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UPDATE August 2012: Since Amanda shared this recipe on this site, I have switched my fermenting methods. I am no longer using Mason jars for my fermenting. I am using anaerobic fermenting jars. The recipe is easily converted over by simply replacing the Mason jar with an aerobic vessel. The rest of the recipe and instructions stay the same.
This week’s post comes to us from my friend Amanda at Traditional Foods. I love Amanda’s site and she regularly inspires me to explore foods that I may have never had the courage to try. Her food profiles often give me the scientific information that I would not otherwise be motivated to find. Recently, I have been reading a lot about nettles and all the good things they do for the body, so when she said she has a fermented nettle post she wanted to share, I was thrilled! Please welcome Amanda Rose, from Traditional Foods to 52 Weeks of Bad A** Bacteria!
The land here in California has been doused with rain has begun to warm. Stinging nettle bursts from the warming soil waiting to brush unknowing hikers with their almost invisible stinging hairs.
A friend calls. “Amanda, I have nettle all over the place. Are you coming?”
I load my car with leather gloves, clippers, and boxes. I wear long
sleeves, pants, and boots and I may still return home “stung.” I am very
sensitive to the sting of the nettle which will leave a burning rash on my
skin for several days. This year I wear an extra pair of latex gloves
under the leather gloves to improve my luck.
It may seem crazy to risk days of rash to harvest a “weed,” but nettle makes a great tonic and has a long tradition in folk medicine. Germans have used nettle leaf to treat arthritis. It may even relieve hypertension, hay fever, kidney problems, some skin conditions, and pain. It was the claim that nettle treats iron deficiency anemia that got my attention.
Nettle contains a decent bit of iron — nearly 10 percent of your daily requirement in 100 grams of nettle as listed here. This is not a huge amount of iron and yet many women claim it helps improve their iron deficiency. Hearing the testimonials some years back and working on my iron website, I gave it a try. I cannot claim that it turned around a deficiency — I was not measuring. I was busy harvesting nettle with stinging hairs. I was feeling a better sense of wellness, however.
In the process, I had a thought: “If I feel better drinking nettle tea, what if I fermented the tea?”
Fermenting Nettle Improves It
Fermentation changes food and it certainly can improve iron availability. In one 2005 study, researchers fermented carrot juice and found that the soluble iron in the juice improved by up to thirty times. In that study, researchers identified mineral inhibitors in the carrots that were broken down by fermentation. Who knows what inhibitors nettle leaf do or do not contain, but fermentation is cheap and easy so I gave it a shot.
As I drank my fermented concoction, I felt that deep sense of wellness you may also feel when you find a food your body loves. I drank the tea for two days and the burning rash on my forearms became trivial.
It is this memory of fermented nettle tea that sends me to my friend’s house dressed for combat.
I visit with my friend, harvest nettle, and leave with the beginnings of a small rash on my forearm and boxes of nettle stems. At home I throw the nettle stems in a four-gallon kettle, cover them with water, bring them to a boil, turn off the heat, cover them, and let the nettle infuse the water overnight.
With dried nettle leaves, you can do something similar: Make a strong nettle tea as you would any herbal infusion. Bring the water to a boil and let it sit covered overnight. Dried nettle has the strong advantage of being a rash-free experience, but there is something special about fresh nettle if you have access.
For extra flavor, you might even add mint leaves. Nettle is fairly bland
on its own.
Once my tea is ready, I ferment it with a water kefir process. The process is simple but it requires water kefir grains, grains which I recommend you include in your fermentation arsenal anyway. For a more complex tutorial about brewing water kefir, check out 52 Weeks of Bad A** Bacteria – Week 26 – How to Make Water KefirHow to Brew Water Kefir here.
For this recipe, here are the steps:
- As with many water kefir recipes, add sugar water to your water grains and let them sit for a day. I combine about a half cup of sugar with one cup of boiling water to dissolve the sugar and then let the mixture cool before adding it to the water grains.
- Strain your sugar water from the grains after about 24 hours and set the grains aside for another project. Your sugar water is now loaded with bacteria from the grains and is ready to be added to your nettle tea.
- Proportions are forgiving in this project, but I add the sugar mixture to about a gallon of strong nettle tea in a glass jar.
- Place the glass jar in a warm (but not too warm) cubby in your house — about 65 degrees give or take. Cover the jar with a tea towel and let it ferment until it reaches an appropriate sweetness. Taste your tea regularly and if it is too sweet, simply let it sit longer.
One warning is that a very strong nettle tea will actually gel a bit when it is fermented. When this happens, I still feel great drinking it, but the texture is strange and can be a turn-off. You can always back off on your nettle concentration if this happens.
Harvest Time
In many parts of the country, stringing nettle is ready to harvest right how and will be available perhaps for about six weeks. Go forth and harvest, wearing many layers of clothes.
If you don’t have access to fresh nettles, you can buy them online from Amazon or Mountain Rose Herbs
I recommend the anaerobic fermenting systems from The Probiotic Jar.
