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selfsufficientish
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Location: Bristol
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judyofthewoods
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Location: Pembrokeshire
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Bugs
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wellington womble
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Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator
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Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
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Gertie
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
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Gertie
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Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator
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Gertie
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judyofthewoods
Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire
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 Posted: Sat Feb 26, 05 9:07 pm Post subject: |
 
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| Treacodactyl wrote: |
| It's taken me ages to encourage nettles into our garden. |
I thought I was the only mad one to actually plant nettles! Seems I'm in good company here (not that I ever doubted that!). I've thrown nettles into a stew with lots of other things, think its quite bland, couldn't taste much. I did once have nettlesoup at a stall, and it was very nice, though, again, it was proabbly the stock base which gave it most of the flavour. At least its not unpleasant, and so good for you. But whatever you do, don't be as daft as me, thinking it might be nice in a salad, if picked young. Its NOT, it is *%&@# painful! The German word for calico is Nessel, which is nettle, as it used to be made of its fibre. Its the staple of some butterflies, a blood cleanser etc.etc. Good place to plant is near a compost toilet to take advantage of the nitrogen. Nettles are very suitable for greanleaf curd, a.k.a. leafu.
BTW, when I was a teenager I was stung by a nettle, and had the odd idea to use a snail to deaden the pain, and it really worked, just let it slither across the stung area. Not sure if the slime was soothing or maybe alcaline to nutralise the acid. Not been in a situation to try it again since (never a snail handy when you need one). |
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selfsufficientish
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 364
Location: Bristol
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Bugs
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744
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Bugs
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744
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judyofthewoods
Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire
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| Posted: Sun Feb 27, 05 11:30 am Post subject: |
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Partial experience. Read a fascinating article in Permaculture magazine some time ago, and had a go, but only with what was then abundant at my site - rosebay willow herb. Not suitable, I have to say, it does not produce a clear green juice like from grass (now there is an abundant, nutricious source), but a gloopy thick juice, and it did not seperate out as it should. Anyway, I'm putting the cart before the horse...If you extract the juice from green leaves you can seperate out the protein part by dribbeling the juice into boiling water so that it is fast heated and curdles (not unlike beaten egg dribbled into soup). Quoting the article:"Fast heating.....reduce the possibility of pheophorbide formation..." whatever that is. "...The green layer, which forms on the surface should be removed with a fine strainer onto a tightly woven cloth such as calico and the remaining whey pressed out as well as possible....." The finished product is similar to tofy, hence leafu. One caveat, you need loads of greens to get a small amount of curd.
There is a book "Leaf Protein" by N.W. Pirie, Cambridge University
I have not seen the book, but imagine it's an academic tome.
I will be doing some experiment soon and do an illustrated how-to on my website, just the mechanics of it. Brambles are rather abundant too here. And what about eating your way through knotweed protein? Its a survival food in a majour disaster situation, talking collaps of society, the infrastructure, through war, epedemic etc. doomsday stuff, when the shelves are empty, the marouding hordes have killed anything that moves, then you still have a protein source if there is anything green around and you have a juicer and a press, though two rocks would even grind down your greens (put the pulp in some water to dissolve out the juice) and you can strain them in any cloth, then use bigger rocks to press. Oh, you will have to know how to light a fire with two stick after all the matches and lighterfuel are gone  |
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Vic
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 387
Location: Sherborne, Dorset
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It would be hard to be otherwise, given our experience of Netties!)
Andy, have just read the link - got the recipe for nettie soup. Trust me to jump in with both feet before reading the link. It's a good link!!!
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