This is the best drink ever! And it’s the most beautiful green color I have ever seen. Nettles are very high in chlorophyll, way more than even kale and spinach. They are very much like a superfood. Have you ever had that feeling after too many days camping or on vacation that you just need something fresh and green, a nice salad perhaps, fresh cucumbers or whatever? You know the feeling, the something fresh and green craving. STINGING NETTLE JUICE is the ultimate drink for that time.
What you need to make Stinging Nettle Juice at home (Anastasia of the Ringing Cedars style)
5 or more gallon bucket with drainage
potting soil to fill the bucket
nettle seeds or cuttings from your local patch
water
scissors
a blender
a strainer
a wine glass
fertilizer that comes from YOU (urine, saliva or other bodily fluid, dirt from feet, toenails, hair, spent leaves, something you spit out — something from YOU!)
of course, don’t overdo any of the above, be a reasonable gardener.
Nettles don’t like a lot of heat, and won’t grow if its really cold, but they are very hardy survivors. Cut the nettle before it goes to flower, otherwise it becomes gritty and inedible. Eventually it’ll be done for the year and will need to rest. They prefer shade in many areas, a little morning light helps them to be more vigorous. I’m sure there’s a way to grow them in nearly every climate type on the planet.
In this bucket I could have planted lettuce, let’s say, but this balcony spot just doesn’t get enough light to grow lettuce. And if it did, I would harvest the lettuce and then I would have to plant more seeds, and make sure that this is timed right, and wait for them to get roots enough to really grow. And with lettuce you have painstakingly thin oftentimes. Lettuce isn’t very cold hardy. With nettles, you plant it one time, the only maintenance is pruning, which is when you are harvesting, and when it regrows after a dormant cycle, it can grow an inch a day. And it’s way more nutritious than lettuce. And thus the argument for perennials (nettles) versus annuals (lettuce).
I also love and grow lettuce.