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From: EatTheWeeds
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  • Never mind the baking soda, you can just rub in a Dock leaf into the area - removes pain and reduces swelling. Dock leaves can almost always be found around stinging nettles

  • @iandstanley Dock may work but it was not around when I got bit.

  • Are their Stinging Nettles in Hong Kong,China???

  • @chunfu2 Absolutely yes

  • @EatTheWeeds Where?? i am a 100% native Hong hongner and i can't find it anywhere-in fact i know every single hiking trail in HK but i can;t find any!

  • @chunfu2 Wrong season, too could. Wait for spring.

  • @EatTheWeeds to summer ....you know-year round hiker!

  • Great Video! Wish I could find them here in SoCal.

  • @mikezandsarahc Google FeralKevin

  • ray mears rocks

  • I read somewhere that one shouldn't eat nettle after it has flowered. Have you heard anything about this?

  • Oh, you're in Florida, have you ever come across a coperhead or cottonmouth when foraging?

  • @snipesnrifles Never... on the trail I have run into only one rattlesnake in some 30 plus years.

  • Hey Mr, GreeneDean!! Do you know if/anything about Coleus (Painted Nettle) is ok for eating?? Currently trying to sprout some. I have read ambiguous and conflicting reports.

  • @chickenbonewatt The conflict is probably that some members of the family and realted species are edible, and others are not. Solenostenmon ocymoides has edible parts, as does the solenostemon rotundifolius and Coleus dystenterieus. Some are not toxic but just plain taste bad.

  • @EatTheWeeds Thank you for the response, sir!! I will have to figure out what I have. Absolutely love the videos, website and newsletter!!

  • Thanks Dean, we use to get in the nettle all the time when we were kids ,luckly you can always find a dock leaf near by in England. Makes a nice soup too.Hoping to come down to one of your walks this year.

  • I heard they are good for promoting blood circulation/preventing hair loss, just rub those stings on your scalp. I think they are also astringent so they could help to clot blood when your wounded.

  • surprised you mentioned Ray Mears. That guys awesome.

  • Are those nasty thistles growing next to the nettles good for anything? I live in Fl. too and i have tons of those things in my garden every year, but I haven't noticed any stinging nettle.

  • @purity4all A lot of things are callled "thistles." Without a more specific plant I could not comment on edibility. Do you mean sow thistles, milk thistles, bull thistles, et cetera?

  • @EatTheWeeds the ones you're talking about at 1:45.

  • @purity4all Those are bull thistles, or Cirsium horridulum

  • @EatTheWeeds Okay thanks! So what I came up with is that you can eat various parts of the plant after removing the spines, but they don't have much flavor. There are a couple of medicinal uses, such as a poultice for jaw pain and the steam used for rheumatism. Animals love the flowers, but can't eat the rest of the plant and grazing animals help with controlling population because the flower is what reseeds. I found nothing on nutritional value. Do you know if it has any?

  • @purity4all The roots are quite nutrtious. I have an article about them on my website. Tere is always more information about plants in my videos on my website.

  • @EatTheWeeds Thanks, I just subbed. I'd love to have a schedule of your classes. Where can I get one?

  • @purity4all Please go to my website and click on Classes

  • Great, all your vids are god :)

  • Omg I touched one of these when I was a kid it was awful. I touched it cuz it looked soft and fuzzy, I learned from that.

  • How do you know when these plants have become fully grown and , if you just harvest the leaves and stems , do they grow back, or do you just harvest the whole plant and then sow new seed?

  • @germanicelt That is why we study plants, to recognize them at different stages of growth. Generally said no, they don't grow back. You harvest young and tender. They usually sow themselves.

  • @EatTheWeeds So , being in the same family as Hemp, they are also an annual plant.

  • Great video! Thanks Dean!

  • Thanks again Deane. We in Ohio have the tall stinging nettles that are all along The Mad river and other rivers around here. I am constantly getting 'HIT' by these 'bad boy's'. They do NOT PLAY around and will teach you quick what to avoid. WOW! I suspect that Baking Soda will work to nullify their terror. Thanks for that tip. I heard that 'Dock' also works. This is something that every outdoorsman should know. Thanks for all you do. Love the time you spend with your fellow man. Me included lol

  • I wish the video sound was a little louder :(

  • Deane, do you know if clearweed (pilea pumila) is edible? I see they are in the nettle family and also grow in florida. They are very common here in the midwest and often grow side by side with urtica gracilis although i have never observed urtica dioica in iowa and would definitely consider them different species even though urtica gracilis is considered a subspecies of urtica dioica they look nothing alike.

