I'll Be Nice to Nettles if Nettles be Nice to Me

Apparently it's Be Nice to Nettles Week here in the UK and I have juct been at the notment manhandling some of my own. Not that I really claim to own the nettles but I am allowed at the moment to interfere with them if I want to. They sting! I am quite used to it from working on this plot and today I decided to see if the adage was true that if you grab them quick they dont sting.

Also today Chris tells me on Facebook that he used to EAT them - raw - and that it doesnt sting either. And last week there were two kids at the art club and they said they ate the nettles raw and it didnt sting.

All this not stinging...its almost as if the whole thing was just a myth spread around to turn people against nettles, and now there is a Be Nice week to restore the soured relationship between the two species, and get us all to realise that actually nettles are really nice.

But let me tell you, they DO sting, even when you grab them, and I will be nice to them when they are nice to me!

Have you got a nettle experience to share? Do they sting you??

DISCLAIMER I can't quite say 'no nettles were harmed in the making of this post' but actually I am very nice to the nettles in my care and let lots of them stay where they are with only occasional shoves when they are completely smothering my rocket or fennel or what not. I even wrote a Pamphlet about them. Although I do eat them (cooked) and I suppose they would consider that not to be very nice of me at all.

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