Stinging Nettles: The Most Nutritious Weed You're Walking Past

Nettles might be the most nutrient-dense plant growing right outside your door right now, and most people walk past it every day without a second glance. In this episode, we're digging deep into one of herbalism's most beloved plants, sharing everything from its nutritional profile to why Dr. Ed Alstat's discovery of freeze-dried nettles for allergy relief changed the game for Eclectic Herb. 

You'll hear readings from a 17th century Nicholas Culpeper text right from Chris' personal herbal library, travel through the global history of nettles from Japan to New Zealand to Russia, and learn why herbalists and the Eclectic Physicians have been turning to this plant for centuries. Whether you're managing seasonal allergies, looking to nourish your body after a long winter, or just curious about the weedy green that keeps popping up around you, this episode will make you want to go find some nettles. 

What's in this episode: 

• Why nettles is one of the most nutrient-dense plants on the planet 
• Nettles for women's health: iron, heavy menses, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and perimenopause
• Dr. Ed Alstat's discovery of freeze-dried nettles for allergies and what makes Eclectic Herb's nettles different 
• Nicholas Culpeper's 17th century uses, read straight from Chris's library 
• The Eclectic Physicians and how they approached nettles as a pattern-based remedy 
• Ed's origin story: the pharmacist who put on a wig and started asking the wrong questions
• Nettles World Tour with Chris: New Zealand's Onga Onga, Japan, Russia, and European urtication
• How to use nettles: tea, apple cider vinegar infusion, pesto, smoothies, and freshly freeze-dried capsules 

Herbal Terms in This Episode: 

Hemostatic: An herb that helps slow or stop bleeding, useful for heavy menses or wounds. 

Astringent: An action that tones and tightens tissues and reduces excessive secretions, like a runny nose or weeping wounds. 

Diuretic: Supports the kidneys in flushing excess fluid and waste from the body. 

Galactagogue: An herb traditionally used to support and promote breast milk production. 

Urtication: The practice of deliberately stinging the skin with fresh nettles, historically used in Europe for pain relief and circulation. 

We'd love to hear from you! 

Have you ever used nettles for allergies, as a food, or in some creative way we didn't mention? 

Share your nettles stories with us on Instagram or TikTok @eclecticherb 

Full show notes and transcript: eclecticherb.com/blogs/news/stinging-nettles 

Shop freeze-dried Nettles and Nettles with Quercetin at eclecticherb.com 

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And, if you have time, be sure to reach out and let us know what you think of the show! 

At Eclectic Herb we're passionate about bringing you herbs as fresh as plants in the wild!

That's why we take the time to gently freeze dry our herbs, right after they've been harvested at the peak of their medicinal potency. 

We know you'll feel the freeze dried difference in every capsule, every powder, and every bit of herbal love you get at Eclectic Herb! 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:02

Hello and welcome to Eclectic Herbal Wisdom, where we share stories from the roots of plant medicine. I'm Mel Mutterspa, clinical herbalist and herbal educator at Eclectic Herb. And I'm Chris Olte, herbalist and owner of Eclectic Herb. We're so glad you're here. Whether you're brewing your first cup of metal tea or crafting your own complex herbal remedies, this podcast is for you.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

In each episode, we'll open the pages of herbal lore from the archives of the Eclectic Library to the living wisdom of today's herbalist. Together, we'll explore how plants have supported people for centuries and how they continue to do so now.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

You'll find stories, science, and soulful conversations with other brilliant herbalists. All sharing real-world insights you can bring into your daily life and your practice.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Because herbal wisdom is timeless and it's meant to be shared.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

So come grow with us as we rediscover the living legacy of the plants. Hello and welcome back to another episode here on Eclectic Herbal Wisdom. Right now, as I sit in my office to record this, it's delightful. The sun is shining, we've recently had rain, and I know that some of my absolute favorite plant friends are about to pop up. So we figured that today would be prime time to talk about nettles with you, which are so beloved across the world, especially amongst most of us herbalists. Maybe if you've been stung by nettles a few times, you might not like it so much. But our hope throughout this episode is that you start to recognize the phenomenal wealth of benefits nettles has for your health. And this is also a really special episode for us here at Eclectic Herb because nettles are such a key part of our foundation and who we are as a company today. And so I want to let Chris share just a brief intro onto that. And then throughout this episode, we are also going to bring in a very special guest expert into the show. So, Chris, I'd love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So some of you will know that I'm the widow of the late great herbalist, Dr. Ed Allstar. And one of his life's accomplishments was he discovered that nettles was effective for allergies. So we spent a lot of time together traveling around the world and exploring nettles and the different uses of the plant. What blows my mind about it is that it still continues to teach us. So when you look back in historical texts, as you can see, I'm sitting in my library today. And when you look back into some of these historical texts, there's no mention of allergies. So the plants continue to teach us, which I think is just fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

