Nettles

[madonplants]

Hope this is the right place to put this.

On our first night on holiday, another boater told me, you can eat nettles raw and not get stung, if you hold your breath!! Is this true and if so has anyone tried it? He gave a very good, though forgotten now, explanation as to why you don't get stung. Something about your blood pressure is lower and the plant senses that and doesn't sting you. Are plants that sophisticated??!!!

Maybe that is what some goats were doing, on the second week, when they were munching through some on the side of the canal. They seemed to be enjoying it.

4P, do your goats eat them?

Keith

[debbiem]

I know that if you pick the tips to make nettle wine you're unlikely to be stung, but I don't know about eating them.

[plocket]

Sounds like a bit of a tale to me Madon. You can become immune to the sting if you keep on allowing yourself to be stung though - my mum's been stung that often that she can't feel them any more.

[4pygmies]

Sorry Keith, I don't believe a word of it! I get stung nearly every day of my life and it still hurts.... And, not for a million pounds (well, maybe a million) would I put them in my mouth raw...owowowow..... My goats won't touch them raw at any stage of their growth but they will eat them mixed in hay if they are thoroughly dried I have cut them in the past and stacked them up to dry but they still sting ME even when they're brittle and dead!
I do think that if you introduce them to goats as a food source when the goats are kids and the nettles are very young then they might learn to eat them then. The ones you saw may just have been very hungry Keith! I bet they were eating a selection of other plants with them too. Goats love nibbling the tips off wild plants and trees.

[debbiem]

The ones in our chicken's enclosure were very rampant and dominated the area. Everything else got demolished by the chooks but nettles no chance, they wouldn't touch them.

[madonplants]

Thanks everyone. He seemed so genuine as well. The witch, I asked him about the dead nettles and he said no the real ones. How would a plant know you are holding your breath anyway, they don't have a central nervous system?

4P, it looked like just nettles these goats were eating, but maybe they had got used to them. The 'enclosure' they were in, looked like wall to wall nettles and nothing else, but I was about 12/15 ft away, and obviously moving at about 2 miles an hour, so can't be sure if there was anything else there. All I saw was the goats nibbling at the nettles from the top downwards and I immediately thought of your nettle problem!!

Keith

Please don't anyone try this to prove this right or wrong though. I can't afford any medical bills! He said he does eat them regulary as nettles are good for you. Pity there were none about, as I may have asked him to prove it!!

[4pygmies]

If the goats had nothing else to eat, then they had no choice! Goats are ruminants and must browse constantly to give their stomachs enough fibre to function properly. That's why they chew their cud - to maximise the nutrition obtained from their food, and also to create enough saliva to line their rumen and aid digestion.
Anyway, goats need a lot of food! My 3 ladies were in a very similar enclosure when I went to see them - a bare earth enclosure with nothing to eat but nettles. I had to rescue them, especially when I realised that they were so frightened of people that they were cowering under the chicken shed. That was the only place they had any shelter and the poor chickens were in cages in there in the dark. I was so disgusted I bought all 3, and if I had had room in the car I would have taken the chickens too!
The owner wasn't a horrible man but he thought they were tough outdoor animals and treated them as such. They were only babies..I could carry them easily so I think they were only about 6 months old. So I ended up taking 3 motley underfed girls who were absolutely terrified of me home. Then, after a few weeks I realised 2 of them were pregnant, much too young.....sadly one kids was born dead and Freddy was touch and go. His poor Mum was so traumatised by it all that she rejected him and he required a lot of care to survive too.
But, I digress, as usual! You reminded me of my girls, Keith, with your description. Those poor things would've much preferred a nice mixed hedgerow to nibble at I'm sure.....
And, also, I think probably nettles are good for you, in much the same way that a lot of wild plants are...eaten young they can be cooked as greens and have been used in herbal medicine to treat eczema, arthritis, anaemia etc and have many other uses (eg. paper making) but I prefer to eat something that's not quite so difficult to harvest!

