Most people who deal with nettles wear heavy garden gloves, to avoid being stung. A nettle without the sting wouldn’t be a nettle. If plant scientists ever decided to breed nettles for economic reasons (I don’t think they’ve ever bothered) the first thing they’d do is to get rid of the sting. I don’t let them grow all over the place. That’s why I keep my nettles in an out of the way spot where they won’t take me by surprise.

I agree that getting stung when you’re not expecting it is annoying and painful. The point of the stingĪ lot of people hate nettles because of the sting. I keep them where they won’t take me by surprise. My plant originally came from Kay Baxter at Koanga Gardens, two decades ago, when they were based at Kaiwaka, north of Auckland. Nettles eaten as a green vegetable taste quite mild, a bit like spinach but better. Unlike many other herbs, nettles aren’t bitter. Herbalists who work with energetics describe the taste of nettles as “salty”. Nettles contain a power-pack of minerals and other nutrients. Some people have said it’s a bit “metallic”. Nettle tea or infusion (see the recipe at the end of this post) tastes “green” to me. People sometimes ask me what nettles taste like. Nettles have culinary, cultural, healing, ecological and gardening purposes. But they are interesting and very useful. Nettles aren’t pretty or sculptural, unlike many other plants that are considered weeds. There’s a nettle patch at the bottom of my garden. The European stinging nettle, Urtica dioica.

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