Do you like nettles? I think that the absolute majority of respondents, regardless of gender, age and nationality, will answer this question without thinking: "NO!" By the way, in vain! Nettle is a useful and interesting plant, even very much!
Nettle is well known to everyone, it grows almost everywhere. She especially prefers places abandoned and "calm" - a variety of wastelands and garbage dumps, forest thickets, backyards and fences, the main condition is the presence of a sufficient amount of phosphates in the soil. Under favorable conditions, it can reach almost two meters in height!
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Let's put aside prejudices and take a closer look at this plant.
First of all, nettle is a medicinal plant recognized by traditional medicine and respected by modern homeopathy. Infusions and preparations from nettle today help to alleviate suffering in many rather serious diseases. Interestingly, with the development of science and medicine, interest in this plant only increases!
Nettle is the staple food for at least two species of butterflies - the admiral butterfly and the burdock. The extinction of these two species of butterflies would disrupt many of the food chains where they enter, including with the participation of humans, which would, in turn, lead to the extinction of many plant species, since there would be no one to pollinate them.
Nettle fiber can be used to make fabrics for sewing clothes and bedding, and it can also be used to make paper. In its texture and properties, such fabric is very similar to flax and is hypoallergenic.
The persistent nationwide dislike for nettles is explained by the painfulness of "contacts" with this plant, but the stinginess of the nettle is just a means of its "self-defense". On the underside of the leaves of this plant, there are many hairs coated with formic acid, which, when in contact with the skin, causes irritation and swelling. But is it worth taking offense at her for this?
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Our ancestors appreciated and respected this unpretentious grass, because in difficult years it always faithfully came to the aid of people. The stingingness of nettle disappears during cooking, since during heat treatment the hairs with acid are destroyed, and boiled nettle leaves are no longer different from salad leaves. The green mass of nettle is rich in magnesium, iron and calcium - three substances that are primarily required by humans for full development.
There are many nutritious, tasty and healthy dishes that can be prepared with nettle, and of course, green cabbage soup will be the first on this list! It is not by chance that a special day was set aside in the Slavic calendar - May 16 (May 3old style) bearing the name of Mavra Zelenye Shchi, dedicated to "greenery-greenery, nettle-queen."
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It was customary to eat in Great Russia on this day, a special dish - green cabbage soup. They did not hesitate to taste them at the master's table. Especially for this day, the hostesses cooked green cabbage soup from young greenery - sorrel, quinoa, dream and, of course, from the queen nettle, which, according to the true folk word, even "will be born burning, but it is good for cabbage soup." And what could be healthier and tastier than nettle cabbage, thickly seasoned with sour cream, young green onions, flavored with vigorous Russian kvass. Nettle - at this time, from a multitude of ailments, it rises to help health, drives every black sickness out of the body, cleanses the blood, restores men's strength.
The custom demanded the performance of a special ritual: the hostess of the house walked barefoot into the thickets of nettles, but with her bare hands - otherwise it was impossible, otherwise the burning grass would lose its healing powers - the broom got along. The plowman will eat, she will lash his back with a nettle broom heartily. And, you see, the back unbent, the fatigue disappeared, as it was not at all. Here and there in the villages this ancient custom has been preserved to this day - to whip oneself on this day with young nettles.
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That just did not do in the old days with nettles.It was salted, fermented, dried. To keep meat and fish fresh on a hot day, they were wrapped in nettle leaves.
A bath broom made from fresh nettles also has a powerful healing power. Before you start steaming with such a broom, it is immersed in boiling water for a moment, or transferred several times from hot water to cold water. When the body warms up, they begin to lightly tap the sore spots with a broom until the pain subsides.
In the old days, not only nettle brooms were dried, but also special napkins - linen - were woven from nettles. The stem will be grafted to the stem and will certainly be gently kneaded so that the grass retains its life-giving power. The hostess will weave the linen, hang it to dry in cool sents. And when someone from the household suddenly starts to feel unwell, a cold attacks his back or aching bones, she will scald the nettle cloth with boiling water, and after cooling it a little, attach it to the sore spot, and tie it tight with canvas. And the patient will soon straighten his back!
Our ancestors knew the health benefits of a nettle shirt. Nettle stalks, like flax, were soaked, crumpled and ruffled, scratched and twisted, spun and then weaved a healing canvas. Nettle shirts were highly prized, took a long time to produce, and were therefore especially expensive.
Nettle makes an excellent fertilizer for garden and garden plants, absolutely safe. This herb is also suitable as a wonderful vitamin and nutritional supplement for chickens, and for cattle - as a stimulator of milk production and an increase in weight gain.
Nettles were good for everything in those ancient times: for cabbage soup, and for ailments, and for cattle. But not only this. Nettle, according to Russian belief, is the head of any honest sorcery. She removes various forgetfulness and evil charm from a man's weak heart, conscience awakens and shame from lascivious thoughts.
And in Britain, to this day, wine is made from nettles, near Lyme Bay Winery, not far from Lytford. And although it turns out to be very dry and tart, and has a special "tingling" taste, this drink has enough fans. From 40 kilograms of nettle leaves, 3000 liters of excellent invigorating wine are obtained.
Nettle is one of the favorite heroines of Russian folklore. Due to her specific qualities, she lives in proverbs and sayings, fairy tales and even legends.
Here are just a few of them:
A stinging nettle will be born, but it will boil down in cabbage soup.
The nettle is young, but it already bites.
With something else to be found - what to sit in nettles.
The settlement is good, but overgrown with nettles.
Not every stepmother is a nettle, not every stepdaughter is a poppy flower.
It is easier to tear nettles with someone else's hands.
Here it is, nettles! Greenery-greenery, nettle-queen!
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