Spring fever--just want to do spring stuff....

Just haven't felt as much like blogging lately. Spring makes me feel like I should be doing spring cleaning, making plans for the urban farm, you know, spring stuff. I mowed the lawn for the first time this year, and weeded out a patch of my least favorite recurring perennial nuisance plant:



Nettles! Stinging nettles to be even more precise. I have no love for these weeds. Oh, I know the nettle is a useful, even nutritious plant, and can be used for soups and teas, and may have worthwhile anti-inflammatory properties. It should be right at home in an urban farm where we love our dandelions and eat them with the basil and cherry tomatoes we grow intentionally.

But I can't stand them.

I hate picking them. They have tenacious roots, and milky stems that snap right off in your fingers. Also, even with rugged canvas gardening gloves with rubberized palms, I still manage to get "prickles" right through the fabric. (This should surprise no one; I manage to prick myself washing supposedly "de-needled" cactus pears from the supermarket!) And I have skin that is terribly sensitive to nettle stings--I always take a Claritin before going weeding so I don't get scary welts on my wrists.

Also, while I'm usually adventurous about eating things I find in my lawn (that is not a comforting sentence, somehow....) such as wild strawberries, the aforementioned dandelion greens, cowslips, and clover, I can't get past my feelings about nettles. I should want to eat them, but....I just think they're gross! They have the tenacity of dandelions, combined with the visual appeal of ragweed and the charm of a colony of fire ants. I've read recipes for nettle soup that advise it tastes a little like spinach--why wouldn't I use spinach, or even collards, that won't actually physically hurt me when I wash them, then?

Anyway, I yanked out half of the plants by the root and snapped the other half off very close to the ground. If they hydra-like come back nine-fold, maybe I really will try and see how they do boiled with potatoes and bacon.

In other news, I've spotted my first figs and little baby grapes! I'm kvelling! Also, my lemon balm and sage and oregano have come back--but I'll have to plant new parsley. I don't think I'll plant stevia again....it grows a treat, but I couldn't find a way to really use it. It tasted really sweet when chewing the leaves, if "vegetal". But I never could harness it in tea or even by drying. I'll stick with what I know, for now.