I think it is so beautiful. And I love that story of Ed and the allergies and the fact that through this episode, not only are we having a special guest, but we have some special excerpts from those beautiful books you do have with you. So that is so exciting for me. And I wanted to just start talking about why we herbalists just absolutely love and nerd out on nettles. And one of the main things to recognize about nettles is that it is one of the most nutrient-dense plants on the planet. They are loaded with all kinds of vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, the whole crew of your B vitamins, including B1, B2, B5. We've got thiamine in there. We've got magnesium, phosphorus, iron, calcium, so much going on inside of nettles to keep your body strong, healthy, well-nourished, and functioning in the best of ways. It's also one of those herbs that happens to be pretty specific for women's health, especially if you are a woman who maybe has pretty heavy menses and you're losing a lot of blood, your iron levels tend to drop. We know that nettles are an incredibly rich source of the non-heme iron and can be really, really helpful for those dealing with iron deficient anemia. It's also a hemostatic. So if you've got that heavy menses, it's going to come around and help make sure that you're not bleeding so heavily. It is going to be really nice for menopausal women if you are dealing with menopausal spotting. And it's hands down one of my number one go-to herbs for pregnant mamas and breastfeeding mamas, because it is generally regarded as safe. Of course, you want to like be the most safe in that first trimester of your pregnancy. But nettles is going to work wonders to not only nourish your body, but also nourish that beautiful baby that you are growing in your womb. And also, for once you've had that beautiful baby, if you are a breastfeeding mama, it's going to continue to nourish you and your baby. It's actually a bit of a galactigog, which is fancy herb geek speak for meaning that it helps to promote milk flow. So if you're suffering from not having enough milk flow for whatever reason, having some nettle tea added into your daily practice can be incredibly beneficial for mama and baby. Another reason I love it, I think of this for women. I'm in that perimetopausal phase right now. My once incredibly gorgeous hair is starting to lack its luster and shine. But nettles is one of those herbs that can come in. It's loaded with silica, and it can be really, really fantastic for strengthening and bringing shine and vibrancy to the hair, to your nails, to your teeth and your bones and connective tissues all together, which also is really nice for ladies. As we get older, we wanna run a greater risk of things like osteoarthritis and things along those lines. So having nettles on board to keep us strong, healthy, vibrant, and full of energy is essential. And of course, I would be absolutely nuts if I did not talk about the number one reason so many herbalists absolutely love nettles and our claim to fame here at Eclectic Herb, thanks to Dr. Ed Allstadt, is nettles can be phenomenal for allergy relief. It helps to reduce inflammation in the mucosal tissues. It's also astringent, so it helps to dry up excessive secretions. Maybe you've got like the drippy, running, I like to call it the watery faucet nose. Nettles could be absolutely wonderful for you in those situations. Maybe you're dealing with really itchy, watery, puppy, swollen eyes during allergy season. Nettles is absolutely your friend in that department as well. Let's gush it out through the watery eyes or gush it out through the excessive mucus coming through the nose. So I can talk about this forever and ever and ever. As a matter of fact, I do. But we do have a really special guest that I want to introduce to you that will share this foundational insight on nettles. So without further ado, I'd like for you to hear from the late and great Dr. Ed Allstadt right now.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

