Is This The Most Useful 'Weed' for Self-Sufficiency?
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- čas přidán 7. 06. 2024
- I think it is!
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#gardeningtips #growyourownfood #selfsufficiency - Jak na to + styl
Not being the no weed police, but it reminds me of what my Grandma used to say. "There's no such thing as weeds, just Wildflowers without a home!" She was an avid gardener 🌹
Oh, I love that! 🥰
In Italy we use nettle for gnocchi, ravioli and vegetables pies 😋
My granny always claimed she wouldn't have lived to be 97 years old if she hadn't eaten nettle spinach and dandelion salad almost every day. 😊 I love both!
I used to eat dandelion every day, but I got tired of the bitterness. How do you deal with that?
Yes! Dandelions got a little miscast here so I made a comment. Great to see someone else commenting though. It's kinda of hilarious how much incredible food there is around that people treat as pests. 😂 Imagine living somewhere lousy with nettles, dandelions, rabbits, snails, and having a prevailing culture that treats the place as barren and all the above as pests 😂. Sad. People forget their own cultural past and go buy poor substitutes in plastic from a supermarket.
Bah! YT ate my other comment. Just great that someone else highlighted dandelions here. 👍
@@eugenetswongI read that the tips are where the nutrients are and noticed my chooks only ate them too. They're less bitter. Still, I usually mix them in with other things less likely to taste head-implodingly bitter. 😂
@@tttm99 Thanks for the advice about eating the tips. I think that it is amazing that the nutrients are where the least bitterness is.
Hi! You forgot an essential thing. In Romania we eat it an buy it only when it has 3 or 5 cm high. Then when it s higher is very useful in the garden: it can fight againt any fungus an insects when we make a juice from it. We keep it a day or two in the water and then use it to sprinkle the garden.
Super fascinating!! Thank you so much!!
I just had steamed nettles tops
as a veg with my cottage pie, been eating them for years, simply delicious.
Use as a plant food too. Thanks for telling everyone, nobody takes any notice of me!
If you harvest the top three rounds of leaves, those are the best ones.
@@marilynstanbury5098 I know how it feels!
The Best soup whit bacon....yam
Nettles can also be used to create a fibre that is very similar to silk, it was called silk of the North or Nordic silk. It was considered such a luxurious fabric that in Norway ordinary people were banned from wearing it until 1720.
Nettles are extremely nutritious - in soups, stews, pestos, tea, etc. In Korea, a very long nettle was used to make Rami, the native cloth. In fact, other countries that had come into contact with the 'hermit kingdom' called Koreans 'the people who wear white' as the fabric from the nettles was always white and never dyed for everyday clothing.
One of my favourite fairytales was about a princess saving her brothers from the curse of a witch that had turned them into swans. To break the curse she had to weave and sew shirts made of nettles for all of them to put on. She had to do all the work herself. Cutting and preparing the nettles to the weaving and sewing.
@@typower9 Yes...Hans Christian Anderson, the writer of 'The Little Mermaid' and many many other stories.
I remember that one too!
I used to love it as a child, was one of my favourite stories of Hans Christian Anderson. Except it was a prince , and they fell in love he always had one swan wing remaining as she didn't get it completely finish it in time..
@@TheSalmuse7 Maybe i just had a different version of the story. Or maybe mine was by a different author.
Dandelion, Cleavers, Stinging Nettle for the win!
When I injured my back I had to leave the gardening so it went wild and nettles sprouted up and grew 10 foot tall and huge leaves and cleavers grew so I added that to my greens smoothie. Dandelions, dock leaves, blackberries and alpine strawberries grew too so I had free food. I had to build a bamboo stick support structure for the tall nettles as the wind and rain tend to flatten them. I don't eat the baby leaves along the stalks, I let them grow for next harvest. I've noticed people harvest the whole stalk but then if you do that just like celery, cabbage, spinach and lettuce then it's gone so why not take what you need and let the vegetables carry on growing for more food. I only harvested outer stalks of celery and the middle just carried on expanding and each celery plant divided itself into five new plants and they survived for 7 years till the drought. They do require a lot of water. The stalks were three times wider than supermarket celery and were two foot tall. Also to grow larger celery the soil needs to be deep...they have long roots.
I’ve tried nettles half a dozen different ways ,it’s just such a strong unpleasant flavour I can’t eat it same with coriander so bitter it ruins food .fortunately I have sheep and ponies who love wilted nettles so they get used to
Great suggestion ❤
@@Handmemoretramadol My Gran made nettle hair tonic and rubbed it into her scalp and hair and her hair was silky and regrew and was thicker and before it was grey and the colour came back. So the bigger leaves for hair tonic and smaller leaves for cooking. I simmered the nettles with other veg...carrots and parsnips for sweetness, onions, potatoes, broccoli, peas and cauliflower. I wouldn't cook or eat the nettles separately.
