During a college 400 level Botany course, I collected nettles in a field and then, caught Poison Oak rash. So, went back to the field with gloves on and collected the poison oak to dry and press as well. I sealed all 50 plants of my collection between plastic, to use as a Naturalist after college. Thankfully, I had sealed not only had the common and botanical name of plant, but also my full name with month and year collected. The professor tried to fail me, as I got only a C on final exam and he said I never turned in a Collection. Since, my Lab Teacher heard my story of getting Poison Oak and saw the sealed in plastic collection, he went looking and found the entire Collection in the professor files! He got my grade changed, then asked to keep the collection for teaching tool. I agreed. It was a tough, but good lesson to learn, as I went on to work in a mostly male organization even bigger than Oregon State—the USDA Forest Service.
Pamela, kudos to you for persisting on this issue. I'll put on my university administrator hat and tell you that I've heard too many similar stories from students who had bad experiences with careless or deliberately negligent profs. Glad you got the grade changed, sad that you didn't get your collection back (and got PO as well!).
Re The USDA FS. This is a 2018 book excerpt and you've probably seen it. I doubt there's been much improvement since then: https://foresthistory.org/new-faces-same-old-values/ "Getting there" usually means outliving the Old Boys. Unfortunately, some organizations seem to keep breeding the Old Boys.
Thank you. I had not read that article since helping do research for the 1991 USFS agency Centennial, which my first assignment in DC, where I met the author. The nine months gleaning information from all the different agency resource staffs, helped me gain recommendations from the staff directors for the promotion to land a permanent position in DC. We had moved for a promotion for my husband and I had a temporary job. The next move 5 yrs later, back to Alaska was a promotion for me. As my Mom (a true Rosie the Riveter) used to say, “You can accomplish a great deal, if you don’t care about getting the credit!” Unfortunately, there are still arrogant and negative men in some leadership positions, but they seldom rise beyond District Ranger positions now.
Good to hear that the FS is making some changes, Pamela. The FS women I've met (all southwest, so maybe it's more of a regional issue now) did not have experiences as positive as yours.
Re credit and very tangentially, I was disappointed in Ken Burns' series on the national parks. He (and writer Dayton Duncan) overlooked the many contributions women have made to those important projects.
This quote. . . "One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, what if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?"—Rachel Carson
Made chills go up and down my spine. Wow. And I've read Rachel Carson's books and Linda Lear's biography (excellent)! But that was years ago. I guess it is hitting home more now that climate change is so obvious in my small part of the world (two growing zone warmer, herbs overwinter that never did before, etc.). Thank you, as always, for your wonderful informative and thought-provoking posts.
Pamela, thank you for noticing those words. As I get older--and as climate change encroaches--I think of them more often.
I should have included the source--Silent Spring, of course. And the words pack an even greater jolt if we remember that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer during the years she was working on the book (published in 1962 after serialization in The New Yorker). I'm also old enough to remember the violent pushback from the agriculture/pesticide folks. Sometimes I don't think we've come very far from those days.
I remember what my grandmother called "bull nettles" and we were warned to stay from them! I also remember disobeying that grandmother when I was wise beyond my years, or so I thought! and trying to pick the bloom and learned the hard way that my six year old self had learned to watch for snakes when we picked mayberries, dewberries, and blackberries yet chose not to heed her nettle warnings!
I went from an orphanage in Ponca City, Oklahoma to adoptive family at age four in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, then eventually to Texas with that family when Phillips Petroleum Company transferred the father. That grandmother I mentioned didn't join us in Texas until after she was widowed, then she was surprised at all the land we could go on that was fenced to keep cattle in, but we could go in, across the cattle bars in the roads, and the fields had been grazed enough that snakes were easy to see while picking berries, or later in the year, pecans.
Decades later, I would take my own children, pulling them in a big red wagon, while I picked. up pecans on the golf course where we had a membership. I earned money for Christmas shopping until the pro shop manager decided he wanted members to pick on "halves", meaning he did nothing, but wanted half of our pickings! Nope, I just drove to the golf course, across the cattle bars on the oil company properties that backed up to the course, took the kids across a stile, put the wagon across and picked just for myself! I never had any problems because I knew that copperheads did not get very long and had memorized what they looked like, and the only time I was injured was when I took my husband along and he decided to shake some pecans down from a tall tree by throwing a weight tied to a long rope up and over a branch that looked really full of pecans and missed and the weight hit me! He was not invited to come again.....