This was February of 1984 when we were taking a walk very similar to this one. Dr. Nagel and myself were looking for these nettles that I would say look very much like these. So we took maybe a bag full of these nettles and shipped those to California. And when the uh accountant came into the office that day, we suggested that because he had such bad allergies that he take the other plant material, which was echinacea that we had there and thought the echinacea might help his allergies. But for some reason, and we don't know exactly why, he took the nettles instead, and within uh 10-15 minutes, his allergies were gone. But it seems to be only because of the freeze drying that it captures the active ingredient of the nettles and makes it possible that you can consume it. So this material is here in the wild, and ever since we've done the study and we've had such great results, we continue to harvest these from the wild because Oregon is uh very rich in uh plant material like this, and on practically any mountainside that you take, uh you'll most likely run into stinging nettles. So they're abundant. So they're about as pure as you could get. At that time, organic the organic industry was just beginning to form, and Eclectic was one of the first companies in the United States to actually uh join the organic movement, but we never went with organic stinging nettles. Most of the other companies that do it uh tend to sell organic nettles mostly because they don't grow it in the wild, and so they're always looking for a way to uh have a another story about the stinging nettles, and people seem to think that organic agriculture is is somewhat better. But nature provides probably a better source of nutrients that agriculture and organic agriculture does not necessarily consider that important. This is how nettles like to grow. So there's no need to dig them up and replant them someplace else, uh, under shade cloth or in a field. Well, the one thing about the the nettles is that we harvest them before they start to flower and collect just the very top part of the plant. And that's the the key to our success, and we continue to replicate the same thing that was uh was responsible for the results in the freeze-dried clinical study in 1984. Identifying where wild where the wild nettles really came from and seeing the environment that it was discovered in is something that uh I think is more valuable than it being grown in an organic farm.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Oh, it's so nice to hear his voice. I always love listening to him talk about needles.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Yeah, I think it's it's so cool that we can do that today. When you first shared this video with me, Chris, I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. How darn cool that technology has brought us this far. And I think it's also really, really fascinating to recognize that it wasn't very long ago that Ed recorded this video. It may feel like it in our sense of time, but the reality is that nettles have been used as food, medicine, and fiber for thousands and thousands of years. And I know you have some incredible insight into that with those beautiful books inside of your library. I'm hoping that you can share some of the ways that nettles have been used historically with us.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

It's been used for thousands of years in multiple different cultures. It's super fascinating. I think the first recorded incidence of nettles was Diascorides back in the first century. And also Pliny the Elder made some mention of it. And then it was recorded in some monastery texts, and they used to grow it as a pot herb and basically for nutrition. And there was also some documentation that they used it as a poultice for skin wounds. But I'm gonna fast forward from that and I'm gonna talk about Nicholas Culpepper. He was around in the 17th century, he's one of my favourite herbalists. This is a 17th century Nicholas Callpepper book. And he mentioned nettles in it. So, what did Call Pepper have to say about nettles? Well, he was a physician, he was an astrologer, he was a herbalist and an author. And what he was most famous for is that he made medical knowledge available to the masses. So back in his day, uh all the medical knowledge was written in Latin, and the doctors used to walk around and they held all of that. And he thought this really needs to go to everybody. So he translated those Latin texts. Super popular in the time for it, not popular with the doctors, but his books are still in print today. Still valid, they contain lots of information, and I would recommend them. You should definitely have a call pepper book on your library. Speaking of nettles per call pepper, so he liked to give an astrological planet to each plant. So for nettles, he said it was governed by Mars. When we think Mars, we think hot and dry. So he said that nettles energetically was hot and dry, which makes sense. We're coming out of winter, which is cold and damp, moving into spring, and the nettles start coming out of the ground, and they help dry up some of those winter ailments. So one thing that it does is it benefits the lungs. So the lungs can be filled with phlegm, cough, shortness of breath. And Call Pepper used nettles extensively for that. He said it was a great drying remedy for all that phlegm that comes up. He also liked to use it for the limbs. So pain relief and energizing, and he said it was warming to weary limbs. And he used to sometimes mix it with a bit of wax and make an ointment or a balm and just put that straight on the limbs. Also for gout and rheumatism. And another thing that he did, which we've lost a little bit today, is he used it for wounds. So he used to apply it externally to clean wounds, also good for swelling. And he even used to use it to set broken bones. I'm gonna read uh in my book exactly what he had to say about that, because it's kind of interesting. In Call Pepper's words. The juice of the leaves is good to wash, either old, rotten, or stinking sores, corroding scabs, maness, and itch in any part of the body. He also said the seed being drank is a remedy against the stinging of venomous creatures, the biting of mad dogs, the poisonous qualities of hemlock, henbane, nightshade, or mandrake. So he thought it was a good antidote to different poisons. I don't think we use it like that these days. He also said for kidneys, in his words, provoked urine, basically functioned as a diuretic, and it expelled gravel and stones. And for women, he said, as Mel mentioned earlier, great herb for women, it promotes mint seeds, and he used to put it in a wine in order to do that. And also stop bleeding, and this is an extremely safe herb for children. So he used to like to give it to children for respiratory conditions, and also he said it expels blooms.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