What a coincidence, I’ve just eaten steamed nettle tops as a veg with my cottage pie, simply delicious, been eating them for years! Also great food in the vegetable garden and I’ve also used them for years as a final rinse to my hair…..no dandruff and a good shine……just nettles steeped in hot water, like a tea. Thanks for the great video telling everyone how fantastic nettles are, nobody believes me.
Nettle soup; nettle stew; nettle pesto; nettle tea!
And shampoo, simply fabulous.
Ater they’re blanched, I like to fry them quickly in butter and black pepper. Delicious! It could almost pass for meat if it wasn’t for the texture.
@@elisekuby2009 Nettle beer too, one recipe that even nettle lovers seem to overlook.
@@DraftingandCrafting Wow! Amazing! Never heard that before. Love learning something new every day. So I'm guessing that fermentation is involved?
Boiled down... they're a vegetarian rennet that can be used in cheese making! Just in case you're fresh out of ruminate parts. 🐑
That’s a juicy bit of knowledge to pack away, thank you!
I had never heard of that before. It is well worth noting with different shortages and chemicals being put into our food ingredients. Thank you.
Also the milk when you harvest a fig.when I was a child my mum used to pick a fig (had to be early in the morning for some reason) then heat up some full cream milk to body temp around 37c & put a few drops of the fig milk in it,the milk would set like a pudding I would sprinkle over some sugar & eat it as a treat.this is something my mum did as a child in the south of Italy.
Dandelions should never be underestimated for the uses they can provide! thanks Hugh!.
I'm making a dandelion beer this week, haha! Collecting blooms for it now. For some reason, the greens of the dandelions in my yard taste a lot better than ones I've had before, too. I munch on them regularly.
Dandelion & lemongrass extract is useful in studies for prostate cancer, I was reading a paper some months back. I've made tinctures and collected more wild flowers two days ago.
@@Zoeybeau_1 Dandelion root, also destroys breast cancer. However please don't pick all the flowers in your garden, as the flowers have both pollen & nectar which are needed for bees.
@@carolineowen7846 You can make honey out of them too, tastes great! Not to mention all the different teas you an make. I hate seeing all the dandelions getting cut throughout spring and summer in urban areas for the sake of lifeless too short grass :(
All the variety of greens in right ratios keep you in good fettle along with nettle lol
I still have nettles in my freezers and I'm desperately trying to eat it all to create space for this years harvest. (We still have snow). I use the nettles in soups, stews, pies, omelett and pasta dishes.
It's a great vegetable AND it's great as a fertilizer for healthy plants!
❤
Makes a great pesto as well, made like the Genovese style of pesto. With walnuts. I also drink nettle tea, great for staving off seasonal allergies, like pollen, snow mold, etc.
The old folk used to roll in a nettle bed if they had arthritis or rheumatism.
Im a permaculturist, its all fine and dandy ! 😂😂😂 I need this on a T-Shirt
Hahahahaha🤣
As soon as I saw the title I knew this would be about nettles 😊 Such a valuable resource! My first experience with appreciating nettles was as a child, probably about 10. I was away at a week long conservation summer camp and one of the activities was a long hike followed by setting up a primitive survival camp for the night. We couldn’t bring food and instead were only allowed to harvest nettles and drink nettle tea that night. We were taught to tap the plant with a stick to loosen excess pollen and then pinch the individual leaves from the top, folding them downward on themselves because the underside has the most needles. Now I harvest them for drying for drinking teas and for making fertilizer in the garden.
I live in the desert and I have planted yarrow, peppernint, oregano, thme, sage, lavender, dock and more. Then I have dandelions and plaintain that grows wild.
I have a treasure. I found a patch of nettle together with comfrey. The two plants grow right next to each other. Safe to say I harvest from this spot almost weekly.
If you have a nettle patch, you have super nutritious soil.
What do you do with the comfrey?
@@charleskelm3703 I use it in fertilizer teas with nettle. I let it steep until it stinks and then strain it and dilute it somewhat before watering my plants with it. I also put it in my compost to add even more fertility. The taproot of the comfrey is excellent at pulling up nutrients from the ground and making it accessible for the plant.
@@charleskelm3703 Fill up a barrel with water and add as many comfrey leaves as will fit. Cover and allow to ferment. It will stink. But it is a fertilizer tea and plants love it.
I also make an arthritis cream with it and can it. It makes a great poultice for joint pain.
