Neantóg ~ Nettle

Let's get to know Nettle together

Nettle is one of the most nutritious, complete foods here on Earth.

Nettle (or commonly; Heg-beg, itchweed, or hokey-pokey) thrives in nitrogen-rich soils, often places were humans have been active with farming and living. An individual Nettle plant can live up to 10 years. She lives as an underground rhizome system, sending new shoots each spring, part of a plant colony that can live indefinitely.

This hardiness is a big aspect of Nettle’s temperament. Assertive, resilient, strong. While from an energetic perspective, Nettle is stimulating, strengthening, cleansing, giving vitality, resilience and renewal. It is cooling, drying, astringent and bitter.

Nettles have been used medicinally for purifying the blood (high blood pressure, high blood sugars), the digestive system, and the uterine system (clearing out the urinary tract). As well as for treating anaemia, eczema, asthma, hayfever, bites, itchy skin, arthritis, parasites, poor kidney function, and expelling phlegm from the lungs. The seeds being a particularly good adrenal booster for the kidneys and thyroid.

Nettles have a strong ability to draw up nutrients from deep in the soil, like the trace element, boron, which is created in outer space and supports bone density, muscle strength and can prevent osteoporosis. Nettles are high in Vitamins A, C, iron, potassium, sulphur and sodium.

The hypodermic needles release formic acid, histamine and other chemicals that stimulate circulation and reduce inflammation. A poultice of the leaves can soothe the skin and relieve pain, because of the histamine blockers within. Histamine in nettle binds to receptors in our bodies to temporarily block production of our own histamine, and it is for this reason that Nettle is a great remedy for hayfever.

Nettle was one of the ‘famine staples’ and as such, became associated with poverty and starvation probably quite subconsciously. The relationship to nettle faded away as our culture evolved through industrialisation. It was once very normal to have nettle champ, nettle beer and wine and Brotchá (traditional Irish and Scottish soup of oats/barley, onion, milk, butter, nettles, wild garlic) regularly. But shifts are shifting as they always do, and more and more people are meeting Nettle again, as food, medicine, textile fibre, soil builder, fertiliser, and even as teacher and ally.