Wow, I love hearing uh his uses because obviously he is so foundational in the way that we use herbs today as Western traditional herbalists and things and clinical herbalists. I think it's so fascinating and really interesting that he used the nettles to promote the flow of menses for women. I tend to use it to help kind of reduce excessive menstruation. So that's really fascinating. We definitely use it a lot for the kidneys, primarily because of those diuretic properties. So it can be really, really helpful when we need to eliminate waste like uric acid that's going to cause some of the gout or kidney stones. This can be really, really helpful. I will say if you are going to use this or any other herbs for the release of stones, you do want to be mindful because that can be such an incredibly painful process. So you want to get along something that might be a bit of a pain reliever or antispasmodic, maybe some demulsant to help things help things flow through. Corn silk comes to mind for me in this particular situation. So keep that in mind as you carry along. I also love that he was using the nettles for that congestion, the respiratory phlegm and stuck mucus, right? Because we do have those astringent properties here and the anti-inflammatory properties. And the nettles come in and help with that inflammation in the lungs. It dries up the excessive stuck phlegm or mucus, which in turn can be really, really helpful for reducing the wheezing and coughing that oftentimes comes with allergy season, right? So symptomatic relief for allergies right there, I think is fantastic. And I was like, ew, that sounds yucky. But then when I think about that as well, I think about those astringent properties. And when we have a rotten or stinking wound, it's usually filled with lots of pus and excessive moisture on the outside, which is, you know, obviously not the most delightful thing to talk about on a podcast, but it is real. And when we use something like those nettles, we know that astringent property that is specifically there to tone and tighten excessive secretions, like the pus and icky oozing that might come from those rotten, stinking wounds. That is absolutely prime time.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Another thing to say hot and dry that he characterizes the herb to be also dries up wounds in anything wet.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think that's that's exactly it. That's what we would say in Herb Geek Speak today is the astringent properties, right? I also know that today he did speak about how it helped with body and joint pains, which is really true now. Today, we do use nettles to help with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Oftentimes, we're one, we're nourishing the body so well, and we have all of this silica in there. So it's helping with the strength and integrity of bones and other ligaments and tendons and things along those lines as well. And what we're seeing is that oftentimes when people are using nettles dealing with these arthritic conditions, they're drastically reducing their need for NCIDs, which is such a lovely thing, right? Because we know that actually is gonna turn into more inflammation and different patterns down the road. Anyways, I know you have this library full of incredible books. I know you have more on nettles in there, and I really hope that you'll share with us.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

So from after England, we're gonna move to the United States. So my library is pretty much based on the work of the eclectic physicians. And these were doctors practicing here in the States, and they predominantly used herbs, but they were called eclectic because they used whatever worked. And they were around the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. Fascinating. And they left behind a large body of work. They documented things that they saw in clinic and different uses of the herbs and what they used them for. They documented it really well. And this text here is the King's American Dispensatory, and it's all about herbs. And it takes the herbs and it describes all the clinical uses for them. So really fascinating. The eclectics describe nettles as an astringent, which is a word that you use, so evolving from call peppers hot and dry to astringent, tonic, diuretic, stiptic, and anthelmentic, which means expelling worms. So pretty much the same as what you said, Mal. This is more modern times. Well, the eclectics didn't believe that a plant was a remedy for a disease name. For example, it won't cure kidney stones. But they believed that a plant was specific to a pattern in the body. So what did they say nettles was specific for? And that's pretty interesting because we haven't brought this use up yet. But they said that it's specific, and I'm gonna read this one. Chronic diarrhea and dysentery with large mucus evacuations, profuse secretion of gastrojuice with erectations and amesis, caloric discharges, some are bowel diseases of children with copious, watery, and mucus passages, chronic exmates uh eruptions. So the translation of that is basically use nettles when diarrhea presents with copious mucus and watery discharges, or inflammatory bowel states with mucus. So possibly even an allergic or histamine-related gut irritation. So that kind of corresponds a little bit with the modern uses of being an anti-inflammatory and an astringent, and it modulates histamine responses. So I thought that was pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_04 23:26

