HERB - Nettles.

[Jenne Heise]

> At the risk of repeating perhaps another post, Nettles were used in early 
> spring as a tonic.  In Ireland and Scotland the new plants were picked before 
> they had hard spines.   The new leaves have a high amount of vitamin C and 
> cooked in early spring.  If you look in medevial cookbooks, particularly 
> Irish, you will find more information.   

Oooh! Could you give me the names of the medieval Irish cookbooks? My
friend has been looking for such for some time and has had little luck.
 
> Now, if the fibers were spun and woven into cloth, I could be wrong, but I 
> doubt they were..  When dried they can be quite brittle.   The fibers are 
> strong and the nettles are thought to fight rheumatism so some enterprising 
> person could have thought of weaving the nettles into wool or linen.   And if 
> worn in sachets they were also thought to protect from curses.

Actually, nettle cloth as a substitute for linen does appear to show up in
some cultures-- the books I've read suggest that it was used sometimes in 
Poland, for instance. One processes it as one does flax, by 'retting'
(essentially rotting) off the external flesh of the plant to leave the
strong internal fibers, which can be spun.

-- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"Our kingdom is a garden and such gardens are not made/By singing "Oh how
beautiful!" and sitting in the shade..." --Kipling, "Glory of the Garden"
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