Oy!~
Nettle harvest, definitely right now. I go out to the woods with a couple bags a pair of snips. I snip off the top 4-5 inches of the lowest growing nettles around. (So nettles that are only that tall are the best, if there are taller ones I don't take much of the base). Then I'll use the snips to pick up the nettle and throw it in the bag. (Although I've watched a friend of mine harvest twice as many by snipping with one hand a good garden glove on the other.)
I cut the top just above a leaf node, kind of like cutting basil. Just like basil it will resprout from those top two leaves and create four, those can be harvested and it will grow back eight, etc.
To dry, check out the long discussion in the 'alternative
energy' part of this forum.
I guess I can also add that some people snip leaves from the stem before drying, but I like to keep them. My reasons are 1) because I don't harvest big stems to begin with and 2) they're easier to later throw into a teapot if they're 'wads' rather than 'flakes'
Also, about the original question that started this
thread, its hilarious in the retrospective because last week some friends and i went and harvested from this old ramtha site near yelm. Like the previous owners had built wierd
underground burrows lined with copper to repel the lizard people who may erupt from the mountain. For real, I looked in one.
So there were some thoughts on if these nettles were going to be affected by any strange goings-on out there. I'd love to see what doug bullock thinks....
