My 18 year old nephew suffered all his life with hay-fever in summer . Last year i got him to sting himself with nettles every time he visited me . This summer he said that his hay-fever is almost gone. Nettles have a antihistamine that helps against hay-fever. Best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪
I use nettle tea for the same purpose every spring with a occasional "top up" whenever the pollen count goes high. Then use the leaves in a stew or soup. 👍
Really have to seed these wild things in my yard. ❤ A wild mustard plant came up at the edge of my veg bed😊. I've babied it with everything else. Collected pods and more are ready. Leaves are edible. The little yellow flowers are so pretty. There's more things out there I've been wanting to dig up and bring home. Let all my radish bloom and go to pods also.
@@debrapaulino918 Once strained, the nettle tea is fine. I add a blob of Manuka honey occasionally. The leaves themselves don't taste particularly nice on their own, but shoved into a soup or stew, they're good. Almost like spinach....I said, almost. 🤐
Thank you for the concise explanation of the cordage twist. I have watched, in order of, fifty videos of this process, and came away from all of them wondering what the heck I just watched. Yours is the first which actually explained, in plain English, what was taking place during the twisting. I am so happy to finally understand! Now, it's out to the backyard, to conquer the menacing stinging nettle patch growing around my chicken coup. YAY!
Hands down, your instructions are the best, clear and easy to remember. Brava young lady. I do hope you do more of this kind as you are a born teacher. 🥰👍💚
Thank you for showing the way to make this , if ever needed for say a bow drill or shelter building i have the knowledge you never know what life hands you .
Hi Alexandra. It was a surprise to see a fellow Tracker on RUclips. Wish you had added how to splice other strands onto the cordage to make it longer for purposes more useful than making a bracelet. We both had a great teacher, so I know you know how to do this. Great video. :-)
Hi Darrel! Thanks for the comment, there is a separate video on how to splice fibers : ruclips.net/video/7BQjt0JweSM/видео.html&lc=UgxClfI5dF4IIwVH9_F4AaABAg
We have a "waste area" in the back lot. It used to be full of weeds, some of which were edible. I spread nettles in there until now, they cover it. Very persistent rooted, the planting should stay forever, if trees and shrubs aren't allowed to take over. You can cut nettles two or three times each year so that won't happen. Nettles have so many used, besides just being one of the moos cool plants you are ever going to meet. Eating, yes, but also super plant food! Soak in rain water for a few weeks, or cut them up small and fill a pit or big pot half way, add back soil, and grow a tomato or squash as the nettle matter below composts. Looks like Fiber will be on the agenda as well!
Nettles are a very nutritious, traditional cattle (horses, cows) feed, too: Harvest, set to dry, then feed dry stalks to cattle. The drying denatures the chemicals in the spikes causing the stinging.
I remember me old Pa made nettle soup once - and it were sh!t!!! But, that said, I'm tempted, now that I'm a lot older, to give it another go. He's still kicking, and over 90, so....yeah:-D
When I was younger riding a horse fell face first in a bush of Stinging Nettle... Very painful... I had to be sedated because the pain it was causing. IS there ANYTHING else you can use beside this? Thank you for sharing this wonderful video. Beautiful
That sounds truly horrible! Yes, there are other plants you can use- both Milkweed and Dogbane (also called Indian Hemp) can be processed in this way. The difference is that you need to pick them later in the season after they have completely dried (where as with Nettles you pick them earlier before the die back completely). Also be aware that dogbane can be poisonous to dogs. Another plant I love is Yucca, it is not processed in the same way- I have a video showing that technique if you are interested. Yucca is very easy to find pretty much everywhere. Good luck in your cordage making journey!
@@judichristopher4604 good luck! you can purchase materials such as Rafia from craft stores if you want to practice just the cordage technique. Cheers!
To keep the cortage going add new fiber in toward the bottom and keep twisting. Start of uneven at the ends so that new strands are staggered for strength purposes.
i have bad joints, and sometimes will run my hands through nettle, for me it provides some relief for about a week, but the first 4-8 hours kinda sucks bad
You want to collect towards the end of the season just as it is dying. Too early and the fibers won't be quite ready and too late and the fibers will be degraded.
you can make a little overhand knot at the end. I plan to make a video on how to splice in more fibers to make a longer piece of cordage and can demonstrate how to tie it at the end as well 🙂
I do not know what tensile strength it is, though I do know that you can mix different types of fibers (such as dogbane) in with nettles to increase its strength.
