Nettle Power: Forage, Feast & Nourish Yourself with This Remarkable Healing Plant

If you can move past the woo woo feel of the author (unless that's your thing of course, then by all means, enjoy!), this book contains a nice amount of easy to read general information about nettles.

Nettle Power: Forage, Feast & Nourish Yourself with this Remarkable, Healing Plant by Brigitte Mars

Nettles. They grow on my little Eco farm. Mostly along stream banks in somewhat more shaded areas of my land. I've ignored them. Jewelweed grows too. That, I learned to appreciate as I tend to get poison plant - ivy, oak, etc. rashes rather often. Infusing oil with jewelweed is a bit of a pain. At some point, I'll have to write up an article for ya'll about it so you too can reap the benefits of this amazing plant without having to depend on outside sources to treat your skin.

Back to nettles. Why I've been ignoring them and not the other wild bounty on my land is something I really can't explain. Nettles never really caught my attention. In research on health and wellness, I rarely come across recommendations for consuming nettle or using it topically. Initially, before reading 'Nettle Power', I thought it was because nettles weren't the sort of plant for health, pet, &/or farming issues that I have found I needed help with. Now that I've read this book, I see that I'm wrong.

This left me perplexed. It also left me concerned about the book. Is this book valid? It is a bit more woo woo than I care for. While I was familiar with some uses for nettles, mainly nettle tea. Something I've drank, but don't care for the taste - at all. That was about it. Yet, it seems that if the author is to be believed and trusted, nettles are good for arthritis, allergies, the kidneys, men's prostate and women's reproductive health, and much more. Seems too good to be true. So I started to research nettles.

In a general internet search using DuckDuckGo (because I don't like my search results suppressed), I did find some health claims to be backed, but not with any gusto. More with caution. For example, I found numerous sources that claim that nettle root helped with men's prostate issues (this is important to me because my middle aged husband needs help in this area). Studies indicate that nettles do help. But they don't know why. In fact, they don't even help to shrink the prostate! But generally, the root seems to help with frequency of urination and volume. Is it a placebo effect? I'm not a scientist. I can't say. What do know, is that nettle root is one of the ingredients in the prostate supplement my husband has been taking for at least two years for prostate health.

What about female reproductive health? I have Endometriosis. I read about women's health in this area rather often. I'm constantly researching it and looking for the latest information. I don't recall ever reading about nettles for Endo or anything female related at all. Silly me. It seems that one can find nettles added to a wide variety of health products formulated for women's reproductive health. Especially fertility. While it's technically possible, I highly doubt I'll ever be fortunate enough to have children this far into my life. Even so, I came across some interesting products that seem like a great way to add some nettles to my diet organically and with other ingredients, seeing how I don't like the taste of pure nettle tea.

Wholesome Story offers a organic fertility tea  that any woman can appreciate with the following certified organic ingredients: cinnamon bark, spearmint leaf, nettle leaf, red raspberry leaf, chamomile blossom, and red clover blossom.

Pink Stork offers two teas that I plan on ordering. Full disclosure, I ordered the fertility tea by Wholesome Story, but haven't tasted it yet. When I do, I'll provide an update. If I like Wholesome Story's tea, I plan on trying these teas as well. I'm a dirt poor Eco farmer. I can't order whatever I want whenever I want. I have to budget myself. Just the facts of my world. Hint: growing my own foods organically is incredibly labor intensive and takes the majority of my time, but boy does it pay off! It's so fresh and bursting with nutrition. It's not from another country. I don't have to question it's quality or wonder about how the workers were treated.

Okay, Pink Stork.
USDA Certified Organic Woman's Fertility Tea contains organic peppermint, chaste tree berries, red raspberry, stinging nettle, passionflower, and lady’s mantle.
and
USDA Certified Organic Labor Prep Tea contains organic rosehip, stinging nettle, chamomile, oatstraw, and red raspberry leaf.

There are many other teas, supplements, etc. that contain nettles. I listed these three in particular because they are of interest to me. Don't let the names of the teas fool you. Just because a tea is called "Labor Prep" doesn't mean anyone can't benefit from it. Other blends I have come across contain ingredients that I don't like (licorice), or are in the nightshade family (ashwagandha) and can cause inflammation in certain individuals. I follow an anti inflammatory diet for my Endometriosis.

