Nettle: Find an ally with Bone Woman

Deeply mineralizing and strengthening, this herb is the cornerstone of deep healing, and nourishment. Come discover more of her secrets.

Welcome back to Ursula’s Garden! Thank you for joining me here on the wonderful green path. I wanted to start off with a bit of an introduction and some announcements. One is that I have turned on the “paid” option on my publication. If you would like to support me financially you can subscribe by hitting this button

and clicking the option that suits you best. For now, I will continue to send my writings to all subscribers. However, in the future I do plan to create ways to reward those who chose to pay me for my work. I have appreciated those to already have pledged some money to encourage my writing. That being said, please consider sharing my newsletter. Knowing people out there are reading (and substack tracks how many are) brings joy to my heart. I think my newsletter is great for anyone who has the itch to learn more about herbs and herbal medicine, health, healing, and forming a deeper relationship to the Earth. This is what I aspire to do in my life. My commitment to time outside will often override my yearning to write-although I believe the two are linked. I believe the simple practices you’ll find here on Ursula’s Garden are a wonderful starting point for the grounding and Earth centering needed to get us through troubled (and interesting) times.

I would also like to thank Thea Summer Deer for her public recommendation of my newsletter. She is a clinical herbalist, midwife, musician, and Wise Woman and her writing is profound. I took a class with her at the Pacific Women’s Herbal Conference in 2019 where she taught about Traditional Chinese Medicine’s view on mental health. I feel lifted and encouraged in being mentioned by her.

And finally, I’ve organized my first Herb Walk of the season! We’ll be meeting at Kalapuya Books May 20th, 12-2 in downtown Cottage Grove, OR. Please join us and keep an eye out for more information and future herb walks on my Instagram account @eroverstake.

And now, back to Nettle:

nourishing nettle
she is bone woman
carries within the food
our skeleton requires
she stands tall
her stalks filled with
fibers, strong enough
for cloth
weave with her
into a new being
your atoms all replaced
within seven days
weave her into you
double down with nettle
train your spine to stand
tall
feel your renals
and adrenals get
some tech support
now, you’re strong
now, you’ll move
into something new
hold her bony hand
and rise

Around my seventh birthday I went on a trip to Germany with my father. It was early Spring. We were visiting his hometown in Thuringia and were out in an open field when he pointed down to the ground at a little plant growing there. He said (in German) “be careful, if you touch that plant it will sting you.” I looked up at him and said, “really?” He replied, “well go ahead, and find out.” I touched the plant, and indeed, my fingers began to burn. I felt pain! I was annoyed at my dad-although he had warned me-and then it subsided. This was my initiation into a relationship with stinging nettle (urtica dioica). In German: brennessel, in Spanish: ortiga.

I forgot about nettle for many years. It was the plant that had stung me, that’s all. When I came across Susun Weed’s work and saw nettle as a listed herb for making nourishing herbal infusion, my memories came back. When I began to drink nettle infusion, I could not get enough. It was amazing! Darkly colored, with a hearty flavor that was both commanding and delicate, it was as if I could feel the herb making its way all through my body and fortifying every part of me.

Nettle emerging in Spring

Baby nettles standing about 8” tall; top view, often nettle emerges with a lovely deep purple color; nettle infusion made from dried herb-should be black as coffee

Stinging nettle may be the most nourishing herb there is. Chock full of minerals, it is an herb that can help us to restore our energy when we are depleted, maintain solid energy, and normalize various systems in the body. Nettle is specific in helping to rebuild the kidneys and adrenals. It is also known to be a very helpful ally in tempering down allergic responses. Loaded with iron, calcium, protein, and important trace minerals, nettle helps our bones to repair and stay strong. Nettle is a food. It can be made into soup using the fresh growth at the start of Spring. Or made into a beverage using the dried herb as an infusion. You can read about how to make a nourishing herbal infusion with stinging nettle here. The more ways to get nettle into your life, the better this plant can help restore the body to wholeness.