Absolutely. So fascinating. And I really love how they started to think about different disease states more in as in patterns in the body. That's much of what we're taught to do as herbalists. Okay, what are the energetics here? Are we dealing with a person or a symptom that is hot and dry? Is it moist, wet, damp? Is it cold? And then we think about the different herbs that can come along with actions that will counteract that to bring the body back into a state of homeostasis or balance, right? So I think that's medically. Yeah, that's exactly what's happening. And I'm so grateful for those eclectic physicians and all of the historical herbalists. And you know, what I love also is that the King's American Dispensatory, right? This is what they were looking to to treat humans forever before the pharmaceutical industry came about. It was all about the plants. And it is still all about the plants. Not to say that, you know, there isn't a time and a place for our Western medicines. They're incredibly powerful, but we can do so much with just these beautiful plants.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

And a lot of pharmaceutical companies actually started as herb companies. Right here in my library, I have a number of herbal extracts from Eli Lilly. In fact, my prize piece is an Eli Lilly piece, and it's a crude drug kit for pharmacists to study the crude drug origins of their medicines, and they're all herbs in there. It's really fascinating. And then Lloyd Brothers itself, which was my famous eclectic physician brand of supplements, they sold to Procter and Gamble. So the origins of our drug companies are herb companies, which I find absolutely fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

I love it. And that's the origin of us, essentially, right? Here at Eclectic Herb, because your late husband was a pharmacist.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

He was a pharmacist and an anthropic physician. And he was obsessed with the eclectics. Hence our name.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

Yeah, exactly. I think I one part of the story that you had told me about, Ed, that I didn't really recognize that before working with you was how he was a pharmacist, but then he recognized so many times that people were coming back to him for more medicine, more medicine, more medicine. Nobody was actually being healed.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

So he graduated, I think it was 1969 from pharmacy school and then got a job somewhere in San Francisco. And it was the time of the Beatles, and he wanted to grow his hair long. And the pharmacist said to him, Well, either cut your hair or you're going to get fired. So Ed said, Well, I don't want to cut my hair. How about I wear a wig? And the pharmacist agreed. So he's going to work in the pharmacy with a wig, and all these people are coming up. Like a shorthand wig. And then they were getting their thyroid medication or their blood pressure medication. And he said to them, When is this medicine going to make you well? And when is it going to cure you? And then he realized it wasn't. And he thought there must be another way. So this was way back in the early 1970s. And then he saw a little sign that said something about naturopathic school. He'd never heard of a naturopath, but that's how he discovered N-U-N-M. And then he went down that path. And it was, I'm just blown away by how early that was. 1970s. He ended up graduating in 1981.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

Such a pioneer in reviving this industry of herbalism and natural health and healing and care. And I think that is so beautiful and so cool. I can totally picture Ed way back then, like in San Francisco, as the pharmacist with the long hair. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

You know, he was always a bit of a ribble, I think. Yeah, absolutely. They like cruel paper.