Now, once, again, I got totally away from nettles!!!! I do plan to find some tea bags to see how it helps my 79 year old back pains!
Good for you for taking those pecans (resourceful!)--and for managing to avoid the snakes. I know I have one right now in the area of our chicken coop, because we haven't had any eggs for 3 days. I'll have to go out there a couple of hours early and see if I can catch him. I have a snake stick, so it's usually pretty easy. These are bull snakes, non-venomous. I haven't seen a rattler here in years.
Nettle tea is anti-inflammatory and a good systemic remedy. You do need to be pretty regular with it to see any effect (in my experience), and of course it all depends on the potency of the leaf material, which can vary widely. You might try the caps--available online if not locally.
I always look for Chicken en Mole at Mexican restaurants. Some are better than others, but when they are good, I do love it! You are right Susan about it taking time to make the mole sauce. So, finding it at a restaurant is all the more reason to order it!! 🤗 This said, that recipe looks terrific!
I started drinking stinging nettle tea some time ago - to relieve lower-back pain and can honestly say it works remarkably well!! Like, as you are drinking it! And for a good while afterwards. Just one cup steeped for several minutes with a drop of honey. 🙂 I buy mine in tea bags from Thrive Market. Now, being reminded all of the benefits of eating it, I will be looking for a patch to pick from!! Being a bit of a wimp, I will wear gloves. 😂
I think a lot of the "Mexican" restaurants around here must buy it by the can. 😶
Nettle tea is anti-inflammatory, so it's pretty systemic. And has antihistamines, so it's helpful for many purposes. This is TMI, so I didn't put it in the post. And like everything else, the effect depends on so many variables . https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9253158/
Thank you for the great link, Susan. WOW! - So much I didn't know about stinging nettles!?! 🥰
Must admit that I used to buy Mole sauce in little jars that I added ingredients to. Not perfect at all but was passable. As none of it is GF and usually has both onions and garlic that I now avoid, I may have to give the recipe in this post a go - with a twist for my needs! 😃
There's always more to learn, isn't there? And that is just wonder-full!
Your GF adventure sounds both interesting and a challenge. How long have you been working on this project? Are you seeing a difference in the way you feel?
Susan, I started going gluten free around 2014. For a long time before then I had been suffering from morning headaches which was such an unpleasant way to start the day. These were not migraines, thank goodness but just dull aches that lasted for a few hours. I thought it might be 100 different things, but nothing seemed to help. One day I happened to hear an interview with the author of The Gluten Free Girl. I was half listening because she was a local writer, but when she said one of the things that cleared up for her were morning headaches, I was all ears! I made an experiment for about 2 weeks of avoiding all wheat foods. To be honest my diet was atrocious. Lots of frozen dinners and pre-packaged everything. After those 2 weeks my morning headaches had started to go away. Even though my diet had been stupidly bad, I actually have always loved fruits and vegetables and chicken and fish. I just needed to take the time to buy and prepare them at home sans any gluten! I worked at home and loved my business. At first it was hard to make time for my new way of eating. But the few times that I accidently ate wheat or other gluten and had the old headache return kept me motivated. Perhaps the hardest thing to change was bread. I love breads! All of them! LOL But a lot has changed since 2014 and going GF is much easier now. Once you get the GF stuff out of your house, you just keep it that way. Since Covid I mostly shop online and use Instacart. This has also helped me stay with my 'eat fresh and less' plan. I have made other changes like going dairy free which has improved my energy, and I also am mindful of fats in my diet. I am happy with eating smaller portions now. That is also a big change! One of the good parts of growing older! ✨😃
How inspiring, Sandy! I hope others read this--testimony to the importance of listening to our bodies. Are you cooking just for yourself or others in your household? (That would complicate things, I'd guess.)
That is very kind of you Susan. Living on my own certainly did make it easier to go GF. I read how other people in families learn how to take care of family members like children and husbands who require a GF diet. Like my experience, once a person who has been feeling ill, no longer feels that way with a change of diet, they are often willing to help with whatever it takes to keep away from gluten. That is the big change. Once it is made, we really do live at an amazing time when even a person on a GF diet can find tons of things to eat! 🤗
During part of early days of being GF, I was caring for my father at his apartment. When family and friends stopped by for a visit, they often brought GF treats. I had bags of quinoa, boxes of oats and rice as well as lots of fruit. I felt supported in my adventure! 😅
Thanks for the note on nettle tea and pain relief. I will certainly try it. There is a patch growing on the back portion of our property under a cedar tree canopy. Have yet to harvest them for any use so may start. But I will also be on the look out for the tea bags!
