Nettles for a Survival food

[twilight_shadow]

Farewell to Nettles? Not Likely...

I came to this site by chance in the Autumn last year (2013), wondering precisely what the 'prepping' ethos was. To be perfectly honest sitting on piles of supplies is not my kind of thing, and I would prefer to be more flexible in my response to any emergency/disaster.

My own specialism is in survival/wild food, which I deal with (as in teaching) on a day-to-day basis. Do not get me wrong, I am not a herbal quack or tree-hugger, and regularly work alongside Forces personnel where the ability to live off the land (potentially behind enemy lines) is a real life-determining possibility.

If you guys are happy for me to do so, I will put up over the next few months my thoughts on some of the key (read useful) edible wild survival plants that can see you through a disaster - as opposed to all the trite guff that you see on TV etc. - and hence my personal feral survival philosophy if the SHTF really does happen, rather than sitting on bunkered supplies.

So to the nitty-gritty.... NETTLES, to start with.... And in relation to the UK only...

3 types... [1] Common Stinging (Urtica diocia)... the one that you usually see in farmland and waste ground. It's a 'perennial' (living 3+ years), likes nitrogen-rich soils with a degree of good moisture, but not saturated ground. Look for it where defecating farm animals have been, rotting vegetation etc.
[2] Small/Annual Nettle (Urtica urens). This is an 'annual', stinging, nettle often found in allotments and gardens, and is essentially is on a par with the above for edible use. As an annual plant this latter species would need proper thoughtful plant management skills to make it a regular food source.
[3] Is the Roman Nettle (Urtica pilulifera), so-called, which is really an inhabitant of the South East of the UK. It's a plant that I personally have not encountered, but is said to be tougher than the previous two, have more vicious stings and, besides, is limited in its spread in the UK so more useful if you're stranded in Mediterranean climes. Even then, it might not be worthwhile as a foodstuff.

You can find a lot of scientific data online about the nutritional details for [1] & [2] above, but from a purely
foodie aspect they really DO make a very good spinach-like substitute - without tasting like spinach whatsoever (if you have spinach hangups that is). If you want to get a handle on cooking nettles, and like Indian food, then try making up a version of Sag Aloo using nettles as the spinach substitute! Or use RAW nettle leaves in a pasta pesto recipe.

From an entirely more survival-related aspect...

(1) DRY nettle leaves as a potential rucksack vegetable, although the dried leaves shatter very easily. On the positive side this means that you don't need to spend time chopping the leaf greens, or reconstituting for nettle soup-like meals. Added powdered to flour they can be a nutritional, fibre-rich, addition to breads.

(2) DRY leaves are used by some folks as a wimpish tea or beverage, but not me I must say. Teabags yo!

(3) Nettles as a hunger-suppressant. This is interesting from a survival POV, in that while nettles are readily available in huge quantities it seems that small of leaves can appease hunger. I have consumed the equivalent of a small matchbox of cooked fresh nettle leaves on a rat-knawing empty stomach - I admit to adding a tsp. of peanut butter to give taste - and being satisfied for food for a couple of hours or slightly longer. There might well be more to investigte in this aspect of nettles in survival mode.

(4) Pounding or crushing fresh nettle leaves destroys the bristles that sting you and can then be eaten raw; so providing you with the fullest nutritional intake obtainable from the crushed leaves.

(5) In a long-term survival situation where you have time to plant foodstuff seeds, then first year nettle seedlings up to a few inches tall have no sting and can therefore be eaten as a fresh salad green.

[morgawr]

Great post look forward to more.
Nettles I think have other uses, one I know of is using it to make a good plant food or fertilizer, there are others but none spring to mind right now.

[2ndRateMind]

Good input. I have a book about this called 101 uses for Stinging Nettles. Here's the link. My favourites are Nettle Beer and Nettle Wine (which I have yet to make, but plan on doing in spring), and I shall also be trying out nettle soup. I love the idea of Nettle aloo, too. That has to be a cheap meal!

Cheers, 2RM.

[Arzosah]

Great post! Nothing wrong with treehugging, though

[mallie99]

What about those non-stinging nettles? We used to call them White Dead Nettles (cos they didnt sting and had white things on them which gave a sweet taste in your mouth if you sucked air through them...) How do they fare?

I ask mostly because, well, they dont sting!

[lonewolf]

personally I'd like to have a stock of food as well as knowing about foraging, its always handy to have a fall back position.

[2ndRateMind]

Yeah. I'm no expert, but seems to me foraging is about leaves, roots, fungi, nuts and berries. Hunting is about meat. By the sea, you also have shellfish, shrimps, crabs, seaweed, and maybe fish, if you can catch them. All that still leaves a carbohydrate hole in the diet; stuff like rice, potatoes, pasta, and cous cous. Even if you're planning to, and equipped to, and skilled at, foraging, hunting and fishing, seems to me you'd still want a stock of staples.

Cheers, 2RM.

[KrisWard]

Really enjoyed your post, hope to see more

[twilight_shadow]

What about those non-stinging nettles? We used to call them White Dead Nettles (cos they didnt sting and had white things on them which gave a sweet taste in your mouth if you sucked air through them...) How do they fare?

I ask mostly because, well, they dont sting!

White Dead Nettles are fair game too. Use the young shoots in the same way as Nettles proper, although they have a bit of a peculiar whiff. The 'white things on them' are the flowers. )) That mild sweetness you refer to makes them a potential for a hot beverage, that sweetness being intensified if the flowers are dried and reserved for later use.

[Selfsufficient Chick]

Good reducing symptoms or actually curing asthma (those at a young age) - speaking from actual experience of my grandmother giving both myself and my uncle (asthmas suffers) nettle tea (picked stinging nettle and boiling in water.

It cured his asthma - helped to reduce my symptoms and continues to do so today.