At our monthly W.I. meeting today we had a young woman speaker named Faye Jones who was quite humorous & who really new her subject 'The wonderful world of nettles'. The first picture showed a caution sign 'Nettles may sting'! There are two native nettles Urtica urens & Urtica dioica both favoured by butterflies, especially the admiral . Nettles are useful plants ie general tonic, making tea, the top is edible & many more uses.
Nettles are often underappreciated and much maligned but their many uses and merits will surprise you - from their wide variety of associated invertebrate life and why dock leaves are useless, to their first recorded use in prehistory and into the modern-day kitchen. And what exactly does happen to nettle tea when you put lemon juice in it?
She finished off by showing us a poem about nettles by John Clare. Do give us a try if you feel like some good company with plenty of laughs, a cup of tea & biscuits. Our meetings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 2.30 pm in Ditchingham village hall.
Our next meeting on July 12th is Joyce Kimber - Code - Ciphers and Enigma.
Pam Lack
Blog Editor.