Great suggestion, Susan! The caps may also be easier to find locally. Thanks also for all the wonderful links you've provided in other replies. As you said there's always so much to learn!!
I tried to establish nettle on our property when we first lived here. I now suspect that since all our trees were babies we didn't provide enough shade for the plant. The orchard is much closer to a mature stand of trees now, and your feature article is inspiring me to try again. Do any other readers have suggestions for successfully establishing it? Location, transplant vs seed, and care? I do know where some wild ones grow that I could access; I've harvested there in the past.
Nettle quiche is one of my favorite spring dishes.
After a couple of years' absence, I spotted St. John's Wort in my yard about a week ago. Welcome back!
Hi Patricia and Susan! I have had Sweet Woodruff show up in 3 different places this month after about a 7-year absence!?! I wonder if that significant cold spell we had in February has anything to do with these plants showing up? As to getting your nettle patch started Patricia, one might try grazing a horse or a cow on the patch you have access to and then gather their dung to apply where you want the nettles to grow. That was how our nettles got spread around the horse pasture. 😉 Just saying....
Hmmm. Next week I'm going to be visiting a friend who has miniature horses. I doubt I could borrow one, but I'd wager she'd let me raid the manure pile. Your horses were probably eating nettle gone to seed, and it most likely survives their digestive systems. I don't know if her horses have nettles in their pastures; probably not. I wonder if the seed benefits from being pre-digested?
And I need to think through where to locate a patch of nettle. I will investigate their water and pH requirements, think about keeping it away from where people walk all the time, what else?
That was what I was thinking, too. But now I am wondering if birds were feeding on the nettle seed and then perhaps the dung while leaving their droppings? I have to believe that somebody has this all figured out. 🤔
I'm not sure we had nettles when I was growing up in the San Antonio area. Fascinating. I'll be on the lookout for them around here in central Arkansas.
Hi, Susan - nettles! I have wartime memories of them in our meals and guess whose little hands suffered picking them 😁 The saying that ‘if you grasp a nettle it won’t sting’ is totally untrue. On a happier note, we (one Brit, one Romanian, two Canadians) celebrated Cinco de Mayo yesterday and I made tortillas for the first time ever! Turned out pretty well.
Sounds like a multicultural celebration, Lynne--glad the tortillas went well. Fun to make (that mole recipe quite a bit more work).
Re nettle grasping. Maybe you didn't grab it hard enough? "Tender-handed grasp the nettle, and it stings you for your pains. Grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains." Can't prove it by me, though. I've seen my grandmother pick them without gloves, but not me!
I think, from doing some experimenting, that the key is to push the needles up and in as you grasp. Getting right at the base so there are no needles below the point you are grabbing is important.
I've often wondered how the fiber folk harvest nettle. I suppose clip off at the base, since you'd want the fibers as long as possible. And then treat it like flax. Anybody had any experience with this?
Who knew May would have such spectacular offerings -- from herbs to stories? Thank you Susan for all the writing that you share. You remain a role model and an inspiration. Happy May, dear woman.
During a college 400 level Botany course, I collected nettles in a field and then, caught Poison Oak rash. So, went back to the field with gloves on and collected the poison oak to dry and press as well. I sealed all 50 plants of my collection between plastic, to use as a Naturalist after college. Thankfully, I had sealed not only had the common and botanical name of plant, but also my full name with month and year collected. The professor tried to fail me, as I got only a C on final exam and he said I never turned in a Collection. Since, my Lab Teacher heard my story of getting Poison Oak and saw the sealed in plastic collection, he went looking and found the entire Collection in the professor files! He got my grade changed, then asked to keep the collection for teaching tool. I agreed. It was a tough, but good lesson to learn, as I went on to work in a mostly male organization even bigger than Oregon State—the USDA Forest Service.
Pamela, kudos to you for persisting on this issue. I'll put on my university administrator hat and tell you that I've heard too many similar stories from students who had bad experiences with careless or deliberately negligent profs. Glad you got the grade changed, sad that you didn't get your collection back (and got PO as well!).