Hi! I am sorry but I do not know the exact species of this Nettle. It seems as though my Nettles here on the East Coast of the US look quite different from those in other areas of the world. Cheers!
I am in the US- I believe there are about 6 subspecies of Nettle- so yours probably do look different. These are very big and the also really enjoyed the rainy weather- they were some of the tallest Nettles that have grown in my patch so far 🙂
Mine do. 🤔 Let them grow tall enough and mature. They're good for fibres like this, and, if you separate the fibres, instead of twisting them, you can plait them into cordage from thin to whatever thickness is required. And, by plaiting in extra lengths as you go, make as long a piece as you need. Like dandelions and plantains, nettles are incedible plants, mostly undervalued or misconstrued by many.🤔
There are certainly a variety of nettles here - I picked some in England the other day that look very similar to the ones in the video. I think you just have to keep an eye out for them (and be lucky!)
@@AlexandraBurkhart I harvested the seeds from the female Nettle flowers a couple of weeks ago. Dried them out and sifted them through a sieve. Ended up with a large Douwe Egberts coffee jar full of these very fine green seeds. Sprinkle them in sandwiches, on stews, in smoothies and on virtually any other meal, including protein shakes. I'm still waking up in the mornings so can't be all bad..... 🙄
My mate Bleddyn told me when I was 16 that he’d give me a fiver if I went over there and intentionally stung my Willy on those nettles. I took the challenge. It wasn’t nice. I’m 51 now. Still no fiver.
My 18 year old nephew suffered all his life with hay-fever in summer . Last year i got him to sting himself with nettles every time he visited me . This summer he said that his hay-fever is almost gone. Nettles have a antihistamine that helps against hay-fever. Best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪
that is wonderful! so glad to hear your nephew found relief! Nettles are truly amazing!
I use nettle tea for the same purpose every spring with a occasional "top up" whenever the pollen count goes high. Then use the leaves in a stew or soup. 👍
How does it feel? Smooth? Rough?
Really have to seed these wild things in my yard. ❤ A wild mustard plant came up at the edge of my veg bed😊. I've babied it with everything else. Collected pods and more are ready. Leaves are edible. The little yellow flowers are so pretty. There's more things out there I've been wanting to dig up and bring home. Let all my radish bloom and go to pods also.
@@debrapaulino918 Once strained, the nettle tea is fine. I add a blob of Manuka honey occasionally. The leaves themselves don't taste particularly nice on their own, but shoved into a soup or stew, they're good. Almost like spinach....I said, almost. 🤐
You are very easy on the eyes and a great teacher. Thank you for the video.
Thank you for the concise explanation of the cordage twist. I have watched, in order of, fifty videos of this process, and came away from all of them wondering what the heck I just watched. Yours is the first which actually explained, in plain English, what was taking place during the twisting. I am so happy to finally understand! Now, it's out to the backyard, to conquer the menacing stinging nettle patch growing around my chicken coup. YAY!
you are so welcome! thank you for the kind words! I am so happy to hear this video was helpful!
Thank you for this video. You may not realize this, but nettles also makes a great bowstring!!👍
Thank you! I didn't know that, thank you for sharing!
Really enjoyed your video. You explain the process better than anybody else! Now I’m going to go and make cordage with Confidence! 😏
thank you ! I wish you the best of luck on your cordage journey!
@@AlexandraBurkhart You’re welcome and thanks for the well wishes.
Hands down, your instructions are the best, clear and easy to remember. Brava young lady. I do hope you do more of this kind as you are a born teacher. 🥰👍💚
Thank you so much!
Very gently, easy, peacefully, educative,...
Thank you!
thank you!
Very helpful, clear, concise video. Thank you.
Thank you so much!
Thank you for showing the way to make this , if ever needed for say a bow drill or shelter building i have the knowledge you never know what life hands you .
Thank you so much! I am so happy to hear this video was helpful to you!
Brilliant video and you really explained the whole process so easily and I will be having a go.
