Friends of Nettle (Herbal Formulas In Pairs)

Boston’s homegrown local herb conference, Herbstalk, is next weekend, and the plant of the year is stinging nettle! In honor of this, we wanted to make an episode focusing on this keystone plant. In this episode we share some of our favorite ways to make simple nettle herbal formulas, starting by pairing it with a single other herb to make a tasty tea.

Nettle has a number of important medicinal effects. It’s a nutritive, a diuretic, an anti-inflammatory, and so much more. Pairing it with other herbs is a way to emphasize specific aspects of its medicine. For instance, nettle and rosehips are each nourishing herbs, and when taken together they cover more bases than either one could do alone. This is one of the basic goals of herbal formulation: to selectively enhance a particular facet of the herbs’ activity.

Other times, the goal in herbal formulation is a matter of counterbalance. Nettle is a very drying herb, and for some constitutions it’s not a good match. But what if you still want its nutritive and kidney-supportive benefits? Well, pair it with linden or cinnamon! This kind of formulation intent is also very common, and again, it’s best to start with a simple pair to experience and understand this strategy.

Herbs discussed include nettle, tulsi, ginger, linden, rosehips, cinnamon, & calendula.

Want to learn more?
If this episode makes you want to learn even more about the wonders of nettle, you’re in luck – we’ve put together a mini-course All About Nettles! This course includes more than an hour of video content about how to work with Nettles, three different ways to make nourishing infusions of Nettles, and a close-up video herb walk that shows you each phase of Nettle’s growth so that you can identify it in the wild. There are printable quick guides, recipes, reference articles, and audio files so you can listen & learn on the go! This mini-course is only $10, so get it now to get yourself in the spirit and ready for Herbstalk 2019!