Love it when Huw says “we’re all part of nature, it’s all fine and dandy…”SO true 👍🏻😃
Also you can make string from the long fibres in the stems. Sally Pointer has some great videos on making and using nettle fibre.
Thanks I will try and see her videos
I was thinking black locust. Very useful tree. Wood doesn't rot. Edible seed pods. Attracts squirrels. Some people say that the spikes can be used as nails in softer woods. They are definitely straight and long enough, and probably hard enough. Black locust is very hard wood.
I like plants.
Also one of the best for firewood, very high btu.
My Nan would make nettle wine every year, when I was allowed a sip it tasted nice 😄
What is the Recipe
Recipe please?
Do you know the recepie? And would shsre it?
Hahah universal response .. recipe please! Indeed.
I live in a desert alpine valley in Colorado. To get nettles at all, I have to treat it like a perennial vegetable in a raised bed. I haven't managed to get mine to weed status yet... life goals!😂
😂😂Same here the living in a desert part. Namib desert in Namibia 🇳🇦. Cannot even find nettle seeds here 🤦♀️. So yes not status yet for them for me 😂😂
Surely you have something local that is more suited? A milkweed perhaps?
@@jackiethiardt2127oh, they'd grow in hot climates? Guess I'll ask family in Europe if they can find me nettle seeds.
@@nunyabiznes33 I have no idea if they will grow here. To be honest I have never seen a nettle here in the wild but would love to grow them in my garden.
@@pattheplanter Can I use this similarly to nettles? We have this growing wild along our main roads. Not that I knew that 😮. Google just told me that the wild flowers here we call something else are actually milkweed. I am a very very beginner gardener but it actually excites me when this happens. Me learning something at my age that have me go oh wow I did not know that. Thank you!!
I've got a small bunch growing on the side of my garden, just peeping through the fence. I put up a sign for the council not to mow them "I standing here for Butterflies". So far so good. As an artist I also use them to make/add to handmade paper. And of course (like mentioned) liquid feed, or simply composting/mulching. Super versatile. Thanks Huw!
“We are a part of nature” … l love it! I share my cabbages, they share their nettles. Great job, Huw! Keep us balanced in our thinking.
What a great educator and communicator. Delighted to have this video arrive in my algorithm tray.
I love nettles. you are amazing man. Been watching you grow for years.
I have received my book yesterday. Thank you Huw and Sam for a fantastic book. 🎉🎉
Thank Huw!! it is always a delight to listen to your very useful videos!! keep on doing them!
I love your attitude about nature, permaculture, and no dig. Thanks Huw for another interesting and useful video 👍🌟✔
I made a tea from stinging nettle, and it was delicious! There's also a soup recipe made with it and potatoes, carrots and almost anything else you want to add - yummy!
@HuwRichards, great info as always and am loving my signed copy of your terrific book which arrived in New Zealand in perfect condition after 12,000 miles in a very clever cardboard container with no need for any sellotape, brilliant! 😃
Huw, blimey you've come a long way. well done
Another edible "weed" is the similar but non-stinging white deadnettle & purple deadnettle plant. They are amongst the first to flower along with spring bulbs like daffodils, crocuses, tulips & muscari, but bumblebees seem to overwhelmingly prefer the nectar of the white deadnettle & dandelions.
What a great video. Thanks all the way from South Africa. So encouraging to listen to a young man in tune with the natural world of butterflies, edible “weeds”, and food sources grown in a natural and healthy environment.
I only made your nettle juice ferment yesterday, as well as first nettle & seaweed with comfrey into a bucket and way at the other end of the garden for early fertilizer two weeks ago. Last year I sown a lot of medicinal herbs into the garden. Thanks for your insight, loving the book by the way!!
I like the flavour and texture of nettles more than spinach. I just finished my dried nettle seed from last year, had some on my soaked oats every morning! Must save more this year! ☺️
I harvested, steamed, cooled and froze a large batch last year in very little time and it was light work too. Very like spinach. I only pick the top four leaves so I'm less likely to disturb insect eggs etc. Good to remind us of nettles Huw😊
I love nettles, there a great food source for us and creatures. They are also great for making cordage and textiles!
Great video, thanks
I make nettle pancakes when there is fresh nettle about. NB they do thicken the mix considerably consequently it's best to start with a more fluid mix.
Excellent video Huw. I really need to plant some nettle. Hopefully it won’t mind our hot dry climate (New Mexico High Desert). Can’t wait to receive your book…
Been using nettles for years; it thrives in a park near us. Steaming, pureeing and freezing it in ice trays helps us use it in smoothies and soups throughout the year. Instead of the messy and outrageously smelly tea for the garden I’m trying putting it around garden plants as mulch, using only the young, seedless shoots in early spring. Love your video and thx for spreading the news of this amazing plant. I’ve not had spring or fall allergies since using nettle!
