A vibrant Spring tonic, fresh Nettle Juice is full of minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients. With just a few ingredients thrown in the blender, your super-nutritious green juice is ready in minutes!
How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?- Carol Hegedus
Nettle, how I love thee! This amazing plant is powerfully nutritious. Full of minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients, it fortifies the body in a myriad of ways. Nettle begins to emerge in the early spring. The first shoots are what are best to harvest. Many farmer’s markets and natural markets now offer fresh-picked nettle. Or find a nettle patch and forage from the wild.
What does nettle juice taste like?
This tonic is simple and delicious. The apple, lemon, and ginger accent this green drink. Nettle has a mild flavor similar to spinach. Fresh apple adds sweetness, fresh lemon brightens it up, and fresh ginger gives a balancing zing. And the green color is quite glorious, like drinking springtime herself! It makes me so happy!
Nettle is one of my mainstay vitamin tonics. Mostly I take it in tea form using the dried leaves.
But in the springtime, I fortify with fresh nettle and I seriously get a supercharged full-body alive feeling!
Why does Nettle Sting?
The thing about a nettle stinger: It is a very delicate tube containing a liquid acid that reacts with your skin when it brushes against you. If the nettle is frozen, fermented, dried, crushed, or cooked or even quickly dipped in hot water (this last is how many NW coastal First Nations ate them), all those tubes become non-effective.
The nettle sting is actually used as therapy for arthritis and nerve damage by intentionally brushing the plant over the skin! Personally, I have come to question the sensation on my skin… is it pain or just sensation? To me, it feels like electricity buzzing and tingling my skin. That said please take precautions when picking. Some people react more strongly to the sting than others and some nettle is much more potent. Take precautions! Use gloves and tongs. Check this out for tips on how to pick without getting stung.
How to make nettle Juice!
Rather than using a juicer, use a blender!
Simply blend and strain!
Water, ginger, apple, lemon, and nettle leaves blend for a full minute on high. Then blend in ice cubes.
Strain with a fine-mesh strainer.
Benefits of nettle juice:
Just to name a few!