Thanks Mandy UK
Hi Alexandra. It was a surprise to see a fellow Tracker on RUclips. Wish you had added how to splice other strands onto the cordage to make it longer for purposes more useful than making a bracelet. We both had a great teacher, so I know you know how to do this. Great video. :-)
Hi Darrel! Thanks for the comment, there is a separate video on how to splice fibers : ruclips.net/video/7BQjt0JweSM/видео.html&lc=UgxClfI5dF4IIwVH9_F4AaABAg
I have a big growth of nettles out back of my shop. This demo will help me put them to use. Good info and instruction. Thank you.
Thank you. Really interesting video and very clearly explained. I wish you well.
thank you so much!
Thanks so much, really enjoyed the demo & explanation. I'm keen to give this a go in Oz, though they don't grow quite so tall...
School days are the best. One day this skill will benefit me, many thanks for sharing.
I so appreciate your interest and knowledge to share such valuable information, thank you..! 🙂
thank you!
Beautifully done, Lexi- as always. I've never tried nettles before.....this was great! Thank you.
Thank you so much!!!
We have a "waste area" in the back lot. It used to be full of weeds, some of which were edible. I spread nettles in there until now, they cover it. Very persistent rooted, the planting should stay forever, if trees and shrubs aren't allowed to take over. You can cut nettles two or three times each year so that won't happen. Nettles have so many used, besides just being one of the moos cool plants you are ever going to meet. Eating, yes, but also super plant food! Soak in rain water for a few weeks, or cut them up small and fill a pit or big pot half way, add back soil, and grow a tomato or squash as the nettle matter below composts. Looks like Fiber will be on the agenda as well!
thank you for the info! I will have to try that in my garden next year!
Nettles are a very nutritious, traditional cattle (horses, cows) feed, too: Harvest, set to dry, then feed dry stalks to cattle. The drying denatures the chemicals in the spikes causing the stinging.
Good video. It would be nice to see how to join lengths as you go, if possible, so as not to constrained to producing short lengths
Hi! I have a video that demonstrates how to do this if you are interested, the link is :
ruclips.net/video/7BQjt0JweSM/видео.html
Hope this helps!
I remember me old Pa made nettle soup once - and it were sh!t!!! But, that said, I'm tempted, now that I'm a lot older, to give it another go.
He's still kicking, and over 90, so....yeah:-D
Wonderful video! I cant wait to see what you make next!
thank you so much!
@@AlexandraBurkhart you’re welcome 💙
Wonderful idea, thank you very much!
Nicely done.
thank you!
When I was younger riding a horse fell face first in a bush of Stinging Nettle...
Very painful... I had to be sedated because the pain it was causing.
IS there ANYTHING else you can use beside this?
Thank you for sharing this wonderful video. Beautiful
That sounds truly horrible! Yes, there are other plants you can use- both Milkweed and Dogbane (also called Indian Hemp) can be processed in this way. The difference is that you need to pick them later in the season after they have completely dried (where as with Nettles you pick them earlier before the die back completely). Also be aware that dogbane can be poisonous to dogs. Another plant I love is Yucca, it is not processed in the same way- I have a video showing that technique if you are interested. Yucca is very easy to find pretty much everywhere. Good luck in your cordage making journey!
@@AlexandraBurkhart
Yucca is our State Plant here in New Mexico... (but we can't touch it) unless it has died naturally.
Thank you for your help.
@@judichristopher4604 good luck! you can purchase materials such as Rafia from craft stores if you want to practice just the cordage technique. Cheers!
@@AlexandraBurkhart
Excellent Idea...
Thank you
To keep the cortage going add new fiber in toward the bottom and keep twisting. Start of uneven at the ends so that new strands are staggered for strength purposes.
Clear instructions , will have to give it a try, Thank You
thank you! good luck!
Oh My God you look just like Jenna Fischer!! 🤩🤩🤩
Cute chick. Nice knowing some are still out there.
i have bad joints, and sometimes will run my hands through nettle, for me it provides some relief for about a week, but the first 4-8 hours kinda sucks bad
Just curious why you didn't rett the stalks to remove the celllular tissue and break down the pectin surrounding the base fibers?
It is definitely an added step that can help to refine and beautify the fibers, no reason not to do it, definitely do it if you feel called. Cheers!
How do you add new strands to continue to make longer cordage?
Hi! I added a new video explaining how to make longer cordage. I hope it helps!