I enjoy the added flavor in soups and stews. I also started making my own fertilizer that I used for the first time this week. I look forward to the results. Started using nettle a year ago. Love it! And to think it was only a obnoxious weed growing up - lol
In Greece the old folk used it in soups, stews and as the greens instead of spinach in spinach pie. In Crete they use it as a staple green and people in the know pick it and cook it. Its very versatile.
Lovely video Hugh. I have plenty nettle patches in my allotment which i cherish. They attract so many benefical insects, enhance the compost heap and make great health giving tinctures. I agree we are not seperate from nature and when you garden with principles of biodivesity you create with nature abundance. Embrace the nettle ❤
Great present Huw. Been very busy and need to catch up on your posts. Nettles. Bloody marvellous!!
I use nettles in soup (my fav), stewed as sidedish, in pies, pastadough or like lasagna or sauce, gnocchi and the seeds on top of youghurt or in smoothies. Living up north in Sweden we have a short growing season and have to wait for the harvest of veggies so they are a nice contribution to my food in May/June. After a couple of harvest I cut them down, put the stems in a waterbarrel and make fertiliser from them, Then I got a second and fourth harvest from the plants I have cut down. So versatile, love them!
A brilliant video Huw. Thanks a lot!
Well timed! was just about to weed a bunch of nettles out of my yard this afternoon but now I will leave them and see how it goes!
Just a heads up: when harvesting your nettles, do it before noon and only take the three top rows of leaves. Never eat nettle when it flowers, or right after it flowers (silica) - eat it only in the spring and fall when it is young.
Soup, stew, pesto, tea, etc.
Wonderful! Looking forward to adding it to my garden. ❤
I had a big, creamy (blended cashew cream) nettle soup yesterday. I just added some onion and salt. So delicious!
Brilliant tips as always! That PSB sourdough looks scrumptious 💜
Thank you, sir! I look forward to trying it.
I just put another set of nettle leaves in the dehydrator about 1/2 hour before seeing this video...
It will go EVERYWHERE, and I would consider it a weed. Last year I had one plant, and this year I have a patch about 3x4 feet large.
I love your mindset. We are all part of nature. Have had nettle seeds for years and have never known where to plant them. I think this year it's time.
Just ordered some seeds! Thanks! Your book looks good!
this is wonderful video! That little nettle currently growing in our raspberry edge, will stay 🥰
Another awesome video! Thank you!
Here in Australia many seed companies sell dandelion & nettle seeds 👍
Thank you for the video Huw 🙂
Thanks for the very inspiring presentation.
I had this for dinner last night for the first time. Highly recommend!
I FINALLY got some in my yard last year. Gonna go pick some right now and make a tea. 😊
Thank You , I love nettles in all their ways 😻
I just watched your stinging nettle video of 12 years ago yesterday. You have come a long way since!
Oh wow!! Thank you!!
Nettle seeds are so underrated! Fun to forage, easy to dry for winter storage, sprinkle on your salad, soups, anything really
fab video, thank you so much, Huw - and appreciatel the comments - so valuable
❤ Brennessel ist ein Muß im Garten. Greatings from Vienna.
Just picked nettles today! For fermentering into plant juice and for food. Such a lovely gift of nature. My experience is that they grow back just fine when harvested sensibly.
Nettles grow back no matter how hard you harvest them rip them out, at least that's my experience on my smallholding in the UK
Great to promote the humble nettle, thank you and love all the ideas
Good one Huw. To avoid them spreading, I grow nettles in a tub. No maintenance.
I eat, infuse and powder nettles.. Nature's perfect 💚
But how do you avoid having the needle like hairs sticking into your throat?
@@greghayes9118 drying and cooking in water or butter takes care of that.. 🙏
@@user-eg7wi8xr2f Now I am interested in tasting it. A few years ago, I booked a lady who does group seminars, outdoors on edible weeds. It was a hit. I know that I have seen nettles somewhere in my area. Thanks for the info..
I like to use nettles in the garden. My favorite herb 🌿 is dandelion 🌼🌱🌼
I was considering to get some nettles for the new compost heap because there is a lot of dry material in there already and I need some greens to activate it.