  • @osho1102 Dr. Francois Couplan in his book Encyclopeida of Edible Plants in North America says on page 68: " P. pumila has been reported to be edible..." I do not have any personal experience with the plant.

  • weird the ones here in SW Washington just make you itch for a while

  • Howdy My name is Doug. I really enjoyed your video about Stining Nettle. I think I have some in my garden. I touched it last week and it stung me bad. Do you know where I can get some seeds for it. I am just getting into eating and drinking weeds now and I find I have some right in my gardens. What are the benefits of eating this one. Let me know and thanks Doug in Calif...

  • To help with nettle stings when your out in the woods just chew up some plantain and goop it on the sting, takes it away in a few mins.

  • @musicoutsidethebox Plantago major is not common locally.

  • @EatTheWeeds good ol iowa =D

  • i live in iowa and this plant is very close to my heart, great in tea, stew, as greens, and you can make cordage and fine thread out of it.

    also they only sting if you SLIDE against them, you can pick them up with a firm grip and you wont get stung unless your fingers slide against the plant.

  • You can pick them up without gloves, I do it.

    They don't sting in the palm of your hands because the skin is harder. :-)

    Just be careful with the rest of your skin.

  • @ptboy4 It also depends on what species of nettle you have. Our local nettle in among the worse on the planet for stinging. The sting is severe, like a hornet sting, and lasts for days.

  • @EatTheWeeds those are some mean nettle.

  • @EatTheWeeds Yeah up here in Western Canada theyre not bad, Ive picked them with bare hands many times.

  • I have seen on you tube tea made with Urtica stinging nettle; in Florida we have a common stinging nettle the cnidoscolus stimulosus; Now I know the root is eatable, but can the cnidoscolus stimulosus leaves be used in tea etc. like the Urtica stinging nettle?

  • @steven24158 The two species have nothing to do with each other except the common name "nettle." Cnidoscolus stimulosus has cyanide in its leaves. Do NOT use it for tea.

  • @EatTheWeeds do you have a field handbook for Florida you recommend?

  • I heard that you can just strirfry it like spinach. Does nybody have experience with this??

  • thank you so much, very helpful, going in details, thanks.

  • That's the son of a gunest thing, being able to eat something that will sting the heck out of you! Lol "Come and get it, if you dare!" x D

  • I had the luck of going to school up in the hills away from the city smog, but in the spring our dear hills were COVERED in stinging in nettles. There was always one kid who would try to brave the vibrant green carpet of nettles while wearing shorts and stagger back wailing. And these were California nettles, the weaklings of the bunch!

  • Good point! I should get a hat to cover it up.

  • Burdock leaves crushed will relieve the stinging.

  • @Dufus02 If you live where there is burdock.

  • @EatTheWeeds here the burdock grows next to the nettle or at least in the same soils nearby.

    thanks

  • Hey GreenDeane, I was making some nettle tea the other day and I stumbled upon two plants which looked very similar to the stinging nettle. The one plant looked exactly like it except the leaves were much wider instead of the typical blade-like leaf. The other plant looked less similar as the leaves were grouped in threes and had thorns on it in addition to the stinging hairs. Just wondered if you might know what the were. Thanks a lot, have a great day!

  • @Lester284L Leaves of three with spines on the stem and under the leaf is a blackberry. The other might be a "false" bog nettle, not an edible.

  • @ash19932 ower humble friend Im nz live in waikato

  • are the stalks edible too or just the leaves?

  • @Lester284L Young stems are edible. 

  • how do you confuse stinging nettle with Cnidoscolus stimulosus? they look very different.

  • your from florida?!?!?!?! do you have a class? or a school? are you taking an understudy? i live in florida and i am very interested in homeopathy as well as naturalistic living. :)

  • @panzuman I have classes every week at various location around the state. Please visit my website for schedule and details.

  • These are good to add to a green smoothie no? I believe theres a stingless variety, are they any less potent?

  • @bluesdog88 There are people who put Urticas into smoothies all the time. The quality of the sting varies and the "dead nettle" is actually a different species. Just don't confuse a Cnidoscolus with an Urtica. They look very different but some folks have confused them. The latter has hand shaped leaves.

  • @EatTheWeeds Thanks for the reply, muchly appreciated ;)

  • I just found my first patch of nettles here in c.FL, because of you Green Deane!

    Well OK, maybe more because I walked off the trail and right through the patch with just flip-flops on!

    But I did know what they were, after wards, because of you.

