Tug Bunny Stinging Nettle Experiment; Part 2, Day 2

Day 2; August 23 (2017)

Temperature high: 71 ; low 51

NB: This post is the second in a series; please click here to read the first in the series.

This morning I noticed a copious amount of dew on the grass in the orchard. Naturally, my mind wandered to the subject of dew retting; perhaps it’s time to revisit my dew retting experiment?

This evening, approximately 25 hours after the Chemist and I began our wet retting experiment, we took the stalks out of their original rain water bath and immersed them into a new one. Being that the bins were too heavy to lift, we could not drain the original bin and add new water.

We noted that the rotting/ retting process had already begun, as the water was a darker color and a bit slimey. The stalks were much softer and more plyable and it was already possible to easily scratch away a bit of the stalk’s outer layer.

Above: Nettles after a 24- hour soak (still in first water bath)

The water from the first soak is being applied to my apple trees (over mulch).

It smelled a bit like rotting vegetation but only faintly; it was entirely tolerable.

On another note, I started to re- read a book I purchased long ago by Judith MacKenzie McCuin called The Intentional Spinner- A Holistic Approach to Making Yarn. It had been so long since I looked at the book that I forgot that there is a small- but extremely detailed- section on nettles (Chapter 1, “Cellulose;” subsection “Bast: The First Fibers.”

Judith MacKenzie McCuin writes that “the transition from hunter- gatherer to a more agrarian culture” most likely contributed to the increasing popularity of flax over nettle (The Intentional Spinner, 15), whereas our hunter- gatherer ancestors most likely harvested and used a good amount of nettle.

She also noted that nettle is still used in cultures in which gathering wild plants is still a part of the culture and economy.

McKenzie McCuin maintains that nettle is easy to process into “exceptionally long, strong, long- wearing threads” that are “impervious to ultraviolet light, mold, mildew, and bacteria” and, “other than iron contamination, only fire will destroy it” (The Intentional Spinner, 15; emphasis mine; follow this link to find out more about iron in well water).  

Isn’t nettle cool?

Reference:

The Intentional Spinner- A Holistic Approach to Making Yarn, MacKenzie McCuin, Judith, Interweave Press; 2009

NB: This book will fill your brain to full capacity- it will blow your mind; get it!