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Nettle fake curry spice?

 
gardener
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I was just tidying a cabinet where I keep a lot of half-finished projects and materials for projects (I imagine some of you probably have a similar piece of furniture, where things just tend to end up?) Anyways, in there is a paper bag of nettle fibres. Not retted, but raw dried bark that I've pounded and combed to get rid of most of the non-fibre material. I think there are fibres in there collected both one and two years ago.

When I took this bag out of the cabinet, I caught a whiff of curry smell, so of course I shoved my nose in the bag. It did smell more or less exactly like curry powder. Since I was wondering if my nose had bugged (it does happen) I asked my brother to smell it. He confirmed that it does indeed smell like curry.

Now, this has me wondering. I don't want to eat nettle fibres obviously, but maybe you can do something similar with the leaves? Grind them into a paste, dry it in cakes, and let them sit in a paper bag for a couple of years maybe? And then grind it into a powder, add salt and something spicy like peppers? Or maybe you could use the non-fibre stuff in the bark, to get a bonus product out of your nettle processing? I find this interesting anyways, I like curry spice. Did anyone else notice this?
 
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Since it smells like curry, did you taste it to see if it tasted like curry?

Mr Google says dried nettle when brewed in a tea taste minty.
 
Eino Kenttä
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Tried a bit just now, and it's not entirely dissimilar from curry! Of course it doesn't have the pungent/peppery taste, but that I suppose one could get from another ingredient.
 
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Was there any old curry spice hiding in the same closet?  I would just check before you put a lot of work into drying nettle leaves, although I have read that dried nettle leaves are good for top-dressing plants as a natural pick-me-up. I have done that in the past, and I don't recall a curry smell, but mine weren't in a paper bag.
 
I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com
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