Good show, cheers Huw. If you look up the mineral analysis of nettle and comfrey in the apendix of Nigel Palmers book (The regen growers guide to garden amendments) you'll be able to see that mixing the two 50/50 in compost/ferment provides one of the best all round mineral amendments you could need in the garden. I make an excellent liquid extract by mixing the two in a wheely bin with a tap on the bottom, scrunch up some old chicken wire to put in the bottom ~a ft thick to act as a filter, fill the bin with the 50/50 mix and weight it down with a large stone, open tap to harvest runoff, it'll store well for years in old plastic milk bottles. I use it diluted 16:1, 1 pint jug goes into a 2 gal watering can.
The long stems that are left can be made into really good cordage, nettles have more vit c than anything else we can grow, interestingly enough and the green dye you get from them is quite lovely
Thanks Huw
Inspiring post x
That fencing in the 1st minute......nice.
They're my favourite green foraged food. I used to have a go-to patch next to a creek, but the little trail is now paved, and the area is sprayed for weeds. I would harvest cleavers / stickyweed from there as well.
I also dry nettles, add to soups or make nettle tea for yourself; end out with a tasty snack , especially when they are seedy. I have to semi cultivate nettles here in Portugal. They are annual! Maybe due to the heat.
Hi! In Greece and Albania (probably also in other balkan countries, though the first two i know for a fact and have tasted both variants), there is a baked nettle crust pie (pita with fillo) recipe that is simply delicious!
One thing I would add is that they're full of antihistamines. They're really good to take as a tea from February onwards to help combat hay fever
Excellent video, thank you
Nettles are lovely as a tisane/tea and it tastes just like the color green.
Where are you? It always helps to know the growing zones of gardening presenters. I am in the Northwest of the U.S. in zone 6.
Champion weeds, and your a champ too mate, great content to help people grow healthy food in the simplest most effective and efficient ways, life can be so simple yet so enriching if we go back to basics, thankyou for being dedicated to show and demonstrate that!
Absolutely. I totally agree. That was my experience of this tale
Having a french mama we ate young dandelion leaves,. Stinging nettles are also great for herbal remedies
Nice job on the color grading!
Lovely, what a useful plant! Here in the US, I live in a state that maintains a database on plants. Stinging Nettle has many attributes indeed and is host plant to oodles of butterflies. Thanks for the heads-up on this one. I don't seem to have this on my ppty as they need a moist environment. I’m a huge fan of biodiversity and native plants - but, DANG - our weeds and saplings will take over if I’m not diligent. (Note: I’m NOT quite diligent enough, ack! 😱). Thanks, Huw!
Garden weeds has always fascinated me. I feel like that's an ecosystem on it's own. The Biologist inside me wants to make a full research on it, but sadly, I can only come home on vaccation.
Wonderful, thank you. 🙏
I make all the edible and medicinal things from nettles, including hair and skin care. Would never want to be without them! They’ve helped so much in so many ways.
Even tho they’re all different plants, the ‘weeds’ with “nettle” in their name are all incredible for many reasons.
Nettle gnocchi with lemon balm pesto is very nice!
Offgrid on a shoestring here, im surrounded by them its nearly time for a harvest to make some nettle stew fertiliser. The rest go on the compost pile. The spuds foliage is vibrant from the compost made with nettles and old guinee pig hutch bedding. Found someone who farms guinee pigs so no shortage of supply.
Brilliant , informative, inspiring
I have a big patch of nettles at the bottom of my allotment. I’ve been using them to make nettle fertiliser and as a strulch…I’ll have to give eating them a go 😊
Me too 😊. But the butterflies also breed on the ones in the sun which brings more summer joy! 🦋
I have been putting nettles in my soup mashed potatoes ,I also know they are good for butterfly's t. lay there egg's on red admirals swallowtail etc wonderful plant❤
My grandmother used to bake Epirus' spanakopita which is basically season greens plus spinach. Nettle and poppy greens was the best combination
Everything your saying is so true and young dandelion is delicious aswell keep up the good work Huge love watching your videos
My Mum used to make Nettle wine back in the day, I can't say it tasted good but I was pretty young. Thanks for the Video.
Brilliant video, thanks Huw. I fancied I knew a fair bit about nettles, but clearly not. God has given us all a full and fertile garden of amazing plants,and nettles are one of the most underrated; they are in fact super plants.
BTW, It also makes excellent cordage, but you probably knew that.
You've just gained a new subscriber.
I actually plant dandelion in my raised bed as well as in a windowsill over the winter simply because it is good to have in my diet and because it has so many uses. And yes, you can buy dandelion seeds! I also have a patch of nettles in the yard.
Many years ago, I was lucky enough to attend a ‘local delicacies’ dinner in Finland that included cream of nettle soup. I’ve been hoping and wishing for it to be served to me again ever since! So so so delicious.
Hi,thank you for sharing❤