It’s not even Christmas yet and I’ve slid on past simple holiday indulgence into complete sugar squalor. Fudge. Eggnog. Red velvet cake. Baileys. I don’t know when I last saw a vegetable. I’m at parties late every night and up early in the morning. To drag my sorry carcass through the day, I drink pots and pots of coffee and make forays into the cookie tin.
It’s time for a nutritional intervention! Tonight I’m breaking out my favorite winter tonic—nettle tea. It good for all that ails you. Nettle is that stern mistress you crawl back to when you’ve been bad.
Yes, I’m talking about regular old stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, wicked as it is widespread. Nettle is a nutritional powerhouse, long admired by traditional healers. Its prickly leaves are packed with calcium, magnesium, iron, chlorophyll, B complex vitamins and everyone’s winter necessity, vitamin C.
The tea is deep green and tastes almost like vegetable broth. It’s hard to describe the taste—not sweet, not bitter, not herbal, just green. Most people like it from the start, and the more you drink it, the more you come to crave that unique flavor.
You can buy nettle tea or tinctures at health food stores, but I gather mine in the wild. It saves money, and it’s kind of a thrill to harvest a plant that fights back.
You’ll find nettles growing in wet places everywhere, maybe even in your own backyard! I search in the dappled shade alongside streams, drainage ditches and roadsides. When you go to harvest, take a big bag, scissors or clippers, and wear gloves and long sleeves. Be sure to tuck your sleeves into your gloves. Your wrists will thank you.
Dried nettles do not sting. I carefully bundle my fresh nettles and hang them upside down (somewhere they won’t smack anyone in the head) until the leaves are dry enough to crumble. Then I strip them from their stems and store the leaves in glass jars in the cupboard. One harvest will keep you in emerald green restorative tonic for a year.
To see lots of good pictures of nettle plants, and to learn more about them, go to the website of wild plant expert, Steve Brill:
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Nettle.html
Best wishes to you and yours for the holidays!
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