Nettle - Collection And Harvesting

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

All - for free grazing

In May, the village aborigines - neighbors at the dacha - look at me as a hopelessly ill person, because I drive out all my household members, as well as numerous guests in the field "to graze" and harvest young nettles.

So we crawl all day along the river, where on the slopes warmed by the sun, from under the dry grass, delicate greenery is already breaking through. We collect nettles and runny, in approximately equal proportions, until the fingers lose sensitivity, then we go to process the raw materials.

We always collect with bare hands. The nettle, although young, is still biting, but it has a beneficial effect on immunity. Everyone knows that May nettle is an invaluable source of ascorbic acid, in addition, its leaves contain tannins, formic acid, urticin glycoside, vitamin K, pantothenic acid, carotenoids, chlorophyll, iron salts and wax … To make it clear what I am driving at, I will explain: the amount of active substances normalizes lipid metabolism in the body, stimulates the production of one of the most important blood clotting factors in the liver - prothrombin, increases the regeneration processes of the mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal tract, drives bile, has anti-inflammatory properties. Few? I continue. In addition to hemostatic properties, nettle has a vasoconstrictor effect, has a stimulating and tonic effect, enhances the basal metabolism, improves the activity of the cardiovascular system and the respiratory center, stimulates granulation and epithelization of affected tissues. Nettle in medicine and cosmetics

The Americans declared nettle to be a medicine of the XXI century, they hope to get from it a cure for cancer, they are imported in tons from India, and in our country this wealth litters our gardens.

I don't even want to talk about dreaming. Read the lives of our Russian saints, they just existed on this grass! The disciple of Sergius of Radonezh lived for 130 years, eating only bread, buckwheat and despair, while he fought, plowed and built monasteries.

A couple of years ago my Moscow friends came to see me on Easter, I looked at them and gasped. It looked as if the whole family had been ill with smallpox. I am interested in what kind of scab attacked them, and they indignantly declare to me, they say, during the Great Lent they sat on vegetables, and those little nitrate, so also genetically modified, that's everyone's allergy. Yes, truly, make the fool pray to God … The most interesting thing is that one of the guests, my friend, rose to the rank of protodeacon in the church, and never learned to fast.

My family also observes fasts, and for this you need to do a lot of preparations and, first of all, collect May nettles. Moreover, this must be done in ecologically clean places. Do not wash the grass, it will turn sour. I finely cut the main mass, wrap it in a thin film and put it in the freezer. You can pickle or preserve - the way housewives harvest sorrel. Only cans should be stored in a cool place, they explode easily when warm. It is good to use such blanks all winter as a dressing for soups and sauces.

The grass can be dried and sprinkled in a crushed form in the first and second.

I add frozen herbs to almost all dishes, especially during fasting. It turns out great salads, especially if everything is poured with linseed or cedar oil. And no allergies.

My family also eats early cucumbers and tomatoes, but all this can be diluted with soy sprouts, Chinese cabbage, carrots and celery root grated on a coarse grater, avocado and a handful of nettles, chalice, and spicy herbs.

So do not waste the golden days of May, but go to the preparation of "green". Go to pasture. Cook cabbage soup with nettle. Eat more salads from this "medicine of the XXI century", with mayonnaise and sour cream, add whatever you like: boiled egg, sauerkraut, potatoes or beans, or beets. Just don't salt it too much, it's harmful, it's better to have a little pepper and squeeze fresh lemon juice.

Culinary recipes from nettle from Svetlana Shlyakhtina and Alexander Nosov,