Yesterday I harvested nettle tops from behind the allotment shop with scissors and gloves. First ones had greenfly on so had to go further up and luckily the fly had not spread that far. Collected a carrier bag full and took them home to make soup.
My Culpeper herbal says nettles are dominated by Mars which means they are hot and dry. As Winter is cold and moist, eating nettles in Spring will ‘consume the flegmatic superfluities in the body of man’ (and I hope woman too). He continues to say that they ‘open up the pipes and passages of the lungs which is the cause of wheezing and shortness of breath, and helpeth to expectorate tough flegm, as also to raise the imposthumed pleurisy, and spend it by spitting.’ Hildegard agrees nettles are warming and that they purge and remove mucus from the stomach, and are good for a coughing horse.
Sounds like we should all be eating nettles during this pandemic.
