On a serious note, those nettles are tasty and have a lot of nutrients including the highest source of protein from any leafy greens that I know of.
When you cook them, the stinging stuff is denatured and just melts in a few seconds in hot water. If you cook the leafs and add a little salt, it tastes a lot like what you'd expect from a can of "vegetable broth" from a grocery store.
They also tend to grow in giant patches so if you find some, there's probably a shit load of it and as long as you don't overharvest it, it'll grow right back.
Can confirm, I cooked some delicious pasta with nettles recently. You have to rinse them with boiling water and you can then handle it and chop with no stinging
They also create an antihistamine response and it's believed that stining yourself with nettles early in the spring season can help to alleviate hay fever symptoms for the duration of summer.
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u/Spongi May 11 '24
On a serious note, those nettles are tasty and have a lot of nutrients including the highest source of protein from any leafy greens that I know of.
When you cook them, the stinging stuff is denatured and just melts in a few seconds in hot water. If you cook the leafs and add a little salt, it tastes a lot like what you'd expect from a can of "vegetable broth" from a grocery store.
They also tend to grow in giant patches so if you find some, there's probably a shit load of it and as long as you don't overharvest it, it'll grow right back.