Can you use fresh nettles for the nettle infusion? Also how do you dry your nettles? Oven?? I want to dry nettles but I’ve been told it might be too humid to hang them up to dry them, but doing them in the oven feels like a waste of electricity. Oh and do you leave the stems of the nettles on?
Fresh nettle infusion is basically like a nettle broth, yes you can do it, but the quality might be different. We dry the nettle because that way all of the water evaporates and the oils inside get intensified, with that it's healing abilities as well. But you can definitely make some nettle infusion with fresh nettle and try it out and tell us what it's like! All the recommendations I've seen use dry nettle so I'm sticking to that.
Nettle dries incredibly easily, I leave it on a bedsheet for 2 days and it's already dry. You can hang it dry, leave it on top of some newspapers, I never tried oven but I guess if it's not too hot it works? I think the healthiest way is to get it air-dried. When drying herbs, you don't want them drying in a direct sunlight, because the sun deteriorates their quality and makes the colors fade and yellow; ideal is a nice shady place with well air circulation. But my bedroom also does just fine; nettles are already very low in water so they dry up quickly.
I've seen people in humid places dry herbs via putting them into big paper bags, and letting the paper draw out the moisture! I've never tried it but I've heard women vouch for it. I guess it would work the same if you put it in-between some newspaper sheets. Good luck!
And yeah, I leave the stems, stems are fine for infusions. Actually, there's not much stem in my nettles, when foraging I usually just take the tips, as they're the healthiest new growth, most likely to be uncontaminated by anything. And also because of the way nettle grows, if you just take the first 3 junctures with leaves, it's going to grow 2 new tips within a week! Meaning you get unlimited nettle.
