Subject: Re: Stinging Nettles
From: Jack Sanders <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 May 94 20:10:58 -0500
Newsgroups: bionet.plants

<[email-masked]> writes:
 
> BTW (this from my Boy Scout days) nettle makes a fairly good potherb, the 
> formic acid being destroyed/removed by boiling.  
>
 
Yes, indeed. "The young shoots and cooked leaves, rich in Vitamins A and C
plus protein and iron, have for centuries been used as a food in Europe;
boiling or drying removes the string and acidic irritants. In his diary
in 1661, Samuel Pepys reported visiting a friend who served some very good
nettle porridge. Nettle beer was popular once in the British countryside.
Even an herb wine can be made from it, reports Nelson Coon, whose recipe
includes leaves of nettles, dandelions, burdock, plus peels of lemons,
tangerines, and oranges, with the usual sugar, yeast, and water. The Swedes
used dried nettles as fodder to improve the milk and butter of cows and
make horses 'smart and frisky,' wrote C. S. Rafinesque in 1828. He added
that the seeds make 'good food for fowls and turkeys' and in humans they are
'said to cure goitre and excessive corpulence.' ... Nettle pudding, a
traditional dish in Scotland, was made of plant tops, leeks, onions,
oats, sprouts, and seasoning, and served with butter or gravy."
       --Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles: The Lives and Lore of North
         American Wildflowers (McGraw-Hill, 1993)
 
PS: That's "removes the sting and acidic irritants" above.
 
--Jack Sanders