Tag: plants

Nettle harvest

PiaShow-and-tell

Welcome to the next installment in our nettle-along.

nettle10

This is what I managed to harvest in July, and it’s time for the next batch. I saved some of the leaves instead of feeding them to the horses, because while I don’t have time for a separate study of how to use the stalks for paper making, I do want to try to make paper and thought, why not add the dry leaves to my mixed materials bin? I’m drying my stalks inside because of the wet weather, I don’t know it that’s really necessary, but I didn’t want them to mold. Læs videre “Nettle harvest” →

Holiday at home

PiaChit Chat
Came upon this beauty grazing my pasture, as I was wading through a patch of tall grass and weeds.
Came upon this beauty grazing my pasture, as I was wading through a patch of tall grass and weeds. No cropping!

At the cottage, holiday does not mean catching a plane to roast at the pool of some southern European hotel, it means prodding the big guy to do some maintenance on the wreck we call home. As a result, I also have to do some things of course, as well as assisting with comments etc, so nothing much is going on in the studio at all because of my aforementioned handicap when it comes to moving between brain halves.

Læs videre “Holiday at home” →

Nettles in July

PiaSpinning

Welcome to the next installment in our nettle-along. This is mostly just a reminder, as I haven’t had the time or head for more research yet. Anyone else find interesting information they’d like to share?

MotherOwl beat me to it and wrote a nettle post yesterday.

I’m going to harvest my next batch one of these days if it will stop raining at odd times. Læs videre “Nettles in July” →

Nettle-along project page

PiaSpinning

I’ve only added a few things to the Page due to health issues, next post will appear in a couple of weeks.

I’m beginning to suspect that the info about saving stalks for a year is incorrect. Looking through an old booklet suggests that “people of old” processed their nettles in the fall. I’ll try to write a summary and translate it because there is a lot of interesting information in there, including a few chuckles:

In Swedish from Carl von Linné 1749: “Nätslor voro här plåckade till grönkål, såsom det allmänt sker i Sverige om vårtiden, så længe denna nätsla är späd och ännu ej en fingers lång… Somliga lägga till denna sin nätsle-kål bladen av ängelöken eller körfvel, at kålen må få en angenämare smak; andra bruka plåcka bladerna af sqvaller-kål … och åtskilliga andra växter, utan åtskillnad, hvarigenom ofta händer, at folket, som äta kålen blifva vimmerkantiga.”

Læs videre “Nettle-along project page” →

Nettle-along

PiaShow-and-tell

Motherowl asked me if I would host a study group for making nettle yarn. I know some of the bloggers that I follow have already tried this with varying results, but since I like to get my own hands-on failures I’m going through with this project anyway. So I’d love for everyone to chime in, newcomers as well as those who already have the t-shirt. The more info we can gather in one place, the better!

Læs videre “Nettle-along” →