Interested in eating/drinking nettles, anyone have experience?

[savingdogs]

I've been reading online about the ways to eat common stinging nettles, which are highly abundant in our area.
Anyone have experience with this?
I understand that it has medicinal qualities and do plan on checking with our doctors regarding interactions with some of our medications we take, but it also sounds like the medicinal qualites would be helpful in our cases.
Any information/recipes/knowledge about this would be great.

If nothing else, it is supposed to taste just like cooked spinach and I could have a ton of it every April, for free. Anyone eat it? How do you get it all home without stinging yourself silly?

 

[PunkinPeep]

I remembered some discussions about nettle over on The Easy Garden forum. So i went and looked. Here are a couple of links. But if you wanted to join TEG - which is a sister site of this one, there are quite a few more discussions on it, if i remember correctly. They made me WANT to have nettle growing here.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=28613

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=27270

 

[Blackbird]

Most people recommend only eating tender young plants, only a couple of inches tall. If you eat older plants they taste woody or grainy.

When I pick nettle I lick wet my fingers down, then you're able to pluck the tops off without getting stung. Then it can go straight into your mouth!

 

[freemotion]

I use kitchen rubber gloves and scissors and put them in a paper bag. I haven't cooked them yet, as someone plowed up "my" patch (not on my land :/ ) But I dried a bunch and throw a few in my veggie shakes in the winter when fresh nutrients are at a low. I don't even notice they are in there. Once they are dry they are easy to handle.

 

[savingdogs]

Thanks for all the information, those links were very interesting too!

 

[lalaland]

i usually use nettles in the spring - you take the top of the plant - think young and tender. I saute some garlic, add the freshly washed nettles so there is a little mositure, pop a lid on, kind of steam them, they taste great with a little balsamic vinegar.

you can make a nettle tincture too

not sure of the medicinal value of dried nettles.