Feeding stinging nettles

[BlueDreamer]

Hey,

I just wanted some advice on feeding stinging nettles, I noted on here that it said to feed them dried or dead. So my question is, how do you dry them out or how do you know when it is best to feed them.

Thanks

 

[Hermes]

Personally I wouldn't feed them, I can't imagine them being that palatable even when dried out but they can crop up in hay and are perfectly fine to eat. To dry them out you could just wait until it's a really sunny day and cut some stems and just leave them out in the sun or you could dry them in the oven on a low heat but watch they don't burn or just go all crispy and disintegrate. I would feed them when they are dry like hay and you don't get stung if you handle them, I'd probably also feed leaves more than stems because them stems are really fibrous and I don't trust them not to sting even if they are dry!.

 

[Stewybus]

I would think you'd dry them the same way as dandelion leaves. I did my first batch last week.

I got a tray & put a sheet of kitchen roll on it. I covered this with dandelion leaves then put another sheet of kitchen roll & continued until I had 10 layers of leaves & just left these in my conservatory for a week. By then they were all crisp & dry so just broke them up into a plastic container with air tight lid after letting my piggies sample them. They loved them. I've just prepared a second batch of double the amount & will keep doing this till the end of summer. By then will hopefully have enough to do them till next spring.

 

[Hermes]

^Or you can do that. If you just tie string round a bunch of stems and hang them somewhere warm and dry or put leaves in a paper bag (again somewhere warm and dry) then it works to same effect, hanging is the typical way of drying herbs. I'm just impatient so try to do things faster!

 

[Guinea pig slave]

I saw somewhere they can eat nettles and have some in the garden...mmm, may dry them out and try but I'm a bit of a coward giving them something that they've not had before ?/