    Either way, definitely the worst pain Ive felt in some years! Thankfully the worst stabbing pains subside in just a minute or so, than just left me with a prickly numbness for a few minutes.

    I did bring a few plants home, with just a few more stings.

  • appreciate your time in doing all this. enjoy your and learning from your vids. my question is,,is it true that you can eat the roots. i heard that by eating the root that it is good agent in fighting prostate cancer.

  • @datmanization The Germans have been using the root to treat prostate issues but I don't know how.

  • @datmanization you can make a tincture of the nettle root & drink a few drops with warm water daily.

  • ok, in Canada we have what is i believe stinging nettle but its leaves are more jagged like a triangle but many more triangles on each side is it edible?

  • @macadoodle15 Nettles can vary greatly in shape and size, which is why one has to check out the local species.

  • @ash19932

    Yep, you're right. Urtica Ferox is by far the worst of the nettle. It's got an extra toxin that other nettle don't have to give it that extra kick. As well as that the stingers are ridiculously large.

  • Why don't you ad some recipes ?

  • @thisisjustme1 1) I only had 10 minutes then. 2) The interent is full of them, and; 3) I do have one on my website.

  • wow i wish i could view this vid

    

  • @TheBigpunn421 Why can't you? 

  • are all nettles edible? I live on the west coast of British Columbia and i want to try nettles

  • Young shoots and leaves are good to eat. When the stem is upto 15cm it is OK. Apparently when they bigger they cause kidney problems. So only young plants!

  • We have lance-shaped stinging nettles here in Indiana. Even though it is currently fall and the plant would be (I believe) too tough to eat, would it still be good for tea at this time of year? Also, when would be the best time to collect the seeds in order to replant in the spring?

  • @Fastflyingpigs You can make nettle tea almost any times. As for the seeds, wait until the plant gives them up easily, re fall in your hand but before snow!) .

  • I live in the UK, nettles are extremely common here, I am stung reasonably often. But even a bad sting is only really irritating for a few minutes, and very mildly so for just a few hours. In most cases just a couple of minutes after being stung I have forgotten all about it. Your nettles are like little yappy dogs that nip at the legs, mine are like big bounding dogs that lick you to death.

  • @ash19932 The best revene is to eat the culprit!

  • Is the the hart-leaf Nettle more indigenous to the East, particularly Florida? I hear that chickens love nettles. Can chickens eat them without doing all the preparations? 

  • @ForcedAgenda The Heart Leaf Nettle is certainly the dominant urtica in Florida. Birds, including chickens, can eat many things that bother us but not them. One reason why you cannot eat all the things that brids eat.

  • Don't know if you have them in Florida, but rubbing Dock leaves onto Nettle stings takes the edge off the sting.

    Nice series of vids, by the way.

  • Great video.

    I think your nettles look quite cute! Over here in the UK, they often grow to over four feet high, and grow over large areas. Not much fun to walk through, but a lot easier to make cordage from.

  • Thanks... nettles are a great tradition in your area.

  • awesome video 5*

  • Swordfern spore, it doesn't seem to work as well as a mud or baking soda poultice for stings. I'll run a handful of nettle (leaves, stems, root) through the juicer with carrot, apple, lemon and__ parsley when i don't have stinging nettle. I've heard that when nettle is juiced it can temporarily paralyze the vocal chords but i've never experienced this with fresh nettle.

    Urtica Dioica root is quite amazing for relieving BPH symptoms

  • I live in WA and learned early that for most plants bad effect there's a plant cure. As for being stung by nettles I look for a fern that has the tiny brown pollen under the leaf, and rub it on the sting.

  • i have a couple of numb fingertips from collecting the tops of nettle yesterday!!

  • Only numb? Then you got off well. Mine hurt for several days.

  • some people are more sensitive to the sting

  • You can use grass on nettle stings.. you just have to roll and squish it so the liquid comes out. There are other better alternatives but grass is everywhere and those alternatives sometimes arent

  • dose all what you said apply to engish nettles aswell?

  • Edible nettles are edible nettles. England has some famous edible nettles. If you do a google search for ray mears and nettles you should get something relevant to area. I have some DVDs with him using nettles.

  • "Nettle is said to be extremely beneficial for the kidneys, being useful in expelling gravel from the bladder and dissolving kidney stones. It is a powerful blood purifier that drives out toxins and metabolic wastes by stimulating the kidneys to excrete more water. Nettle tea is said to clean out the entire intestinal tract while activating the body's natural defense mechanisms."

