.
Anyway, if'n you like spinach, try nettles. Kinda fun to use as an excuse to go for a motorcycle ride int he country...
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Anything fried is good...
Can I make a suggestion? Maybe an opportunity to get out in the back 40 and spend some quiet time this spring...
...but anyway, you living where you live, the nettles are going to be coming up soon. Fresh spring nettles, if you trim off the top "new" shoots (usually the top 5-6 leaves or so) are like spinach from heaven. They taste great. Nettle is considered a 1 to 1 replacement for spinach in any recipe, and it's got ten times the iron and other vitamins in it that spinach has.
Good stuff.
If you get the older leaves down low, you can dry them on an old window screen in a dry place, and use them to make tea, which I also very much like.
The stems are some of the best cordage material you can find, if you ever get in a survival situation...
Of course, wear gloves and long sleeves when harvesting. The sting dies when you dry them or cook them. I usually gather up a big bunch of them and blanch, vacuum pack, and freeze them every spring.
Don't use the leaves for anything other than tea once the plants flower in August. The leaves get some clacium thing or whatever in them after that time, and it's hard on your kidneys. THey're fine for tea then, though, because the drying gets rid of the bad stuff.
Anyway, if'n you like spinach, try nettles. Kinda fun to use as an excuse to go for a motorcycle ride int he country...
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