“‘Found some nettles and brewed a tea,’ Shadd announced. ‘Will m’lady take a cup?’
‘Yes, with thanks.’ She cradled the tea in her scarred hands and blew on it to cool it.” -A Clash of Kings
Nettle Tea
Our Thoughts:
Somewhat lacking in fresh wild greens in Boston, we sadly had to default to dried nettle leaves to make this nettle tea. However, if you are lucky enough to have fresh leaves at your disposal, we recommend using those. We’ve planted our own nettles, partly as a defensive wall around our garden, and will update this post once we’ve tried them fresh.
It’s high in iron and vitamins, making it a wonderful surprise infusion by the side of the road while travelling. We actually didn’t care for the addition of lemon to ours, although a good dollop of honey was more than welcome.
The tea tastes very green, without the sometimes unpleasant herbal quality present in many other infusions.
Nettle Tea Recipe
We have taken a few liberties with additional ingredients; it’s unlikely that Catelyn and her party would have had all of these items on hand, but it makes for a much better tea, so we hope you will indulge us. :)
Ingredients:
- 1 Tbs. dried nettle leaves, or slightly less fresh
- honey to taste
- other additions: mint leaves, star anise, cinnamon stick, lemon, etc.
Thanks for posting this. I love nettle, mostly in soup. Stinging nettle soup is a fabulous spring soup I try not to miss. Nettle can be found on farms near Boston. It grows near old barns on sunny spots. Arm yourself with thick gloves and scissors, and go scavenging for young sprouts.
Nettle is a fabulous medicinal plant. If taken for a long time it can heal you of some ailments. Especially good for us girls. :)
Did you actually PLANT nettles? it’s one of the worst weeds… but it’s useful for teas, soups, and… beer!
You bet we did! We’re going to hem it in well with mulch to help keep it under control. We have a problem with local “peasants” stealing fruits and veggies out of people’s gardens in our Boston neighborhood. While I doubt the nettles will completely keep them out, maybe they will at least make the thieves think twice! ;)
We’re looking forward to making all of the dishes with them, including the beer!
Did you seed them (I doubt anybody sells the seeds though) or just replanted from somewhere? I used to have nettle in my garden long time ago and not in this country. I would be thrilled to “grow” it now. It actually grows by itself and is very invasive.
It’s the first time I hear about stealing stuff from people’s gardens. You need a tall (grows about 6′ tall) stinging nettle variety – it will work like a magic fire-wall. :)
We actually got seeds. Fresh nettles are in short supply here in Boston, so we figured it would be best to grow our own. I believe the seeds are from Amazon, but as they haven’t sprouted yet, I can’t fully recommend them!
Checked Amazon – they have a few choices, maybe I’ll buy some, not for thieves (the only thieve we have right now is a wild turkey ) just for food and some healing. You inspired me to – thanks :)
Wouldn´t Poison Ivy, preferably with a buch of bear traps hidden amongst them, be a better way to get the message through?
You don’t know just how satisfying that would be. We’ve also joked about hiring a 9 year old boy with a bb gun to just sit on our porch.
However, I’m phenomenally allergic to the evil poison weed, so am justifiably terrified of it. Last summer I had to get steroids to kick it out of my system – you should have seen the amount of cooking I got done that week… ;)
Hi there,
About the nettles? Is there a particular type–or are they all stinging nettles?
Thanks!
I believe they are all stinging nettles. Ours came dried, and thankfully stingless, though. :)
Brewing this right now. I picked my nettles fresh, and didn’t find I needed gloves (I picked only the tops, and grasped the stem to pick them – got a few stings but not enough to be seriously uncomfortable). Supposedly, putting saliva on nettle stings eases them, but I’m not sure if that actually works.
Five-minute steep on fresh nettle leaves – very good. I used two stems, roughly chopped, in my one-cup teapot.
When I showed my son the stinging nettles, he decided he had to make them sting him too, and did.
Haha! Sounds like the boys we know, too. ;)
Nettle tea has been a constant part of life here. Stinging nettles can also be used as rennet to make cheeses, it gives a very good flavor. And, as a hair rinse it’s excellent for dry itchy winter scalp.
just moved house and have loads of nettles in the bark garden, may give this a go but makesure i have my gardening gloves on! im in the country so when these are all gone it will be easy to find more! now, wheres my gloves!!
This tea is delicious.