made my first green (actually, brown) smoothie

[Tristan]

Wow guess I didnt know a lot about smoothies! Didnt know there were special blenders for them, we just have a cheapie and also a magic bullet, but they seem to do fine.

I've heard of folks eating dandelion (I havent eaten them, unless dandelion wine counts), but I've never heard of folks eating stinging nettle... what about all the stinging compounds in it? Does it like make your mouth numb? I havent seen it around the house but hiking in the mountains I have. Or that Gundermann stuff... thats all over the yard and keeps creeping into the garden. Never knew it was edible. It certainly is odiferous.

I havent been nearly as fancy on the smoothies, I usually just put about equal parts milk, plain greek yogurt, and whatever berries I have on hand. I definitely look forward to trying some better smoothies. There is a recipe in Maffetones book too I was going to try.

 

[BFwillie_g]

no, the nettles don't sting once they're mashed up. You can also eat them raw (a really good source of minerals when you're running). The technique is to take the group of four leaves from the top, you grab them from underneath, pull up to remove them from the plant. Then you carefully fold them together, like a little package, keeping the dark green upper part of the leaves on the inside. Press the little "bon bon" really hard from all sides to mash the stingy things - mash hard enough that a little juice squeezes out, and just eat it. Tastes pretty good. Well, not disgusting anyway. The stinging things are always on the tops of the leaves.

I've run through so many nettle patches that it doesn't even bother me anymore.

Hawthorn is even better for eating during a run - it supports the heart, lowers the blood pressure, slows the pulse slightly. And you can just pick a small handful of leaves and eat them up

In the States, I think you might actually have domesticated "gundermann" (cat's paw?) that spread to the wild. It really grows like crazy and is virtually impossible to get rid of. But it's a very nice plant in itself, and healthy, too. I just don't know if the domesticated plants have the same nutrients.