I have not tried nettles as yet but have read alot about them on Dr. Weil's site. Apparently they are good for folks with hay fever, but as a tinture , not when cooked. They are also full of iron,and vitamins A and C.
According to Dr. Weil, nettles are showing up on gourmet restaurant menus. Very interesting plant...I will be looking 'round for them.

I don't know anyone harvesting and eating Nettles, but my doctor recommends getting Stinging Nettle (from an herb shop) for allergies. My mother takes it and our friend also takes it and they both say that it works great. I might try it myself as an alternative to Zyrtec.

Seriously,
why go pay money for tinctures when you can pick it and eat it for free?
Would you go buy tincture of Spinach?

I'll be happy to give you all the simple instructions you'd need.

No nettles growing in my neighborhood, but have eaten them during a survival training course, and agree that they are easy to prepare and quite delicious, even without salt! Just don't forget to use gloves when picking and handling -- those nettles can really irritate, and cause a nasty rash if you are particularly suseptable.

However, my absolute favorite wild potherb is and will always be goosefoot, aka pigweed (Chenopodium -- related to spinach). Very mild in flavor (almost bland), and doesn't need the double boilings or any of the other special preparations required for so many of the wild greens. It thrives in newly turned soil. My garden is full of it right now - all around the onions and peas -- I will pull all the young plants (2-4" tall) just before dinner, pinch off the roots, rinse the greens and steam the whole plants (place in a colander over boiling water & cover) for just a few minutes -- like spinach it only takes minutes! These tender babies are too delicate for boiling or nuking!

I also allow the young plants that sprout around my asparagus, tomatoes and squash to grow to about 8-10" before pulling them out -- but the stems on these older plants tend to be stringy, so I pick off only the young and unblemished leaves (tossing the rest of the plant in the compost pile) The powdery texture of the leaves disappears with cooking. Garnished with a pat of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice, you can't find a gourmet vegetable at any price that will provide more gustatorial satisfaction!

A bonus for allowing room in the garden for this "weed" is that the bugs prefer it to some of the other seedlings, especially the beets & chard, so your formal crops stand a better chance with goosefoot around. The trick to keeping goosefoot under control in the garden is to remove all flowering stalks before they go to seed -- You are sure to miss a few, and that's all you need for next year ...grin...

I love nettles. In Romania they are picked and eaten in the spring. The new growth does not sting and it tastes much better. We cook it with a little garlic, much like creamed spinach. It is very good. I hope I'll find some seeds to plant this spring. I can't wait. Yumm!!

AncaG

I just tried eating nettle this fall. I had previously picked them several times and had them go bad before I got around to preparing them.. I found the texture to be a little off putting, they seemed to have the same kind of "mouth feel" that I would expect from Lamb's ear or some other fuzzy green stuff.I plane to try it again next spring, maybe I will like it better. I've been eating purslane and lambsquarter and dandelion since around 1948 when my father taught me about those herbs. I just found out that purslane is one of the only vegetable sources of Omega 3.
cccatcrazy.. Lambquarter is related to goosefoot as is Orach (red). I have a clear memory of a soup my Lithuanian Grandmother made using barley, lambsquarter (they called it barnweed) and chicken heads and feet. (seeing the chicken heads floating in the soup pot was the memory snagger.) I planted red orach a couple of years ago and just let some of the plants go to seed. It's beautiful in spring salads. Trouble now is I have aquired a new garden "friend" woodchuck and she really really likes my sorrel and orach. Dont know yet what I will do about her. My garden also supplies me with volunteer miner's lettuce, mache (corn salad) giant red mustard, dill, chickweed, victoria cress and wild arrugula...all pretty much earlier than I could have planted them and I love the idea that they plant themselves. All I have to do is not weed them out.

anca.. I don't think you will find seed for nettle though Ive never looked. I spend quite a bit of time pulling it out of flower beds (as a professional gardener) It spreads by underground runners and can take over a large area if it is happy. Some roots are in the topsoil we get from a certain supplier and it is not something I like to be surprised by without garden gloves. My skin is quite sensitive to it and will burn for 6-8 hours. I know of a couple of plots of it to try eating it again in the spring and I've seen it growing out in the woods along hiking trails etc so if you found some growing I suspect it would transpant easily if you get root.

linnea... we know each other, I used to be known as SAM at the travel agency before I came to my senses and got out of that business to become a gardener. My new discovery is sulphur shelf mushroom which I like lots better than nettle. Have you ever tried mushrooms? Your garden sounds like a wonderful place to spend time. I was glad to learn your business is thriving.

SAM! How wonderful, though we miss you, nobody booked like you!
Come eat nettles here this spring, it must have been the preparation,
begging your pardon, but there's nothing hairy about the texture
the way I do them. They're best before June when you relly need them most.
I have all the seed anyone might want, but hurry before they're shed.

Do you mean you grow mushrooms?
I'm of Scandinavian origins, we picked mushrooms as soon as we could walk
and could identify dozens of edible ones by age seven. I love mushrooms,
let's have a spring party!

Linnea,,I do grow a few shiitake mushrooms ..just 3 small logs..payment for helping a friend drill and innoculate a lot of big logs, but the sulphur shelf is a wild mushroom good late september. Had never tried this particular one but read about it online and later, a garden client said "come look at this bright orange mushroom". and so I tried it, great texture and flavor. http://www.doorbell.net/lukes/a102502.htm (a good photo) Also had morels from my neighbors flower bed (an elm had died in the middle of the bed and the roots were rotting. I suspect that's why they were there.) I just hope they return next year. They dry well so I have just a couple stored away to enjoy later.

The women I do landscaping with all tease me about eating nettles, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the prep or maybe just too late. I just might take you up on your offer for a spring party.