SPEAKER_04 27:07

Mm-hmm. I think a lot of herbalists in general are. And I know he was an H path, but um, I yeah, I think we are rebels at heart because we see something in a system that we're like, hey, there's something wrong with this system. What can we do to make it better? So hooray for Ed. I love that story too. This is the great part about this podcast with you, Chris. I get these little bits of story of things that I never knew that I think are just so much fun. So I know we shared Ed's video talking about nettles in the wild and how he discovered that they were so fantastic for allergies, and how he really believes the differentiation of the nettles that we use is one because we get them wildcrafted in beautiful areas around Oregon. So nature is doing her best work there. Not at all to discredit organic farmers. We absolutely need our organic farmers out there doing the great work that they do, but they can't mimic what Mother Nature does on these mountainsides here in Oregon. And of course, the other piece that he discovered is that it was most effective for allergy sufferers when used fresh, right? But obviously, we can't get fresh nettles all year round. So we freeze-dry them here at Eclectic Herb, which is what makes them so incredibly powerfully potent and effective for allergy season. I always tell my students or my clients that you want to start taking the freeze-dried nettles about two months prior to allergy season. Again, this is when nettles aren't popping up yet. So you can't exactly go out there and just start making a fresh nettle pesto or a fresh nettle smoothie, which I love to put them in there. But you can get them freeze-dried here from us. Other ways that you can get the nutritional benefits of nettles that I think are so helpful. Um, one, sipping them a tea is really nice, but when you do that air-drying process, the nutrients are exposed to oxygen and air, the oxidation process begins and the vitality of those nutrients depletes over time, whereas that fresh freeze drying process retains those nutrients up to 97% of them. So much better than the air drying process. Another thing that I like to do during nettle season, which I did just say uh at the time of recording this, my neighbor across the street, who's one of my students in my actually, she just harvested a bunch of nettles and it feels really early here in Oregon. Wow. To be serious. Yeah, absolutely. Snow this morning. Me too. Me too. I had snow out my office window at the beginning of this recording, but it is now gone. So um, but yeah, I love to have nettles while they're fresh. And what I will do is go and infuse them in an apple cider vinegar as well. Sometimes I'll bring along. Yeah, I'll bring along like horsetail or rosemary in there. You can take that internally because when we do the apple cider vinegar, it does a great job of extracting the minerals and the vitamins from the plant. If you're out there trying to make an alcohol-based tincture, you're gonna have a really hard time getting the nutritional benefits of nettles. But the other reason I like to use the apple cider vinegar aside from the nutritional benefits is as a hair rinse. It's really, really nice to rinse your hair after a shampoo. Or if you're a no-poo type of person and you do the baking soda thing, you could use the apple cider vinegar that's been infused and nettles, adding horsetail and rosemary, and you're gonna get that luster and shine back to your hair. Lovely. Yeah. What do you leave it in the ACV for? I'll leave it in for about six weeks. Sometimes I've been known to forget to strain it at all, and I still use it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

Have you ever used the apple cider vinegar, Chris?

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Not for nettles. That's a great use. Nice. That's pretty original.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Nice. Yeah. Um what ways do you like to use nettles?

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Nettles. Well, I like to harvest them fresh, and then what I'll do is I'll throw them in the freezer so I can use them year-round. I think the home freeze dryers are genius for like harvesting your plants and then freeze-drying them, nettles and other things. Flour's fantastic in the freeze dryer. But I like to reinvent Japanese dishes that use a green and use nettles in there. So there's one where you just mix it with sesame called gomaya. That's one of my favorites. Also the nettles latte. So you have the matcha latte, but if you use a nettles powder, it's a non-caffeinated nettles latte.

SPEAKER_03 32:07

Oh, that's it. That's such a good idea. That's a new use for me to use our nettles powder. I love that. That's exciting. Maybe a little more. There's some other powder.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

There's some other uses. So some historical ones. The eclectics also note that it's really good for warts, but you have to juice it. So you juice it up, you put it on the warts three or four times a day, and apparently they're gone in a few weeks. So some of those historical uses are really interesting. Wow, yeah. I had never thought mixing it with like rose water, mixing it with olive oil, things like that for different skin things.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

Hmm, that's really cool. I had never thought of using it for warts, but it's interesting you say that. My my daughter is in middle school and has recently come home because some boy in school has warts and she's like, ew, I can't touch the volleyball. I can't touch this. I can't touch that. So maybe I should slip his mother a note that hey, if you juice the fresh kettles popping up right now, your son may not be dealing with the tormenting of middle schoolers. I did remind her that we still want to be kind and it's not his fault. So don't make him feel horrible. So uh really interesting. Ooh, I'm really intrigued by some of the Japanese dishes you talk about. I I love to make a nettles pesto. Really, really easy, just like you would do with your regular basil pestos with some olive oil. I think my favorite way, though, to eat nettles, and I only do it one leaf at a time, but while I am out harvesting nettles, I will eat a fresh nettle leaf. So if you grab the nettles by the top of the leaf, the stinging hairs are mostly on the bottom of the leaf. So grab it by the top and make sure you kind of pinch the bottom part of the leaf inside and you can fold it into this little pocket. So all of those hairs are tucked inside of the pocket, and then you pop it in your mouth and chew on it. And I kid you not, it is the most amazing flavor ever. It feels like this nutritious chlorophyll-rich bunch of goodness. Like I don't even know how to express it. When I think of the word chlorophyll as a good flavor, it's not really how I would describe it, but it just it tastes so green, so alive, so so good for me in a great way. Not good for my kids.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

