I found a field of nettles!

"Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you, for your pains: Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains." -Aaron Hill

Nettle is my favourite herb. I don't usually label foods "super-foods" because you can't rely on one thing being a magical fix-it. But nettle really is up there for amazingness. I started drinking nettle on a daily basis last year and after a month I realised I was less fatigued and my fingernail beds were pinker... indicating I was no longer anaemic, something I've struggled with most of my life (pre-vegetarian days too).

There is heaps of information about nettles on the internet, here's one clip.

I've wanted to make nettle wine since I saw it mentioned somewhere as I'm such a nettle fan but I didn't have a source of nettles other than the native nettle, ongaonga, which is not safe to touch or ingest. However the other day I decided that Taman and I could walk home from kindergarten which we've never done as it is a long walk. On the way I spied a neighbour's vegetable garden full of nettles. I quickly knocked on her door to ask if I could pick them and she was only too pleased (a weed is just a plant in the wrong place).

I've now picked 5 shopping bags full of nettles which I've then stripped down to just the nice leaves. It's taken me a couple of evenings but I've watched movies and listened to music while doing it, so it was a pleasant evening activity. I've hardly been stung, there's a technique where if you boldly grab it, you don't get stung, hence opening quote. The few stings were usually when I wasn't paying attention. Taman didn't discover the technique so there was less child labour involved in this brew than the other two.

Today I finally got the last 50 grams stripped for my 1kg needed to make nettle beer (it filled my 20L stockpot).

(Beer... I know, I'm supposed to be making wine. But the recipe said it was more like a country wine than a beer. I also had a recipe for a more straight up wine however I chose the beer as it would only use my last demijohn for a couple of weeks and the beer itself will be ready in a few more weeks and the timing is crucial.)

I boiled up the nettles with lemon and ginger. Then once it had simmered for half an hour, I let it cool then strained it and added the sugar, cream of tartar and a camden tablet. Tomorrow I will sprinkle on the yeast and put it in the demijohn for a couple of weeks then bottle it.

This is the recipe I have used.
nettle beer
I was a lot more relaxed about the process this time and didn't need to check the recipe hundreds of times or re-write it with all the small details that I needed to do with my first brew. I also improvised by adding the step with the campden tablet. Maybe it's unnecessary to sterilise this brew as it's been boiled but I felt it wouldn't do any harm if I added this step in.

I used some of the left over nettle leaves on a pizza for dinner and I have half a bag of nettles left over which I will dry and use for my daily nettle tea. Other than iron levels, nettle also helps with osteroarthritis and Alzheimer's... two things in my family. And it's good for hair, skin, finger nail strength, allergy relief, decongestion etc etc etc.

The reason timing is so critical at this point is because spring is coming and I have plans with gorse and dandelion and elderflower. My elderberry wine should be ready to be bottled in September.

Also in September is Zinefest ZineFest where I am going to hold a workshop on how to DIY wine with dumpstered or donated ingredients. I plan to do a really big brew with my 20L demijohns and also a small "quick" wine in one of my 5L demijohns. This quick brew will most probably be made out of apples and will take about 6 weeks. I figure that whoever gets involved in the workshop will be impatient to taste the product, and nine months to a year is a really long time to wait. The quick wine is apparently less alcoholic and a bit cruder in taste but I'm sure it will be fine. So I'm hoping this nettle beer/wine is palatable and we can drink it to celebrate making the dumpster brew.
I'm excited about having something to contribute to zinefest but I'm also nervous as I still don't know that much about brewing nor have I run a workshop before. I figure I'll just have people help me prepare whatever the main ingredient is for the brew and we can have a korero about brewing, using different resources and why making your own booze is great. I love preparing food with other people.
I also plan to put together a quick zine with recipes, ideas on alternative equipment to use if you can't afford flash brewing equipment and a rant about how much the alcohol industry sucks, which is something I need to research. Stuff to do... sometime.

In the mean time there is youtube and I have been on some strange youtube tangents with nettle this evening. The one folksong about nettle wine, I didn't like. Then I started listening to some terrible trance mix called nettle something. Then I watched jelly fish, and people jumping into nettle bushes, nettle eating competition, nettle man sports thing, a Russian teenager rapping to some pop singer who has nettle in her real name.
I like calexico who have have this song titled Stinging nettle

I also thought this documentary trailer, "Grasp the Nettle" looked interesting as it covers issues that I have wondered about, and seen, in communities with strong alternative views who try to create big change in the face of the authority, and what personalities and egos come out in these movements

Then finally I was reminded of Salad Fingers which I think we watched far too much at high school. It seems far more disturbing now. I'm not actually going to link it because there's a possibility my family members will read this. For those with a morbid curiosity, you can google it, there's an episode about nettles.