Dried nettles: methods of harvesting for the winter - how to dry nettles at home

When and how to collect nettles

Nettle harvesting should begin in early spring - early May, and end in mid-July. The most useful for culinary and medicinal purposes are the shoots and leaves collected in May.

Sergey Appolonov in his video will talk about the May harvesting of nettles

Older plants with a rigid stem can be harvested for pet food. The main thing is to have time to stock up on nettles before they bloom.

Plants suitable for harvesting have a uniform color. The leaves are clean, smooth and not shrouded in cobwebs.

You should start collecting in dry, sunny weather, armed with scissors or pruners. To protect the body from the painful “burns” of nettles, clothing should be made of dense material.Long sleeves and gloves will make picking greens more comfortable.

For drying, you can collect individual leaves or cut off the green part along with the stem. May nettles are dried in twigs, since the shoots of such nettles are still very tender.

Watch a video from the “Foretellers of the World” channel about the benefits and use of nettles

Methods for drying nettles

On air

This method provides several options:

• Nettle leaves or twigs can be laid out in one layer on a piece of fabric. The workpiece is placed under a well-ventilated canopy, in the shade. Periodically, the grass is turned over and turned over.

• Nettle branches are tied into small bunches and tied with leaves down. You can dry nettles in bunches in the attic or barn, the main thing is that the place is well ventilated and dark.

Natural drying time depends on weather conditions. On average it takes 2-3 weeks.

Watch the video from Valentina Prokudina - Nettle. Vitamins for chickens

In the Russian oven

Place the green mass in a warm Russian oven and, stirring occasionally, wait until it dries completely. At the same time, the surface should not be very hot. To check, place a piece of paper in the oven; if it does not char, then the temperature is optimal for drying.

In the oven

If there is no suitable place for drying nettles, then you can use the oven. Drying temperature should be no more than 45 degrees. This condition is mandatory, since at elevated temperatures a large number of essential oils and nutrients decompose.

Also, when drying in an oven, you need to ensure proper ventilation of the product. To do this, keep the cabinet door ajar.

After the first 2 hours, the nettle leaves or twigs are removed from the oven and turned over.After this, the greens are again sent to dry until fully prepared.

In an electric dryer

The grates are evenly filled with greens. If your electric dryer does not have a special mode for drying herbs, then the heating temperature is set manually at 40 - 45 degrees. The dryer trays need to be swapped every 1.5 hours. The preparation time of the product depends on the form in which the greens are used. Leaves without stems dry in about 4 hours, but whole branches will take 8 to 10 hours.

In a convection oven

You can dry nettles in an air fryer. To do this, set the temperature to 45 degrees and maximum airflow. To ensure that fresh air is constantly supplied to the greenery, the lid of the unit is not tightly closed. Drying time – 40 – 60 minutes.

Rules for storing dried nettles

Well-dried nettle leaves, when crushed, break and turn into powder, and the branches become hard and brittle.

For food and medicinal purposes, the leaves are lightly crushed and placed in clean, dry, dark glass jars with a lid. You can also store the herb in canvas bags in a suspended state so that the contents inside the bag are well ventilated.

To feed domestic animals (chickens, ornamental chinchillas), nettle branches are stored in bunches in a dark, dry place.

The shelf life of dry nettle is 1 – 1.5 years. The longer a product is stored, the lower its content of nutrients.