How does one form a relationship with nettle? We do not simply “use” plants as food or medicine. It is important that we come to the plants with reverence and humility, and with the respect we would treat another person we would like to get to know better. After all, they have been around a lot longer than we have! Human beings and plants have evolved together over time. As we began wandering the earth, each step and breath were supported by the plants-this relationship continues to this day, and it’s important to acknowledge and honor that. By necessity humans learned to communicate with the plants, and this is a skill that is available to all of us to this day. It only takes some intention and practice. My wonderful teacher, Julie Charet-Nunn teaches a practice called shamanic listening. All wise woman herbalists do this. It’s very simple. Go out to where the nettles (or any plant) grow.

Sit near to the plant. Breathe. This could be for 10 minutes, or 7 breaths, or however long you’d like. It’s important to be in your body, and to feel you are in a relaxed and open state. Imagine that particles from the nettles are entering your airway with each in breath, and that with each out breath you are sharing your breath with the plant. Then simply notice what comes. Any images, words or sensations? You may ask a question to the plant (I do this in my mind, some like to speak aloud). A question could be, “what wisdom is needed at this time?” Or “have you anything to share?” It could be something more specific like “How do you help heal distress in the body?”

I think of stinging nettle as a personification of what Clarissa Pinkola-Estes calls La Loba. She gathers the bones of the wild creatures and brings them back to life. She wanders the landscape, drawing the bones to her and then sings over them until life stirs again. To me, nettle is bone woman. She rebuilds us from the inside out and reconnects us to our inner wild nature. I think of “wildness” as simply acknowledging we have a shared history with all other beings on this planet. We are nature and are connected to and at one with the Earth. It is our responsibility to live our fullest nature and to find within the skills developed over time by our ancestors. It helps to have mentors in this endeavor since so many of us have been cut off from our indigenous lineage, and perhaps haven’t a clue as to what that lineage contains.

The plants living near us in our environment (whether rural or densely populated) can help. I think of Nettle as the elixir of life. Milk of the Earth. So full of that which many of us long for but cannot articulate. Deep, dark, and nourishing, Nettle can give us a sense of fulness and satisfaction both physically, and in our spirit. Minerals are the bones of the earth. They are the hard substances that first formed this planet. When we allow minerals back into our being we invite this deep earth energy into us, and we remember who we are.

Nettles grow wild in many different places in the world. They tend to prefer a wet environment near some flowing water or an area that routinely gets some moisture. Have some caution because I have heard that in New Zealand there is a type of nettle whose sting can be very harmful. Here in the Pacific Northwest nettle is a common sight along streams, and on moist wooded paths. In the Spring I harvest the tops and simmer these in some water for an hour or so. I like adding miso, and sometimes mushrooms can make for a “fancy” nettle soup. It freezes well also. To harvest nettle for drying it’s best to wait until the plant is about knee high, then cut close to the bottom of the stalk. I will generally only harvest for about 20 minutes, bringing in the stalks for hanging. The hanging takes some time. I have a clothesline above my bed in my room. Here is where I hang my herbs to dry. I will take a couple stalks and use a piece of string or twine that has been doubled over to create a loop through which the end of the plant stalk can fit snuggly. Then I tie the other end to the clothesline. For drying herbs, the important things to remember are that they do not receive direct sunlight, that the individual bundles are not touching one another, and that there is air flow. This will prevent mold and spots appearing on your herb. I usually let them hang until completely dry, about 3 weeks. Then I store in paper bags and label.

When it’s time to make infusion with my home harvested herb, I take the amount out and weigh it on my scale (1oz per quart). Then I CUT the herb up. Not too finely, but enough to get some surface area. While I don’t harvest enough for daily infusions, it is very satisfying to make even just one or two quarts of homemade. It comes out different than the commercially made and is a worthy experience. That being said, I buy plenty of herb and have all confidence in the quality and ethics of the herb suppliers available here in the US. Again, you can check out my post on infusions to learn more.

It is the perfect time to go out and play with the nettle. There are so many ways she can nourish your being. Drinking infusion of dried stinging nettle absolutely changed my life, and I’ve heard the same from many a Wise Woman (woman, includes “man”).

Enjoy!