Friday, July 4, 2014

Cures for Stinging Nettle

Stinging Nettle

So as you may have read earlier this week, I "harvested" some stinging nettle.  I didn't do it very well.  It stung my left hand.

Imagine your hand has fallen asleep and you have pins and needles.  Really bad ones.  It doesn't make you want to cry, but it is uncomfortable enough that it is all you can think about.  You have the pins and needles for 4-6 hours.

Here are some things I tried for relief.

Plantain


Pick some plantain leaves (you probably have some growing in your lawn).  Mash them up and rub them where you got stung.  This helps a bit.






What helps even more, is if you take some of the stinging nettle leaves that you boiled up to eat and rub them on your hand.  That really helps.  Surprising, eh?

My problem was that I used up the rest of my nettle leaves making scones.  So when the pins and needles started to come back, I didn't have any boiled leaves left to apply.  D'oh!!

More nettle
I found out late that I really lucked out.  The first time my neighbour Nadie harvested stinging nettle, she got stung too.  She had shooting pains up her arm for 10 hours and wasn't able to sleep that night.




Take away tip?  Pick your nettle while wearing thick gardening gloves.

2 comments:

  1. What flavour were the Stinging Nettle Scones? Did they leave an after taste? an after sting? Who was served this delight?

    Dalton and Doral assembled a new BBQ for Lot 3. During the lesson for those who live here year round, David noticed a lightening bolt icon next to a burner. He asked Doral what it would be like to eat a lightening bolt. Doral asked in turn, what flavour it might be. David thought about it for a while and replied, "Shocking lemon".

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  2. David is one clever kid. Love that flavor. And oh that Doral -- always responding to a question with a question.

    If Doral is still around you can tell David one of my favourite games I used to play with Doral is to respond to a question with another question back and forth (the questions can't just be random, they have to kind of flow from one another) and keep going back and forth until someone can't come up with one that fits. Good luck!

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