If you have allergies, just go take the fresh plant and it's just it's right there without freeze drying would be effective.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

Absolutely. That takes me back to our last interview. We had Dr. Les Moore who said the best time to harvest a plant is when it's right next to you or when you're standing next to it. So absolutely a great way. And you can use so I do like to recommend for people to take the freeze-dried nettles before allergy season hits if you know that allergies are an issue. But if that time has passed, yeah, go out into the field and eat it fresh off the plant, or make yourself some nettle pesto, or use it like you would in any dish that asks for spinach or other greens, right? And you can also just increase the amount of nettles that you would take for acute symptom management in that moment. You would just take more and still find incredible benefits, especially with the astringency and the helping with the watery, drippy um eyes and nose and things like that. So yeah. Chris, I think one cool thing that I learned about you, you're such a world traveling kind of woman. And you basically went on nettles tour. And I would love to hear about some of the differences of the nettles you've experienced around the world.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Well, I guess obviously I've got a New Zealand accent. So starting in New Zealand, where I grew up, we have one of the most ferocious nettle plants in the world. We call it Onga Onga, which is the Maori name. And there is some history of use of it as a food, but this grows 10 feet tall and diameter is about five inches around the trunk. And what it was mostly used for was to keep the enemies away. So back in the back in time, the Maori's used to live in pars or these Maori villages, and they would plant these onga onga nettle trees around the outside so that the enemies couldn't get in.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Wow. Sounds like the perfect.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

So it's it is an urtica, and they used to use it medicinally, but they'd use the bark and some of the inner bark, and they'd use that for skin conditions. Wow. It is edible, but it really hurts. There's even been at least one recorded death related to that plant. That was someone in, I think, in the 1960s. Got stung by the nettle plant really badly and ended up dying. Wow. So pretty ferocious. That's New Zealand. Also in Australia, this isn't in the Urtica genus, but it's a close cousin. It's dendrochnide maroides, and it's one of the most deadliest nettle plants, although strictly that's not an urtica, but it's called the Australian giant stinging tree, or gimpy gimpy, as they call it. And that one is excruciatingly painful if you get stunned. And there's been some reports of horses and dogs dying after running into it. So pretty vicious. Wow. If we go to Japan, so my mother's from Japan, so I spent a number of years living there, and used to travel there with Ed. We found four different species of nettles. There's one that's up on the North Island of Japan, where some indigenous people live. So when you think of the Japanese people, you generally think of the Yamato, which is about 97% of the population. But we also have some tribal people, some indigenous people. And up on the Northern Island, they're called Ainu, and their face structure's different. They don't look so much like the Yamato people, and they've got more facial hair and more body hair. And they live up there and they used to use nettles quite extensively. So after the winter, the food is always very scarce. So the nettles would start coming up in the spring. And I think in a lot of traditions they do this because it's so nourishing and nutritious. They would harvest that and use it as a food and also as a medicine. But what they used to do is they take the fibre. So the nettle, the stems of the nettle plant are incredibly tough and strong. And they would take the fibers and they would use that to make the fishing nets out of. So they'd weave the nets and then they'd go out and fish with them. And also some of their ceremonial clothing has nettle fibers woven in there.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

So cool. Wow. This is fascinating. I love learning about this.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

And the I think in every country they look slightly different. Like the New Zealand, the tree, which I've certainly been stung with, and it is pretty painful. So I was not a big fan of nettles when I met air. And then in Japan, some of the leaves are different shapes and things like that. But you can definitely recognise it as a nettle plant. But the there's some variation in the stings. Some are a lot worse than others. And some of the Japanese ones are a bit milder, and some are the same in different leaf shapes. But how they sting is they have silica-tipped hollow hairs on the leaf and they act like tiny hypodermic needles. And then when the tip breaks on your skin, the hair injects plant directly into the skin, and that's how you get stump. But in Europe, what they do, and this is urtica dioica, so the the traditional form that we use, there's something called urtication, and they beat themselves with nettles. And that brings all the blood from the internal organs like rushing out to the external organs and improves circulation. And they also say it's a good pain reliever. So if you have gout or rheumatism, you can beat yourself with some nettles. I haven't personally tried it. I'm still scared after New Zealand, but it is documented for centuries. I think diascorides also mentioned that use.

