Do you meddle with stinging nettle?

While my family and I were picking blackberries this evening, my arm brushed  against some stinging nettle and Ouch! It wasn't a large area but enough for me to call it quits so I could take care of my stinging arm. Now, I have never encountered stinging nettle. I had only ever seen pictures and not since I was a child but, I knew what it was that had caused my arm to sting. At home, I gently washed it and put some camphor on it. That didn't work very well so I looked stinging nettle up on the internet. Wonder of wonders one of the things it said I could treat it with was baking soda. Baking soda is an amazing thing and I could go on forever about it, but, I will save that for another post. I applied a fancy little baking soda paste on my arm and not only did the pain stop almost immediately, the baking soda also eliminated most of the swelling and redness within a 1/2 hour!

While I was looking around for remedies for my stinging arm, I also came across useful things you can do with stinging nettle. There are So many. For starters, did you know you can eat stinging nettle? You probably did, but I had no idea. soaking it or cooking it will remove the stinging chemical and it tastes similar to spinach and cucumber(I'm starting to like stinging nettle). There are many medical uses for stinging nettle as well. Stinging nettle can be helpful for hay fever, dandruff, water retention and arthritis to name a few.

Stinging nettle is an invasive plant like mint, so if you are thinking of growing it, keep a close eye on it so you don't have a stinging nettle takeover. Oh, and don't forget the long sleeves, long pants and gloves.