Nettles and kettles.

Happy little patch of Stinging Nettle / Scrub Nettle, Urtica incisa

Gday!

Well with the soggy weather of the last few months, local wild resources are all booming. The cows are happily trampling the lush grass, frightening the gigantic grasshoppers into the waiting mouths of gleaming bearded dragons and the wide spanning reach of golden orb weaver webs. The wallabies and gliders are all getting a bit chubby round the edges and I saw a bush rat you could've saddled the other night.

One thing that is very tender and juicy at the moment is the Stinging Nettle. In my part of Australia, this usually means the Scrub Nettles, Urtica incisa. Very vicious little buggers, even after the usual tricks like damping them down or using thin gloves. These little fellas will happily bite you through a pair of washing up gloves and have given me a bit of a nip ever after a good soak in a bucket of water.

However, they're tasty and useful and just about the only thing the local cows and kangaroos won't demolish. With a habit of turning up all over the place they're a food worth learning to like.

I like my nettles somewhere between flowering and JUST starting to seed. I usually focus on taking the top half off the plant which seems tastier and definitely more tender than the lower, coarser stuff.

Take a long knife or secateurs, some thick gloves, long pants and covered shoes. If you get stung, or your faithful but dopey dog charges into a patch and gets stung all over, consider commercial preparations like Sting-gose or Soov, or the more traditional remedy of strong citrus juice or vinegar.

Non-seedy nettles make a great slashed top dressing for your veggie patch, or convert to liquid plant food by covering a bucket of nettles with water. Cover and allow to soak for a week. Strain, dilute to the colour of weak tea and feed it to any nitrogen loving plants such as tomatoes.

For cooking, there are many traditional european recipes, some of them rich with game meat and wild herbs. Personally I use it much like spinach or kale - toss and season in a hot pan with butter or macadamia oil as a hot side of greens. Or strip leaves, finely chop and add to your favourite fetta pastry recipe in lieu of spinach or silverbeet. Finely chop and add to omelet with parsley and aussie made cheese.

You can also just use the leaves, roughly chopped to bung in a pot of stew or sauce. They add an earthy, nutty flavour that really compliments rich, cold weather cooking. Also very handy for bushwalkers or travellers as these guys really do turn up just about everywhere, can be picked fresh, very easy to ID and make a nice addition to long-life stabilised foods. Lots of minerals and other goodies in them.

I tried making a simple ale with malt extract and a strong nettle tea once, maybe my technique was off that day but within a week it smelled like swamp gas and looked like something a frog threw up. Out the window it went!

Now, I can hear you wondering, what does any of this have to do with kettles? Well, young flowering tops and small, young leaves can be picked, dried in a breezy spot and made into a tasty soothing cuppa tea. Just rinse, then dry and finely chop or powder with a herb grinder. Use two or three teaspoons for every cup of hot water, and a few "for the pot". Bring to a gentle simmer, remove from heat and allow to soak (steep) for 10 minutes. Strain into cups, add a dash of aussie bush honey if you have it, or maybe a squeeze of lemon. Stevia, good old sugar and pomegranate molasses also make for a tasty brew.

Made into "billy tea" with a few sprigs of ti tree or lemon gum leaves and plenty of sweetening is a good brew when you're out in the bush. But use a real fire, I'm not sure why it is but good old fire and woodsmoke make everything taste better!

You can also combine it with green or black tea for an energising, cleansing cuppa with a naturally sweet flavour and at least some of your daily intake of vitamins and minerals.

Sip slowly with your feet up!

Great for congestion and sore throats, and offered by some naturopaths and herbalists as a traditional treatment for urinary tract issues.

Thanks for reading guys, don't get stung!
Aaron