Re The USDA FS. This is a 2018 book excerpt and you've probably seen it. I doubt there's been much improvement since then: https://foresthistory.org/new-faces-same-old-values/ "Getting there" usually means outliving the Old Boys. Unfortunately, some organizations seem to keep breeding the Old Boys.
Thank you. I had not read that article since helping do research for the 1991 USFS agency Centennial, which my first assignment in DC, where I met the author. The nine months gleaning information from all the different agency resource staffs, helped me gain recommendations from the staff directors for the promotion to land a permanent position in DC. We had moved for a promotion for my husband and I had a temporary job. The next move 5 yrs later, back to Alaska was a promotion for me. As my Mom (a true Rosie the Riveter) used to say, “You can accomplish a great deal, if you don’t care about getting the credit!” Unfortunately, there are still arrogant and negative men in some leadership positions, but they seldom rise beyond District Ranger positions now.
Good to hear that the FS is making some changes, Pamela. The FS women I've met (all southwest, so maybe it's more of a regional issue now) did not have experiences as positive as yours.
Re credit and very tangentially, I was disappointed in Ken Burns' series on the national parks. He (and writer Dayton Duncan) overlooked the many contributions women have made to those important projects.
This quote. . . "One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, what if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?"—Rachel Carson
Made chills go up and down my spine. Wow. And I've read Rachel Carson's books and Linda Lear's biography (excellent)! But that was years ago. I guess it is hitting home more now that climate change is so obvious in my small part of the world (two growing zone warmer, herbs overwinter that never did before, etc.). Thank you, as always, for your wonderful informative and thought-provoking posts.
Pamela, thank you for noticing those words. As I get older--and as climate change encroaches--I think of them more often.
I should have included the source--Silent Spring, of course. And the words pack an even greater jolt if we remember that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer during the years she was working on the book (published in 1962 after serialization in The New Yorker). I'm also old enough to remember the violent pushback from the agriculture/pesticide folks. Sometimes I don't think we've come very far from those days.
Great information. Thank you!
It's hard with animals--they can't tell us how they feel!
I love all the comments and information shared here. Nettles are a plant I know little about. The links and everyone's experience is very interesting.
Penny, I had a cat with feline leukemia and used nettle tincture with her. It's said to be a good systemic builder--and that cat certainly outlived the vet's very limited expectations for her life span. https://www.thepetbeastro.com/blogs/bits-bites-natural-pet-health-blog/nettle-a-great-herb-for-cats-and-dogs/
I remember what my grandmother called "bull nettles" and we were warned to stay from them! I also remember disobeying that grandmother when I was wise beyond my years, or so I thought! and trying to pick the bloom and learned the hard way that my six year old self had learned to watch for snakes when we picked mayberries, dewberries, and blackberries yet chose not to heed her nettle warnings!
I went from an orphanage in Ponca City, Oklahoma to adoptive family at age four in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, then eventually to Texas with that family when Phillips Petroleum Company transferred the father. That grandmother I mentioned didn't join us in Texas until after she was widowed, then she was surprised at all the land we could go on that was fenced to keep cattle in, but we could go in, across the cattle bars in the roads, and the fields had been grazed enough that snakes were easy to see while picking berries, or later in the year, pecans.
Decades later, I would take my own children, pulling them in a big red wagon, while I picked. up pecans on the golf course where we had a membership. I earned money for Christmas shopping until the pro shop manager decided he wanted members to pick on "halves", meaning he did nothing, but wanted half of our pickings! Nope, I just drove to the golf course, across the cattle bars on the oil company properties that backed up to the course, took the kids across a stile, put the wagon across and picked just for myself! I never had any problems because I knew that copperheads did not get very long and had memorized what they looked like, and the only time I was injured was when I took my husband along and he decided to shake some pecans down from a tall tree by throwing a weight tied to a long rope up and over a branch that looked really full of pecans and missed and the weight hit me! He was not invited to come again.....
Now, once, again, I got totally away from nettles!!!! I do plan to find some tea bags to see how it helps my 79 year old back pains!
Oh those bull nettles! They are ferocious! But not related to the stinging nettle (Urtica): https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CNTE They are truly toxic. I'm so glad you weren't harmed.
