The message
from "Brian" contains these words:

Young nettles taste similar to spinach.

My Granny used to feed us cooked young nettletops every spring; they
contain iron and were a traditional rural spring "cleanser", for which
read vermifuge. She used to pick the tops with a firm grasp of her bare
hands, and didn't get stung. Writing this I can still remember the smell
of the fresh nettles on her hands. She said nettles old enough to sting,
were too old and tough to eat.

An old friend of mine still makes and eats a recipe for "Spring
Pudding", from Cumbria, which iirc contains young nettle tips, sheep
sorrel, and some other wild herb I've forgotten. I made it once, but
Granny's nettles are preferable :-)

They do need a good rich
soil to thrive. I always knew they had been used for their fibres but was
surprised to hear on the television this week that 1st World war knapsacks
were made from these fibres.

Last time I went to a farm show on the mainland, the WRI had the usual
demos of spun, woven and knitted wool and hair (everything from sheep to
rabbits cats and a dog), and woven fabric made from nettles. Nettle
fabric is much like linen made from flax, and the process is similar.

Janet.