[madonplants]

4pygmies said:

If the goats had nothing else to eat, then they had no choice! Goats are ruminants and must browse constantly to give their stomachs enough fibre to function properly. That's why they chew their cud - to maximise the nutrition obtained from their food, and also to create enough saliva to line their rumen and aid digestion.
Anyway, goats need a lot of food! My 3 ladies were in a very similar enclosure when I went to see them - a bare earth enclosure with nothing to eat but nettles. I had to rescue them, especially when I realised that they were so frightened of people that they were cowering under the chicken shed. That was the only place they had any shelter and the poor chickens were in cages in there in the dark. I was so disgusted I bought all 3, and if I had had room in the car I would have taken the chickens too!
The owner wasn't a horrible man but he thought they were tough outdoor animals and treated them as such. They were only babies..I could carry them easily so I think they were only about 6 months old. So I ended up taking 3 motley underfed girls who were absolutely terrified of me home. Then, after a few weeks I realised 2 of them were pregnant, much too young.....sadly one kids was born dead and Freddy was touch and go. His poor Mum was so traumatised by it all that she rejected him and he required a lot of care to survive too.
But, I digress, as usual! You reminded me of my girls, Keith, with your description. Those poor things would've much preferred a nice mixed hedgerow to nibble at I'm sure.....
And, also, I think probably nettles are good for you, in much the same way that a lot of wild plants are...eaten young they can be cooked as greens and have been used in herbal medicine to treat eczema, arthritis, anaemia etc and have many other uses (eg. paper making) but I prefer to eat something that's not quite so difficult to harvest!

I wondered that tbh. I didn't stay too long, even though I slowed down. In the next garden, there was an angry alsation, that seemed to want to climb the fence (if you call fft high barbed wire as a fence) to get at Souki, so I throttled up a bit. If the goats were in bad condition, I may have looked into it, but they looked OK to me, though I am no expert on goats like you are! They were living in a wired in enclosure between the back garden of a house and the canal, maybe 20ft by 12/15ft. Obviously they had plenty of water to drink, but the area they were in looked all nettles. I can't remember if there was any sort of house for them, that's when the dog started barking, but they definately were eating the nettles!
Your goats obviously now have a better life, well done. I love hearing these sort of stories, just wish we had a larger garden, so I could do the same! That's why I couldn't visit Battersea Dog's Home, I would want to bring them all home!

You digress as much as you like, 4P, I missed that while on holiday!! ;D
Note to Keith. Take laptop with you next year or visit the odd internet cafe, so I can get 4P injections!! ;D

Keith

[Sleepy]

www.whatsonwhen.com/sisp/index.htm?fx=event&event_id=55102

www.stewardwood.org/community/wildfoods.htm

[madonplants]

Thanks Sleepy. He was right then, he just didn't tell me about the folding bit. He said he picked and shoved them straight in!!! Either way, don't think I will be bothering!!

Keith

[Sleepy]

madonplants said:

Thanks Sleepy. He was right then, he just didn't tell me about the folding bit. He said he picked and shoved them straight in!!! Either way, don't think I will be bothering!!

Keith

Yeah, it's a food source I can survive without too

[whisper]Looks like Sweetie might have gone back to bed![/whisper]

[sweetleaf]

admin said:

madonplants said:

Thanks Sleepy. He was right then, he just didn't tell me about the folding bit. He said he picked and shoved them straight in!!! Either way, don't think I will be bothering!!

Keith

Yeah, it's a food source I can survive without too

[whisper]Looks like Swetie might have gone back to bed![/whisper]

Who`s swetie? ;D

[Sleepy]

sweetleaf said:

admin said:

Yeah, it's a food source I can survive without too

[whisper]Looks like Swetie might have gone back to bed![/whisper]

Who`s swetie? ;D

Dunno what you mean!

[sweetleaf]

admin said:

sweetleaf said:

Who`s swetie? ;D

Dunno what you mean!

;D