THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Karmacat

Ug, I'm terrible at remembering new phone numbers now, because they're all entered into the Contacts list, and I don't input them regularly.

Nettles
I have a query for all our prepsters ... clearing away a lot of dead stems from last year, and this year's nettle growth is about a centimetre high Some of it is going to be dug up, because I need to put in some underpinning for my fence, so that my soil doesn't leak into next door's garden (they're slightly lower than me, and there is the odd amount of digging by their big dogs). The thing is this: nettles are edible, and I could very easily be cutting them down, putting the leaves in my dehydrator. Am I mad to leave them in the ground, they're basically weeds after all, but they're really healthy greens. Just not sure.

[Deleted User]

Nettles are only edible when they're young and you only pick the top 4 little leaves so you need quite a big nettle patch to make a meal even for 1 person. You can harvest, cut them down and they'll grow again and you might get 3 pickings a year that way. If you only pick once you'll then get mature nettles later on which you can make a liquid plant feed from later in the year. If you leave them to grow tall and leave them to mature you'd be able to harvest them for the fibrous parts of the stem (inside the stem so you'd have to learn how to get it) and you'd then be able to make cordage and even spin the fibre to make yarn. Peacock butterflies overwinter their pupae on nettles so it's a lovely eco thing to do but if you don't have much garden would it be worth it for 1 meal a year and a few other periphery items? If you didn't have nettles what else would you do with that patch of ground?

maryb

You could get enough pickings to be fairly self sufficient on the nettles in the bit of the allotments they abandoned a few years ago because they were always waterlogged:rotfl:. We have one of the plots next to the fence so it's an ongoing battle. Still, I'm grateful for the fact they are relatively shallow rooted compared to horsetail:eek:

thriftwizard

You can dehydrate nettles, crush them and use them much like a herb in soups & stews; they bring up lots of useful minerals from the deeper roots and add a taste that I always describe as "deep green" not unlike spinach, but not as slimy or iron-y. But beware, dehydrating doesn't "kill" the sting like cooking does, so always use a spoon to transfer them into whatever you're cooking! They'll be fine after cooking for a minute or two.

Karmacat

Lovely knowledgeable replies, thank you all!

Mrs LW, you asked what would I use the ground for? If the nettles weren't there, I'd just be putting bark chippings there, they're sited literally less than six inches from the fence.

Mary, yes, I was wondering how deep the roots were.

Thriftwizard - yep, I experimented with half a small kilner jar of nettle leaves last year, and that was exactly the problem! But I have a real yen to make my own pesto - just bought some basil plants (for the house), and I reckon I can put lots of other greens in there, including nettle, chive, lemon balm and rosemary from my garden. Salsa verde, I guess, by any other name.

The thing is the harvesting - it *has* to be little and often. I've been letting my lemon balm grow into a pleasant shape, sort of football sized, but anything more than a couple of inches below the exterior of the plant is inedible or simply gone, eaten by pests. I'd certainly keep the nettle leaves on a separate tray in the dehydrator, they really hurt!

Thanks again.

THIRZAH

A local farm shop was selling wild garlic pesto last year. I didn't try it as I'm not too keen on garlic but people were raving about it on the local Facebook page.

Karmacat

Exactly, Thirzah - that's the kind of thing I'm thinking of, as I *do* like the Med. flavours like basil, garlic etc. And I want to grow as many of the ingredients as I can.

thriftwizard

Wild garlic pesto is fabulous! A friend!!!8217;s garden is overgrown with the stuff & she makes loads of it. We!!!8217;re all delighted to help her eat it!

ETA: how bizarre! It doesn!!!8217;t like the apostrophe on my iPad...

juliettet

Loving the advice on nettles as I have lots on the other side of the fence (farm next door). If they are useful to insects I will leave them. I got the stuff you recommended Kittie for the algae. I'm going on this because it is a huge fence and for the algae to come back after creosoting would break my heart.

[Deleted User]

This is going to lead to a different sort of prepping

My weather transmitter had stopped transmitting, ok batteries, so I climbed up a diddy set of steps on the balcony outside my bedroom. I know there were screws to undo, so I was blowed if I was going to freeze while changing batteries. I took it into the bedroom and shut the door to the outside. I pulled the outside cover off and
:eek::eek::eek: at least 50+ cluster flies dropped out, I nearly had a heart attack. They were cold and dropped sharply onto the carpet, they are still, while cold but the room is relatively warm. Omg, I was in such a tizz getting the vacuum out and some had started to move faster and a couple were buzzing on the window, some had crawled under the ottoman and bed. I had to get the hose sorted because the upright action would just have crumbled them

So the prepping thing is, to check any windows and doors that you have not opened for a while and do it with the vacuum ready. I expect they are buzzing in the vac bag now but I have left it handy in the bedroom, in case I see any tonight. They are fat, like bluebottles and have come off the ploughed fields, looking for a winter home. If you don`t get them now, then there will be an almighty flying swarm effect come spring. Not just in country places btw, these things fly