I would like to start including some raw nettles into my diet.

How do you stop the sting when eating them raw?

I think I have heard that they lose their sting when juiced (makes sense as the fibre sting part has gone).

How about when they are blended? I think I heard somewhere that they no longer sting when blended ... is that true?

Many thanks,
John

singinraw ate them
he posted something about rolling them up ( the stinging part inside) and eating them like that or something like that

then there was another guy ( forget his name but he was cool) and he did put them in his blender with other greenz and such and made it into a smoothie

maybe you could ask singin raw

La veronique,
Thanks for the above info.
John

They only sting when they're mature, or something - I should have looked it up before answering.

I know that as a child I was stung several times on Vedder Mtn. We used to ride horses through the trails there, for hours on end, and whenever we stopped to answer the call of nature or to drink from a stream, I inevitably brushed against stinging nettle! I don't know why I didn't learn to look for it, cuz I hated the stinging feeling. I never thought of it till after I was stung. So as an adult, I would look out for it when I hiked with my kids. But I'm not much of a botanist and probably wouldn't recognize an immature plant. When I see a plant I think is nettle, I've been tempted to touch it to see if it is, but of course I'm a little smarter than that. (a little)

I still drink nettle tea sometimes - I would prefer to pick my own and use it raw, if I knew how. It's supposed to be yummy.

Thanks aquadecoco. Yes ... I love nettle tea. I just picked some nettle tops the other day and gave them a rinse and then put them into a tea pot and poured over boiling water. Then left them to brew for 15 mins. Very pure and clean taste ... different to the nettle tea bags which I mostly use.

I would try making a nettle sun tea (not using the boiling water), but it is the boiling water poured over that stops the sting. So I'm still trying to sort out the raw nettle thing as it is a great pity to waste any of its nutrients/enzymes thru heat.

I read an article on wikipedia about crushing or chopping to eliminate the sting, but I would be afraid to try it unless I was absolutely certain.
It said the hairs were what contained the sting, so how could chopping affect all the hairs ..... don't know.
Keep us posted - my friend has some huge nettle plants right outside her window and I am tempted to get at them.

I found this on youtube.com, it's david wolfe showing how to pick and eat stinging nettles. Hope this helps.

Lauralai

[youtube.com]

Hi Veronique,
awwww hey, I've missed things around here

I've juiced nettles and blended them and just plain rolled them up and ate them too!!! I only use them when they smaller though the ones in David Wolfe's video are way to mature and bitter for me. I've always been told not to eat them in that stage.

I also have put them finely chopped in sandwhiches and tacos too for anyone who still eats grains and breads thats another way too. Careful of the fiber though its tougher than most cultivated vegetables so its really best juiced it can be eaten in many ways too though.

That was piotrek that used to blend them in the vitamix and post all about how awesome they were.

They really are magical

here I made us a drink of some, I just had to hop in a time machine to go back to spring quick to pick them!!! lol!!

they're oceangrown too!!!

hey singinraw!

the stranggest thing happened to me

i thought i saw the exclamation marks that followed the word "oceangrown too"
glowing blue

and i was gonna post to see how u made them blue

then i looked again and they were black again

strange, i thought i got enough sleep

yeah.. that was PIOTREK!!

he was cool

wonder if he is still hangin around

time machines are real

see?

i got the drink u sent me

glug glug

wow man.. oceangrown is soo gooood!\

gimme more