Benefits of Nettle and how to grow and wild harvest it

(Urtica dioica)

Stinging Nettle is a perennial herbaceous plant with a rich history of use dating back centuries. This remarkable plant is known for its distinctive sting and for its myriad of health benefits and uses in cooking, medicine, and gardening.  Nettle has been a staple in food and herbal medicine since ancient times around the majority of the Northern Hemisphere.

Skip to the bottom of this article to learn why Nettle doesn’t sting if you know you are going to touch it.

Benefits of Nettle

Nettles have shallow, extensive root systems which allow them to capture lots of nutrients from the soil.  The plant is packed with vitamins (A, C, and K), minerals (including iron, magnesium, and potassium), amino acids, and polyphenols. Nettles have more chlorophyll (read plant protein) than most any other plant.  Nettles offers a wide range of health benefits, such as:

• Anti-inflammatory properties that may help with joint pain and arthritis.*

• Natural diuretic effects, supporting kidney health and detoxification.*

• Support for the immune system*

• Contains antihistamines which may offer relief from hay fever symptoms.*

• Supports blood sugar control, heart health, and more.*

• Extensive information on the composition of Nettle

How to use Nettles

All spring long I love to use Nettles as a Spinach alternative. Young Nettle leaves are delicious, perfect in soups, or sautéed as a side dish or, my favorite, stuffed in lasagna. I prepare Nettles with Garlic and Lemon many times each spring.  Cook or at least dunk Nettles in water to remove the sting!  The stem has a rough texture - most people just use the leaves but I’ll include tender young stems too.  If tender enough, the stems have a texture reminiscent of mushrooms after cooking.  

In the winter I make a decoction (long infusion) of Nettles. WOW! I make it extra strong, about 2 oz dried Nettles to a 1/2 gallon of water and I leave it at a slight boil for 8 hours or more. There is so much goodness it in that oil actually separates out! I figure this is a great replacement for the dark leafy greens that are absent in the depths of winter.

• Gardening Companion: Nettle can be used to make a natural fertilizer.  Put them in a bucket with water, let sit for a few days then pour or spray on your plants.  You will see results!

• Nettles make durable textiles.  I am a member of the Facebook Nettles for Textiles group which always has cool posts.

• For topical usage there are Nettle creams (like this one from my friend Nancy), or a famously effective way of using to increase circulation (and decrease symptoms of arthritis) is to smack yourself with fresh Nettles so that you get aggressively stung. No pain no gain.

• Nettle Herbal Tea:  Nettles make a great infusion or decoction.  It has a pleasant “green” flavor and the decoctions can be strong - which is a good thing.  We include Nettles in our Angel, Tiger and Breathe Herbal Teas.  We also sell a lot of Bulk Nettle Leaf

How to Grow Nettle

Nettle is one of our biggest crops, producing about 1000 pounds dry each year. Because of its abundance here in Wisconsin we plant almost none of it, it is all wild harvested! Through my own curiosity I have planted nettles, just for the experience.  It can be grown from seed or from root divisions - I prefer the latter. Because Nettles are high in protein they love a nitrogen rich soil which aids in the building of their amino acids and overall protein content. They thrive when having a ton of actively decomposing organic matter at their disposal.

Caring for Wild Nettle Patches:

I believe that if I take care of the plants, they will take care of me.  I cherish my wild harvesting sites and it is important to me that they are naturally sustainable, producing year after year. 

Wild Nettles grow all over the world but they really thrive in Wisconsin.  Their favorite home is old barnyards loaded with decayed manure, on north east facing slopes, blocked from the wind.

With their vigorous growth and large leaves, Nettles like moisture, sun, and soil rich in organic matter. With protection from the wind nature tends to favor them over grasses.  They don’t grow much in the hot dog days of summer either - at that time of year they more transform from teens into seed producing adults.  They grow the most in the spring and fall.  They store up energy each fall which allows them to jump up, and out compete everything the following spring.  Grazing (manuring and mowing the grass) mid-summer makes the conditions in the field more perfect for Nettles.  After we harvest in July beef are allowed into these pastures.  Maybe we’ll add some hay bales for the cows to tear apart and stomp in too. So long as the timing is right, the grazing beef improves the subsequent year’s crop. As long as the patch is vigorous I don’t think you can do any damage with one clear cutting followed by grazing. I have a few patches (one 15 acres of pure Nettles!) that my kind neighbors allow me to collect.  I give them a royalty for our harvest because I want to come back year after year!

Harvesting Nettles:

The people I know who enjoy eating Nettles the most collect one leaf at a time, without gloves.  For our herbal teas we wear leather gloves, heavy pants and long shirt and use a big harvest sickle and cut them down above the first yellowing leaves, once the plants are already tall but before flowering. Like most herbs it is best to harvest in the morning hours after the dew has evaporated.  Herbal wisdom says that it is important to harvest Nettles before flowering, this is to preserve the energy within the core of the plant. That is what I recommend too and it is what we always do at Sacred Blossom Farm. There is research that says Nettles can be harvested anytime during the growing season.

Why Nettles Sting and Why They Don’t Sting If You Know You Are Going To Touch Them

The stems and underside of the leaves are covered in hair-like structures that resemble  “mini-hypodermic needles” containing formic acid and histamine. When these hairs are disturbed they will break off, lodging themselves into whatever touched them, releasing the chemicals within. Heating or even just dunking the plant in water will render them harmless.

This is hard to believe: if you know you are going to touch a Nettle plant, it generally won’t sting you.  I touch thousands of plants each harvest season and I only get badly stung a few times, through my pants when I am not paying attention. This is so crazy, even with all my first hand experience I hardly believed it to be true. 

It took me years for me to figure out why. The stinging compounds in Nettles are very strong but there isn’t much there.  If your body knows it is going to touch it, it doesn’t bother reacting - no problem.  But when you unexpectedly get hit with even a micro dose of these chemicals your body says “HEY! What’s that!” to get you to pay attention and stay safe.

Drying and Processing Nettles for Herbal Tea

Dried Nettles store great and make fabulous, nutritious herbal tea.  On a small scale they can be hung in the shade in bunches.  On our farm we pile them on drying racks, blowing warm air through them.  After 12 hours we flip the herbs and they are usually dry in 24 hours. When dry the leaves will shatter - it is okay if the stems are still pliable because once the leaves are dry we rub them over a screen and use the stems as a great fertilizing mulch.