Good for you for taking those pecans (resourceful!)--and for managing to avoid the snakes. I know I have one right now in the area of our chicken coop, because we haven't had any eggs for 3 days. I'll have to go out there a couple of hours early and see if I can catch him. I have a snake stick, so it's usually pretty easy. These are bull snakes, non-venomous. I haven't seen a rattler here in years.
Nettle tea is anti-inflammatory and a good systemic remedy. You do need to be pretty regular with it to see any effect (in my experience), and of course it all depends on the potency of the leaf material, which can vary widely. You might try the caps--available online if not locally.
I always look for Chicken en Mole at Mexican restaurants. Some are better than others, but when they are good, I do love it! You are right Susan about it taking time to make the mole sauce. So, finding it at a restaurant is all the more reason to order it!! 🤗 This said, that recipe looks terrific!
I started drinking stinging nettle tea some time ago - to relieve lower-back pain and can honestly say it works remarkably well!! Like, as you are drinking it! And for a good while afterwards. Just one cup steeped for several minutes with a drop of honey. 🙂 I buy mine in tea bags from Thrive Market. Now, being reminded all of the benefits of eating it, I will be looking for a patch to pick from!! Being a bit of a wimp, I will wear gloves. 😂
I think a lot of the "Mexican" restaurants around here must buy it by the can. 😶
Nettle tea is anti-inflammatory, so it's pretty systemic. And has antihistamines, so it's helpful for many purposes. This is TMI, so I didn't put it in the post. And like everything else, the effect depends on so many variables . https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9253158/
Thank you for the great link, Susan. WOW! - So much I didn't know about stinging nettles!?! 🥰
Must admit that I used to buy Mole sauce in little jars that I added ingredients to. Not perfect at all but was passable. As none of it is GF and usually has both onions and garlic that I now avoid, I may have to give the recipe in this post a go - with a twist for my needs! 😃
There's always more to learn, isn't there? And that is just wonder-full!
Your GF adventure sounds both interesting and a challenge. How long have you been working on this project? Are you seeing a difference in the way you feel?
Susan, I started going gluten free around 2014. For a long time before then I had been suffering from morning headaches which was such an unpleasant way to start the day. These were not migraines, thank goodness but just dull aches that lasted for a few hours. I thought it might be 100 different things, but nothing seemed to help. One day I happened to hear an interview with the author of The Gluten Free Girl. I was half listening because she was a local writer, but when she said one of the things that cleared up for her were morning headaches, I was all ears! I made an experiment for about 2 weeks of avoiding all wheat foods. To be honest my diet was atrocious. Lots of frozen dinners and pre-packaged everything. After those 2 weeks my morning headaches had started to go away. Even though my diet had been stupidly bad, I actually have always loved fruits and vegetables and chicken and fish. I just needed to take the time to buy and prepare them at home sans any gluten! I worked at home and loved my business. At first it was hard to make time for my new way of eating. But the few times that I accidently ate wheat or other gluten and had the old headache return kept me motivated. Perhaps the hardest thing to change was bread. I love breads! All of them! LOL But a lot has changed since 2014 and going GF is much easier now. Once you get the GF stuff out of your house, you just keep it that way. Since Covid I mostly shop online and use Instacart. This has also helped me stay with my 'eat fresh and less' plan. I have made other changes like going dairy free which has improved my energy, and I also am mindful of fats in my diet. I am happy with eating smaller portions now. That is also a big change! One of the good parts of growing older! ✨😃
How inspiring, Sandy! I hope others read this--testimony to the importance of listening to our bodies. Are you cooking just for yourself or others in your household? (That would complicate things, I'd guess.)
That is very kind of you Susan. Living on my own certainly did make it easier to go GF. I read how other people in families learn how to take care of family members like children and husbands who require a GF diet. Like my experience, once a person who has been feeling ill, no longer feels that way with a change of diet, they are often willing to help with whatever it takes to keep away from gluten. That is the big change. Once it is made, we really do live at an amazing time when even a person on a GF diet can find tons of things to eat! 🤗
During part of early days of being GF, I was caring for my father at his apartment. When family and friends stopped by for a visit, they often brought GF treats. I had bags of quinoa, boxes of oats and rice as well as lots of fruit. I felt supported in my adventure! 😅
Thanks for the note on nettle tea and pain relief. I will certainly try it. There is a patch growing on the back portion of our property under a cedar tree canopy. Have yet to harvest them for any use so may start. But I will also be on the look out for the tea bags!
