DIE BRENNNESSEL

Latin name: Urtica dioica (stinging nettle), Urtica urens (small nettle)
Habitat: It grows in any soil, in sun to partial shade
Parts used: Leaves, seeds, and roots
Flowering period: June to September
Harvesting period: The young shoots can be collected from March to October, the roots from spring to autumn
Constituents: Vitamin C, Vitamin B1, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, silica, tannins, histamine, formic acid, acetic acid, caffeic acid, magnesium, iron, calcium, silicon, sodium, chlorophylls, carotenoids, hormones, enzymes, lignans. Up to 30 percent of the plant and seeds consist of protein – making it particularly good for vegans and athletes.

To date, I have participated in several herb walks. These informative strolls through meadows and forests had one thing in common. At one point on the hike, the herbalists stopped and paused mysteriously, ending their conversation with almost identical words: "And now we come to my favorite plant"—and then there it was—in its powerful, stinging glory: the nettle.

I, too, have caught myself using similar words when I'm at seminars or out with friends, harvesting wild herbs or simply observing them and enjoying their presence.

Even in early spring, I often kneel reverently before the rhizomes, eagerly awaiting the first shoots of this healing and delicious plant. In winter, I enjoy dried nettles as tea, or I use the seeds for baking bread, in muesli, or in vegetable pots.

I start harvesting them right away in spring, without gloves. It stings a bit at first, but I know how beneficial these little pricks are for my immune system and my joints. Over the course of a few weeks, I no longer feel the stinging at all. However, I recommend wearing gloves at first if you're just getting used to this plant or if you have a sensitive skin reaction.

NETTLE SEEDS

Even the Roman poet Ovid described a love potion in his book "Ars Amandi" (The Art of Love) that contained nettle seeds as a key ingredient. I once read that the consumption of nettle seeds was supposedly forbidden in medieval monasteries because they were believed to have such a strong effect on libido.
There are male and female seeds, with the female seeds said to be richer in active ingredients. You can recognize them by the fact that their seeds hang down in panicles. A single male plant contains up to 30,000 seeds, which, when ripe, are catapulted into the air like those of touch-me-nots and then carried by the wind to the female plants.
The seeds are an amazing "superfood" and can replace many expensively imported...
I collect the seeds in the summer and dry them lying flat on a wooden board covered with a cotton kitchen towel. Once the seeds are dry, they come off easily. Then I fill them into jars and store them in a box.

As long as the nettles are in season, I add a few nettle leaves and seeds to every vegetable dish. I hardly ever make a smoothie without this amazing plant. I also add a few nettle leaves to almost every tea I make myself.
With nettles growing right outside my door, I always have something for the kitchen that also boosts my immune system and cleanses me.
Enough raving—now I'll show you my favorite recipes for the kitchen and my herbal medicine cabinet.

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DELICIOUS NETTLE RECIPES

To prevent the stinging nettle from irritating your mouth, you first need to break off the stinging hairs.
You can do this by:

rolling the nettle with a rolling pin or bottle
briefly boiling the nettle
blending or pureeing it

NETTLE CHIPS

1. Heat frying olive oil, ghee, or butter in a pan.
2. Add fresh nettle tips and press them lightly into the fat. Turn them over after a short time. They should become crispy but not too brown.
3. Finally, season these delicacies with salt—ideally wild garlic salt.

NETTLE SPINACH

1. Steam fresh nettle leaves and tips in about 2 cm of water with the lid on until they are soft but not mushy.
2. Drain the water and drink it or use it for soup.
3. Pour a drizzle of olive oil and fresh lemon juice over the nettles and season with regular rock salt or wild garlic salt.

If you like, you can also add fresh garlic, lightly sautéed in oil, or roasted onion.

NETTLE PESTO

Recipe for one jar:

1. Toast 20g pine nuts or sunflower seeds and 30g walnut kernels in a dry pan until fragrant.
2. Place them in a suitable bowl along with 100ml olive oil, a cereal bowl full of fresh nettle leaves, the juice of half a lemon, 1-2 cloves of garlic, some pepper, and 1 tsp salt. Grind all the ingredients to your desired pesto consistency.

If you're using a mortar and pestle, you'll have plenty of time to slowly incorporate any special wishes you might have.

NETTLE SOUP

1. Briefly sauté the diced onion in a little olive oil. Depending on your desired flavor, add some finely chopped fresh ginger, or, for example, ground coriander, caraway, or cumin, and sauté briefly.
2. Add the diced potatoes of 3-4 and 1 clove of garlic and continue to sauté until the onion is translucent.
3. Pour in 1 liter of vegetable broth and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Now add 200g of chopped nettle leaves, and optionally half a leek, sliced ​​into rings. Continue cooking until the potatoes, leek, and nettle leaves are tender.

Season the soup with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
If you prefer a creamier soup, you can purée it.
I drizzle almost every soup with a squeeze of olive oil and lemon juice, then sprinkle a handful of fresh herbs on top.

NETTLE IN SMOOTHIES

You can turn any smoothie into a health booster by adding nettle leaves or seeds.

Mix it according to what your body craves today and what organic fruits or vegetables you can harvest, buy, or receive as a gift. For example, apples, strawberries, pears, bananas, cucumbers, cabbage, and celery with nettles and nettle seeds. Add fresh spring water and perhaps a splash of apple juice. I love the combination of nettle and mint.

The fewer ingredients you use, the more likely you are to find the smoothie easier to digest.

NETTLE SEEDS

I mix nettle seeds into smoothies, muesli, vegetable stews, dried vegetable crackers, and bake them into my multi-purpose bread all year round.

Caution:
Stinging nettle is very potent. It should not be used by people with histamine intolerance, allergies, thyroid disorders, or impaired heart or kidney function.

As always, pay attention to your body's signals!

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Nettles in Natural Medicine

Even Hippocrates praised the nettle as the most important plant for blood purification.

It is considered one of the most potent healing plants for preventing anemia and iron deficiency, as a tonic for the liver, pancreas, stomach, intestines, and gallbladder, as a preventative measure against kidney disease, and as a remedy for urinary tract infections.

Because nettles expel uric acid, they are beneficial for those suffering from gout and rheumatism. For this purpose, take a full bath with a decoction once a week, drink nettle tea and juice, and eat the leaves as a vegetable.

A full nettle bath is also recommended to improve circulation. Nettles help to detoxify the body and remove toxins from the muscles, joints, and blood.

In herbal medicine, the effects of stinging nettle are also described as hemostatic, blood-purifying, metabolism-stimulating, laxative, expectorant, and mucolytic.

Internally, it is recommended for bladder problems, rheumatism, gout, insufficient milk production while breastfeeding, hair loss, urinary retention, dropsy, hematuria, eczema, skin rashes, colds, fever, and as part of spring cleansing cures. Externally, stinging nettle is useful for throat congestion, chronic skin rashes, and as a hair growth stimulant.

For difficulty falling asleep, a herbal pillow made of dried stinging nettle leaves is recommended. Neurodermatitis and hay fever in children are said to disappear if a liter of stinging nettle tea is drunk daily. Stinging nettle oil, dabbed on the temples, helps with concentration and learning difficulties. Stinging nettle seeds help with osteoporosis and menopausal symptoms. Those suffering from exhaustion or anemia should use nettle tea, seeds, and syrup, press fresh juice, and prepare a revitalizing drink from nettle powder. Nettle is even said to have a supportive effect on depression because, as a Mars plant, it strengthens willpower and self-confidence.