Its that time of year again. The very top of the nettles is tinged purple from the cold nights, but other than that, they are okay.
I take thick rubber gloves and a metal colander with me and only need to walk about a minute from the house to gather them, down a small walkthrough, that gets next to no traffic. The top 4 big leaves are taken, and pushed firmly into the colander until it is full.
Once home, the nettles are thoroughly rinsed, spun in a sald spinner to remove the water and left for a short while to dry on a tea towel.
After that, they are placed into my dehydrator and dried for about 6 hours on 100F:
They will be checked every day for a week to make sure they aren't starting to clump together which indicates they weren't dried properly and will get mould. They can be rehydrated in a net bag at this point if necessary, but so far, they are ok.
The above amount 1/3rd filled my glass jar and today, another 6 trays are drying.
What will you use them for?
ReplyDeleteMainly tea but they are good added to soups and boiled from fresh, a good spinach substitute in a quiche or something similar.
DeleteSo what's nettle tea good for, or do you just like it?
ReplyDeleteI do like it and drink one mug a day 2 or 3 times a week. Here is a link to it’s properties https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/health-benefits-of-nettle-tea
DeleteNot sure if we have nettles here, but I am going to do some research. Nettle tea and it's properties sound very interesting.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Make sure if you have them they are stinging nettles. You can buy ready dried but I find fresh ones, dried by me, better, as I know they are young.
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