Nettle Syrup
You will need to head out and find some young, juicy nettles, away from spray fields & heavy traffic.
You will need some good heavy gloves to avoid getting stung and scissors also help to harvest the fresh tips, usually around 2-4 pairs of the leaves growing at the end of the stem.
Nettle syrup is both delicious packed full of medicine and pretty easy to create.
When we harvest plants for medicine we like to hold the experience as a ritual, to create an intention and offer gratitude to the spirits of the land – check out our video about mugwort smoking rites and the harvest here
We use the fortifying syrup as a base of our Energy Drops
And also in our Ladies Lovelies Drops
Nettle Syrup Recipe
You will need:
Freshly harvested nettle tips
boiling water
Sugar (unrefined brown sugar)
Tools:
Pan
Colander
Muslin
Big bowl
Measuring jug
Wooden spoon
Empty bottles – sterilised
Funnel
Labels
Recipe
- Fill your pan with freshly harvested nettle tips
- Add boiling water to the pan, not quite to cover as the nettle will wilt down pretty quick.
- Bring the water up to boil, simmer gently for 5 minutes and then leave to sit for 20 minutes in the hot water with no heat underneath.
- Strain the tea by placing a muslin in your colander over a large bowl. Tip the contents of the pan into the muslin and draw together the edges, squeezing the nettle in the cloth, releasing all the bright green goodness. You will have a really dark green and strongly scented nettle tea in the bowl.
- Wash out the pan and use the measuring just to see how much liquid you have as it goes back into the pan.
- Add 1lb of sugar per pint of nettle tea also into the pan
- Bring gently to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes until the liquid looks a little syruppy stirring continuously with a wooden spoon
- Pour the syrup backing a clean measuring pyrex jug and use the funnel to fill the sterilised bottles with the syrup.
- Label with ‘Nettle Syrup’, where you harvested them, the date and when cool keep in the fridge
- Enjoy with pancakes, ice-cream, straight off the spoon or as part of a herbal mix.
For more seasonal recipes and tips please check out the Sensory Herbal Handbook