For more information on water kefir, check out these posts:
- How to Make Water Kefir
- 52 Weeks of Bad A** Bacteria – Week 23 – Water Kefir Revisited
- Water, Water, Everywhere, and Lots of Drops to Drink!
- Water Kefir Flavor Guide – Lots of Delicious Fizzy Flavors!
About Amanda Rose
Amanda Rose is the author of Rebuild From Depression – A Nutrient Guide, and she writes at the Traditional Foods website from the heart of the Sequoia National Forest. You can also find her work on the Iron Rich Foods website. You can connect with Amanda on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Reference
S.W. Bergqvist, A.-S. Sandberg, N.-G. Carlsson, T. Andlid, 2005. “Improved iron solubility in carrot juice fermented by homo- and hetero-fermentative lactic acid bacteria.”Food Microbiology, Volume 22, Issue 1, p. 53-61.
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cool! I have never heard of water kefir. I’m going to check it out!
You don’t really say how many nettle stems you use in your four gallon kettle or whether you have stripped the stems of the leaves. Please advise. I have been battling stinging nettle in my backyard for years. Maybe it’s time to make a friend of it. Thanks for your post.
Hi Margaret – Let me shoot Amanda an email and ask her about that!
Margaret,
Get started by picking a few stems and stuffing it in a kettle. Cover them with water, bring it to a boil, and let it sit to infuse the water. I smash them into the bottom and add as much water as you need to cover them. Just throw the whole stem in there so you don’t have to fight the stingers too much. There is no specific recipe, I just like to have mine concentrated. You can add other herbs you like for better flavor.
I said “kettle,” but really do it in some sort of pan.
I just started making nettle+oat straw infusions but from dried herbs. DO you think I can ferment it? Also, why don’t you put the grains directly in the tea?
I don’t see why not – I think you can ferment almost everything! I do a lot of herbal ferments with my water kefir (during the second ferment). If you have plenty of grains, you could experiment with adding the herbs to the first ferment. The reason I don’t do it that way is because I don’t know if the herbs would hurt the actual grains during that first fermentation process and I don’t want to run the risk of losing a batch of grains and not having any to replace them with. If you have extras, it would be interesting to experiment. I might experiment with that whenever I get some extra.
Thanks for this information! The thickness in your fermentation is probably due to the high mineral content from the nettle tea; I find my kefir ferments with higher mineral content tend towards a strong yeast balance, which apparently causes the thickness. Not an expert, just what I’ve been told by those who supposedly know! I’m looking forward to trying this soon as our nettles will appear shortly.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing that tip Amie! 🙂
Awesome post!! I just harvested a wheelbarrow full of nettles and off I go to ferment 😉
Enjoy Vivica! It’s so refreshing! 🙂
Could I ferment it with a scoby, or whey, or ginger bug, I’ve not had much luck with water kefir, and don’t want to get grains just to ferment nettle.
Hi Lori – I have not tried it that way, but you probably could. Scobies do need caffeine in order to thrive, but for a single batch or two, I’m sure it would be fine. If you try it, let me know how it goes! 🙂
How long does it last??? Counter??? Fridge??
Hi Karen – It will last for several months in the fridge. True ferments last almost forever, but the alcohol content can build to a point where they don’t taste good. Once you’re done with the initial ferment, you will need to move it to cold storage. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hello Jessica,
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, I am new to making kefir, and am eager to try, with all the nettles starting to grow now that spring is here!!
I learned how to pick nettles without using gloves, and I even eat raw nettles, each time I pick I make a point of it, as a way to thank the plant. This comes from understanding the plant, that the prickly part grows on top of the leaf and on the stem, but not underneath the leaf. Therefore, by taking the time to pick carefully, I can pick nettles with my bare fingers, clipping the leaves off at the bottom with my fingers, and placing them in my basket. I find that the leaves have a better taste than the stem, and if I leave the stem, more leaves can grow for my next harvest. Also, if you roll up the nettle leaf, turning the outside of the leaf over, like rolling a yoga mat with the outside covering the inside, you can roll it up, then fold it over itself, stick it in your mouth, chew well, letting your saliva work the leaf, and then when you’re ready, swallow the leaf.
Picking with bare hands and eating raw nettle has helped me bond with the plant, and has given me much more respect for nettle, rather than going in and hacking with gloves, etc. which can be disrecpectful for the plant.
Nettle has something to teach us, if we just spend time with the plant first before picking.
I hope this is helpful, and will enhance your relationship with our friend nettle! 🙂
Hi Amy! Awesome info! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and share! 🙂
I recently made some hawthorn tea (1litre) and was going away, didn’t trust it to stay good in the fridge for 5 days, so threw in a rinsed milk kefir grain, maybe half tablespoon worth, closed the lid not tight, and hoped for the best. On returning, the hawthorn tea had that distinct fermented smell, and I have been happily partaking of it. Have recently cooked with nettle, will have to try this tea.
Hi Connie! Awesome! What a fun little experiment. So glad it turned out well. I appreciate you taking the time to come back by and share! 🙂