I raise it in a raised bed . I dry some. I can some. But when it gets too big to use as such i make string,rope, ect.
How old do you want the nettle to be? Should it still be somewhat green or really dry?
You want to collect towards the end of the season just as it is dying. Too early and the fibers won't be quite ready and too late and the fibers will be degraded.
Great video, how do you nicely tie the end?
you can make a little overhand knot at the end. I plan to make a video on how to splice in more fibers to make a longer piece of cordage and can demonstrate how to tie it at the end as well 🙂
@@AlexandraBurkhart thank you. Cant wait to see!
Hubba Hubba and a great video 👍👍👍👍
Nettles are found around old Indian camps, I'm sure they knew what to do with Nettles.
I wonder what the tensile strenght is.?
I do not know what tensile strength it is, though I do know that you can mix different types of fibers (such as dogbane) in with nettles to increase its strength.
@@AlexandraBurkhart
You're right, Tensile strenght is the resistance of a material to breaking under tension..
do you know what specied that is? it's very different to the introduced stinging nettle we have in New Zealand urtica dioica and urtica urens.
Hi! I am sorry but I do not know the exact species of this Nettle. It seems as though my Nettles here on the East Coast of the US look quite different from those in other areas of the world. Cheers!
Need to add Nettles to the Farm. Just collected like 3 grams of Thistle seeds.
I think I'm going to build a decorticator and a spinning wheel.
👍👍👍
but how do you make anything longer than 3-4 feet?
I made a new video to explain this technique (how to splice in fibers to make longer cordage). I hope it helps!
@@AlexandraBurkhart Cool! Thanks! Appreciate the reply!
How do you make it longer
I have a video explaining how to splice in fibers to make it longer... hope it helps!
😍😍💚💚🙏🙏✨✨
Those stalks are much bigger than what you get in u.k. or Ireland.which country r u in??
I am in the US- I believe there are about 6 subspecies of Nettle- so yours probably do look different. These are very big and the also really enjoyed the rainy weather- they were some of the tallest Nettles that have grown in my patch so far 🙂
@@AlexandraBurkhart thanks for reply much appreciated 👍💪
You didn't show us how to splice the pieces together.
I can definitely do that in another video!
start at the top if doing bare handed...was done for thousands of tears
The British stinging nettle doesn't look anything like that. Is this a different type of nettle or ...?
I believe there are 5-6 types of Nettles so I imagine the kind you have in England could look slightly different.
Mine do. 🤔 Let them grow tall enough and mature. They're good for fibres like this, and, if you separate the fibres, instead of twisting them, you can plait them into cordage from thin to whatever thickness is required. And, by plaiting in extra lengths as you go, make as long a piece as you need. Like dandelions and plantains, nettles are incedible plants, mostly undervalued or misconstrued by many.🤔
@@Gruntphuttock That sounds interesting, I will have to give it a try! I agree with you, they are certainly overlooked for sure!
There are certainly a variety of nettles here - I picked some in England the other day that look very similar to the ones in the video. I think you just have to keep an eye out for them (and be lucky!)
@@AlexandraBurkhart I harvested the seeds from the female Nettle flowers a couple of weeks ago. Dried them out and sifted them through a sieve. Ended up with a large Douwe Egberts coffee jar full of these very fine green seeds. Sprinkle them in sandwiches, on stews, in smoothies and on virtually any other meal, including protein shakes. I'm still waking up in the mornings so can't be all bad..... 🙄
She's pretty with cute lil lips. 🤭🌲
A fancier bracelet has ne'er been cordaged.
I bet nettle and garlic pizza would be decent.
that sounds like it would be really good!
great information, I did have to speed it up 1.5 though as you Americans talk sooo slow ☺
thank you! I am new to making videos so I will take that feedback for future videos :)
that lovely young Lady was perfect for me. god bless you my dear blessings from uk.
Sounds Ike she was “processing” some natural hemp before she started on the nettles.
@@bwghall1 thank you kindly!
@@AlexandraBurkhart I was thinking how much I enjoyed your cadence and accent actually - so don't change too much!
My mate Bleddyn told me when I was 16 that he’d give me a fiver if I went over there and intentionally stung my Willy on those nettles. I took the challenge. It wasn’t nice. I’m 51 now. Still no fiver.