    Source: TeaBenefits (.) com

    I've been told that the flowers of the nettle is even more healthy to eat. Not sure.....

  • Yes, "extreemly nutritious" are the words!!

  • What about the Russian Nettles? Have tons of them in my yard and want to start putting them into my green smoothies. How about a vid on them Dean?????

  • If you mean Salsola kali I recently found some at the beach. I think there will be a video on them, as I stretch the season and try to get to 100. The young growing tips are edible and shoots.

  • just picked some today! gonna try this out

  • Be careful. Make sure you're right, that it is a nettle and not a spurge nettle.

  • Awesome, although maybe you could spend some more time talking about the cordage aspects of the stinging nettle.

  • I think raw food advocate David Wolfe also says that too... I don't know about his nettles but my local ones hurt like a bad bee sting and continue to hurt for days if not treated. It is one weed I eat for revenge.....

  • Haaahahaaa

  • I make stinging nettle pie... like spinach pie just substitute the nettles. Delicious and nutritious. Nettles grow in my woods where it can be fairly dry. The sting usually only bothers me for about 30 minutes but I have a dark complexion with oily skin. You can freeze or dry nettles for use over the year.

  • Sounds delicious. Nettles can vary greatly in their sting, from mild to near-death ones in India. Eat the weeds is the solution.

  • Dear Deane, Do you know if we have those in Louisiana? I know we have the thistle, ive stepped on em barefoot.

  • Oh yes, you have nettles in Louisiana. Don't confuse them with the two versions of Cnidoscolus you have. Make sure you have an Urtica not a Cnidoscolus.

  • i heard its good for u if u get stung

  • It may be good, but it ain't fun. I tend to not be allergic to things and the local nettle sting is quite painful for about three days. Hot water was particularly irritating. If I were to use nettles for the sting I would pick a body place one doesn't use much or sleep on. Stings on your hands are a constant source of irritation. If I remember correctly it is formic acid and a few other things in the needles.

  • Also, just wanted to say hi and thanks to you and let everyone know our little remedy us pacific northwesters use to aid the nettle bites, and its very simple, just rub a little dirt or mud and it mostly go's away within seconds. Works great here! Just thought I would check into nettle tea as we could all use an immunity booster with the recent outbreaks, maybe I am onto something? We also have devil's clubs and man do those bite hard! I will def try the pee method next time get stung by one!

  • Hey there! I am enjoying starting to watch your videos and plan to check them all out. Just wondering your location? Florida? I am in Skagit Valley, WA where it rains 90% of the year and the nettles grow by the acre and have seen them over 9 feet tall. Just wondering how many variations of the Nettle exist where you are. It seems the smaller they are the stingier they are haha.

  • There are three to four dozen species, depending on who is doing the counting. As for size, small does seem to be worse except in India where they have huge ones that are said to be quite debilitating.

  • This stuff actually comes up in my yard and it is not a very moist yard.

  • How much rain do you get?

  • I don't really know how much rain we get really but I wear flip flops during the summer and seem to always get into this stuff. I always get it across the top of my toes. Ow! Ow! Ow!

  • Toes? Urine? A hard target I would think :) Are you sure it is stinging nettles, not cnidoscolus stimulosus?

  • I am positive it is not cnidoscolus stimulosus. I know what stinging nettle is.

  • Well then, you have a lot of food. Boil it or wilt it...or crush it... all of those ways work. It is nutritious.

  • Thank you.........I have found you videos very interesting and educational.

  • Thank you ...it is difficult some times making these things and having no idea how they are received.

  • urine works well to kill the sting too

  • Haven't heard of that ....though I am not sure how one applies it....

  • Well I have been told to pee on my foot..........but I have just dealt with the sting. I told my family around here that you can eat this stuff and they were amazed!

  • They are awful, awful, awful! My son has fallen in it before. I can't believe you can eat this stuff! I am curious to what it taste like now. I hate this stuff though! I have it all over.

  • Eating weeds is the best revenge... they are very mind and make an excellent pot herb. Wearing gloves, strip off the leaves and boil them.

  • I am really hoping to find nettles on our property this year. Strangely enough I've never touched a plant that felt like stinging. The specimens in your video sort of remind me of how Lemon Balm grows. What is the possibility I will find nettles in maritime Quebec? We have Jewelweed near the forest edge, along with buttercups, choke cherries and red raspberries. Where would I find nettles? Near a dry area or a bog area? In an open sunny area or in more shady parts?

  • The juice from the nettle does actually help a sting a lot, it kinda dulls the sting but doesn't completely get rid of it, you have to get the juice from the stalk, and by the way I love your videos! there great! I'm defiantly going to pass these onto friends!

