Nettle tea

Nettle tea is never going to form the taste sensation of the tea collection (ok, so I'm being kind), but nettles are meant to be very good for you and have lots of surprising uses... like making fishing nets, and dye. How do I know this? I'm one of probably very few people who have purchased '101 Uses for Stinging Nettles' by Piers Warren. :-)

Anyway back to nettle tea... I started drinking this tea as it is reputed to help with hayfever, which I've suffered with quite heavily in the last few years. Also known as Urtica dioica to the Latin-educated few, it's supposed to have quite a few other uses such as: iron-deficiency anaemia, gout, stimulating the kidneys, detoxifying the blood, preventing hair loss and more! According to Hilda Leyel

No plant is more useful in domestic medicine

And besides that, it's growing everywhere and freely available (but for a few stings here and there). I was just out walking and spotted that the nettles are coming up now, so picked a few stems to make tea with - which I'm sipping now. It has a healthy sort of feel to it. 

I've also recently used nettles (dried) in shampoo and last year in a very tasty cordial.

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