You might also consider the caps, Judy. They contain a measured dosage, which is hard to duplicate from the tea (hot water extraction).
Great suggestion, Susan! The caps may also be easier to find locally. Thanks also for all the wonderful links you've provided in other replies. As you said there's always so much to learn!!
✨👍😊
I tried to establish nettle on our property when we first lived here. I now suspect that since all our trees were babies we didn't provide enough shade for the plant. The orchard is much closer to a mature stand of trees now, and your feature article is inspiring me to try again. Do any other readers have suggestions for successfully establishing it? Location, transplant vs seed, and care? I do know where some wild ones grow that I could access; I've harvested there in the past.
Nettle quiche is one of my favorite spring dishes.
After a couple of years' absence, I spotted St. John's Wort in my yard about a week ago. Welcome back!
Hi Patricia and Susan! I have had Sweet Woodruff show up in 3 different places this month after about a 7-year absence!?! I wonder if that significant cold spell we had in February has anything to do with these plants showing up? As to getting your nettle patch started Patricia, one might try grazing a horse or a cow on the patch you have access to and then gather their dung to apply where you want the nettles to grow. That was how our nettles got spread around the horse pasture. 😉 Just saying....
Hmmm. Next week I'm going to be visiting a friend who has miniature horses. I doubt I could borrow one, but I'd wager she'd let me raid the manure pile. Your horses were probably eating nettle gone to seed, and it most likely survives their digestive systems. I don't know if her horses have nettles in their pastures; probably not. I wonder if the seed benefits from being pre-digested?
And I need to think through where to locate a patch of nettle. I will investigate their water and pH requirements, think about keeping it away from where people walk all the time, what else?
Patricia, here's a post on starting with seed: https://www.westcoastseeds.com/blogs/wcs-academy/how-to-grow-stinging-nettle I've seen it grow to 5-6 feet (Illinois--we don't have it here), so it might be best at the back of the bed/border.
That was what I was thinking, too. But now I am wondering if birds were feeding on the nettle seed and then perhaps the dung while leaving their droppings? I have to believe that somebody has this all figured out. 🤔
BTW - your nettle quiche sounds like a winner! 😄
Love it when plants resurrect themselves--a reminder that nature is forever in the process of self-renewal, if we will only let it be.
I've never grown it intentionally. 🙄 But I see that Mountain Rose has seeds: https://mountainroseherbs.com/nettle-seeds Might be easier than digging/transplanting.
You are amazing, Susan! Happy May to you!
And to you, Kate! 😘
I'm not sure we had nettles when I was growing up in the San Antonio area. Fascinating. I'll be on the lookout for them around here in central Arkansas.
I've never seen them here in Burnet County, either, Nancy. Too dry, alkaline. But in Illinois, where I grew up, no.
Hi, Susan - nettles! I have wartime memories of them in our meals and guess whose little hands suffered picking them 😁 The saying that ‘if you grasp a nettle it won’t sting’ is totally untrue. On a happier note, we (one Brit, one Romanian, two Canadians) celebrated Cinco de Mayo yesterday and I made tortillas for the first time ever! Turned out pretty well.
Sounds like a multicultural celebration, Lynne--glad the tortillas went well. Fun to make (that mole recipe quite a bit more work).
Re nettle grasping. Maybe you didn't grab it hard enough? "Tender-handed grasp the nettle, and it stings you for your pains. Grasp it like a man of mettle, and it soft as silk remains." Can't prove it by me, though. I've seen my grandmother pick them without gloves, but not me!
I think, from doing some experimenting, that the key is to push the needles up and in as you grasp. Getting right at the base so there are no needles below the point you are grabbing is important.
Sounds right, Patricia. But I still think I'd wear a glove on that hand. Some of the uticaria are really, REALLY toxic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_plant
I've often wondered how the fiber folk harvest nettle. I suppose clip off at the base, since you'd want the fibers as long as possible. And then treat it like flax. Anybody had any experience with this?
Fortunately mole wasn’t on the request list!
You could be right about the nettle-grasping - I’ll stick to gloves.
Who knew May would have such spectacular offerings -- from herbs to stories? Thank you Susan for all the writing that you share. You remain a role model and an inspiration. Happy May, dear woman.
One of my favorite months, Stephers. Hope your May brings you all you are wishing for!