  • Thanks... as for the juice... it's never done much for me but that doesn't mean I'm not going to stop trying...

  • i live in southern California i love nettles,they are so delicious, don't eat large ones, they are extremely bitter...

  • Young and tender is always a good rule with wild greens.

  • i have been watching your videos, i love making herbal teas, do you know any wild herbs native to southern California that are good?...i love nettle tea!

  • There are quite a few, several come to mind, Satureja douglasii, the Manzanita Bush, roses, rosemary, dandelion blossom tea. You might want to look up "feral Kevin" he has a web site and is based in California.

  • wow thanks for the help, i have trouble finding info on herbs in california because every time i Google herbs there all websites about marijuana...

  • Thanks....I have two videos involving sow thistles and one about the bull thistle. On my website there is an index by date of the You Tube videos.

  • once again, an impressive video, i have passed this on to several friends and family members

  • Why thank you... and don't get stung!

  • No, but they are better all around.

  • this is a wonderful video. I'm glad to have found you. I love nettles. I harvest hundreds of them yearly. I pull them up by the bottom of the stem, drop them in a pile, then hang them upside down in my kitchen.

    After they are dry, sometimes I get stung, but rarely. I fill glass jars with them. Then throughout the year I put handfuls in soups and stirfrys.

    Do they really have 1000X as much vitamins as spinach?

  • Great! If I remember correctly a misplaced decimal point in a 1930's publication got spinach the reputation of being nutritious. Nettles are far more nutritious than spinach.

  • Deane, I have 2 questions, first, you've made me curious and I'd like to know how one may handle nettles to harvest them barehanded as you hinted earlier in the video (was that the crushing method?). Second, I'd like to know if there are any animals that will eat this plant even though with its sting it fights back.

  • Goats eat nettles as is. Other grazers will eat them after they wilt. As for handling it. Start at the very bottom just under the grass line, break the stem then roughly push up the stem breaking the needles. The needles are perpendicular to the stem. If you push up the stem you can break the needles at the base before they sting you.

  • Good! Just make sure you're sure of what's in your yard before consuming.

  • Juicing should get rid of the stingers... should. Some folks say if you get stung in the mouth while eating a nettle the discomfort goes away in about 30 seconds... that may be true, but I don't want to find out IF it is true.

  • Yes they can be frozen. If frozen without cooking the needles can still sting you. If you blanch them first, which also improve their condition for freezing, the needles won't bother you.

  • I know us here in Fl. have the most stingers on the.

  • I've been stung by both urtica sp. and cnidoscolus stimulosus. Definitely the urtica (or what most of North America knows as stinging nettle) is worse. It looks so benign, mintlike. At least the cnidoscolus looks a bit unfriendly.

  • Oh yeah, the Urtica won by far...

  • Baking Soda..........not urine. now i know better. thanks eatstheweeds.

  • Urine... hmmmm, that's an acid and the sting is an acid... might make things worse.

  • great video

  • The sting is uric acid. My grandpa takes stinging nettles and hits them against his back to encourage circulation.. LOL, he is one tough cookie. I think our stinging nettles in Colorado are less intense than the one's you've touched, I never had them hurt me for more than a day..

  • Many plants have formic acid, like the fire ants do. The C. stimulosus has that. What I wonder is if they would have some application in Fibromyalgia as bee stings sometimes help.

  • Do wasps have that kind of acid too?

  • No, a wasp sting is alkaline.

  • Is it the acid in the plant that is medicinal? I've touched nettles or plants similar and it seemed that parts of my body that did not come into contact with the plant were stung too as if the needles sprung from the plant. Is this possible?

  • They really don't know what all of the chemical are but acid is among them and they do seem to resemble a bee sting, so there may be some medicinal uses. While some plants have the mechanical means to do that I don't think the nettle does. However, it could be a systemic reaction or allergy.

  • It does look like a mint, and I probably would have done exactly what you said and reached down and picked a leaf without thinking anything bad could happen.

    Now if I see a plant that might be a mint that resembles this one, I will take my time and study it from a distance first and probably avoid contact.

  • That's exactly what happened to me. I grew up where nettles had long leaves and were quite tall. I wasn't suspecting anything when I reached for this plant.

  • Five Stars!!

  • Thanks

  • If it stings you can it make want to cry because it burns?

  • Someone young might cry, yes. Some nettles are mild, some in other countries are very strong. This one feels like a bee sting that doesn't go away for a long time.

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