SPEAKER_04 40:08

Nice. Yeah, I definitely know of people who have dealt with chronic pain. Maybe it's from an old injury or anything along those lines. And, you know, they thwack their knee with nettles for that sting. And while they suffer from the sting for a few hours, the chronic pain goes away, which I think is absolutely fascinating. It's so cool. And isn't formic acid in those little stinging hairs as well, which is the same thing that like a fire ant will sting you with. So cool. Plants are just mind-blowing. And I've got to just backtrack a little bit about the onga onga name from New Zealand. That sounds like a big fierce meme thing. Like, oh no, onga onga. I'm scared, I want to run. But thankfully, there the nettles, trees there aren't running.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

So the Maori people in New Zealand originally come from Polynesia, and there is a Polynesian legend about somebody who kept taking lots of wives for himself, and he had to call in the spirit of the Onga Onger Plant to stop people from catching him. So there are some legends about the Onga Onger Plant.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

So fun. I want to go on Nettle's World Tour with you. Can we do that?

SPEAKER_04 41:23

Create a big event. Hey, let's go on Nettle's World Tour together. I think that would be so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

And there's some other countries too. In Russia, they use it for the green wash. You know, the beet soup, they do one with nettles. It's um they use it to clean the blood and also because it's so nourishing. I think one thing about nettles is it's just so full of nourishment. Absolutely. They used to take it for scurvy. It was a treatment for scurvy.

SPEAKER_04 41:50

Nice, nice. Yeah, you bring up that, like, yes, of course, very, very nourishing. And as it's coming up in the spring, you talked about how they use it to cleanse the blood. That's oftentimes what we'll say is an alternative in the herbalism world today, which there's no actual like, hey, you're cleaning your blood, like going in and scrubbing it, but it is really fabulous for that overall purification and can be really great as it's popping up in the springtime. So I love how our plants in general are popping up and doing their things right when we tend to need them. So in the winter, when people are having so many heavy meals or we're not moving our bodies as much outside as we would normally, these spring plants come and be like, hey, you need a refresh. We are here for you. And nettles is definitely one of those. I think it's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Yeah, and I think especially for kids as well. Sometimes it's hard to get enough nourishment into our kids, especially when they hit the teen years like mine. But I'll slip a bit of nettles into the food. Absolutely. I know he's getting his nourishment every day. And it's allergy season, so he's got a bit of a build-up now by having had needles slipped into his soups and smoothies.

SPEAKER_04 43:05

He's got a good mama. Yeah, smoothies are definitely an essential way to get him get those things in there. I used to, when we would have uh birthday parties for my daughter, I wouldn't make the big old fancy cakes, but we would make popsicles for all the kids and load them with nettles and spinach or blueberries or strawberries and things along those lines. And, you know, sometimes I might slip in some more calming herbs as well. Instead of so much spasmatic or spastic children running around. It was always a fun thing to do. But the kids loved poxicles, they thought it was exciting. And the parents are always like, wow, my kid doesn't come back absolutely crazy after your parties. It's what you get for taking your kids to an herbalist mom's party.

SPEAKER_03 43:55

I love it.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

Wow, Chris, there is so much to learn about nettles and so many incredible medicinal benefits to this plant. And I learned so much just hearing you talk about your nettles world tour and the ways that they were used in the past, whether through Culpepper or the King's American Dispensatory. That stuff is so fascinating to me. And again, we could talk about this forever, but this is just one short podcast episode. So I think we'll wrap it up for the sake of our listeners' ears. And before we do that, I just want to make sure that you all do know we have those fresh freeze-dried nettles available for you. We've also got the fresh freeze-dried nettles with quercetin in there as well, which kind of kicks up those allergy relieving benefits a notch or 10. So you can find those on our website at eclectikerv.com. And if you want to share some of your best nettles stories with us, I know that I'd love to hear them. I'm pretty sure Chris would as well. And you can just shoot us a message on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, wherever it is. You are following us at eclectic herb or email us as well. Thanks so much for tuning into the show today. Thanks everyone.

unknown 45:17

Take care.

SPEAKER_04 45:18

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SPEAKER_01 45:36

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SPEAKER_04 45:47

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SPEAKER_01 45:55

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SPEAKER_04 46:12

Thanks again for tuning into the show. Until next time, may the plants guide you.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Take care.