Arthritis is mentioned often in this book. What is interesting, is that the author claims that deliberately stinging yourself with nettles in the affected areas will help treat ones arthritis symptoms. She even goes as far as to claim it cures arthritis. I'm not too sure how I feel about deliberately causing myself a painful itchy rash. But, if after doing this three or more times, arthritis is truly gone, then it seems like it would be worth it. However, the author also briefly mentions that her and her partner both enjoy swatting one another's privates with nettles prior to intercourse for intense coupling. This is one of those woo woo moments I'm just not feeling. If anyone decides or already does engage in this sort of behavior, feel free to comment. But please, keep it clean.

Making salves with nettles to treat arthritis, similar to making jewelweed salve for poison ivy, is another possible method without the pain. However, the author stresses that,

"...the nettle plants hollow sharp hairs act as needles when they penetrate the skin. Formic acid, acetylcholine, serotonin, and histamine held in the chamber at the base of the hairs squirts into the wound. These compounds irritate the skin and create an antihistamine reaction which ultimately clears out and reduces inflammation."

If this is the case, then it seems unlikely that a salve will actually work in treating arthritis. As previously mentioned, if you have tried either or both of these methods and have or have not had success, please let me know in the comments.

My point in mentioning some products and methods is that while I didn't find much in my basic internet search to back up the claims in this book, I instead found by accident, products that contain nettle that support the claims in this book. I wasn't searching for these products in particular. All I searched for was, "organic nettle". Also, how can a pharmaceutical company make big billions by suggesting we deliberately sting ourselves with nettles? You need live plants for this. As far as I know, it can't be bottled and patented - yet.

Unfortunately we are in a world where anything outside of mainstream medical treatment is shunned or even hidden. As is often said, there aren't billions in profits from natural remedies. Does this mean natural methods are the cure all? No. Not at all. Conventional methods have their purpose and save lives. The fine line is in understanding when you need a holistic or conventional method for what ails you. My motto is to first try natural methods. If after exhausting all possibilities, the ailment doesn't improve, it's time to try conventional methods. This doesn't mean the conventional method will work either. But you wont know until you try.

I like this book. It does need some editing though. The resources provided to back up the authors claims are mostly from the 1990's. I'd like to see newer sources and more sources that are not other authors books. I'd like to see some clinical studies and double blind tests. This would add more validity to the claims. As it stands now, the book comes across as a bit shady with questionable claims.

Including quotes from long dead philosophers, poets, herbalists, artists and like is not convincing to me. I'm not saying they are wrong, but I'm not saying they are right either. On the topic of those who have come long before us, the author also provides some historical information regarding nettles. The history she provides about nettles is enjoyable, but not necessarily factual.

I also would like to see more recipes for topical treatments.

The food recipes are mostly unusable to me as they tend to include ingredients I no longer consume in order to manage my Endometriosis. However, I understand that I'm the minority in this area and I believe that most folks will find a great many of these recipes highly enjoyable.

The author even provides basic guidance on using nettle as a dye plant. Being a natural grower and one who dyes natural fibers with plant based dyes, I'm more than pleased that this is included in her book.

If you've never made your own tincture, Brigitte Mars shows you just how easy it is. You have the option of using either an alcohol base or glycerine. Personally, I prefer to use organic glycerine as I find organic alcohol tinctures rather nasty, but I can choke them down. Glycerine is naturally sweet and is wonderful if making tinctures for kids or if you need to avoid alcohol.

Final note:
I'm not a huge fan of the childish artwork. Some of it I like. It's mostly the artwork of the people I find off putting. That aside, at least one full color photo of an actual nettle plant would be great for those looking to forage. How fun would it be to have a full color photo of a nettle plant as a centerfold?

In summary, I plan to add this informative book to my shelves, hopefully when it comes out.

I received an advanced readers e-copy (ARC) of this book from Netgalley, Brigitte Mars and Storey Publishing for an honest review.