Nutty for nettles

We decided to spend a little time in the woods this weekend, not doing much but the nettles are quite large at the minute so I thought I'd gather some for a future cordage project

We set up a very simple camp, with just enough kit to make us comfortable

I then found a nice nettle bed, some of these being 5 feet tall!! I do think however that some of these are still a little green and I normally use them when the leaves are dying and the stems are purple, still if you don't try then you don't know!

Cut and ready to process

Then stripped of all their leaves

Then a couple of hours stripping the fibre produced lots of potential cordage material, I was a bit worried as it's still slightly early to be harvesting them but the fiber did seem to separate very well, we will see how it goes. It just needs to dry without becoming brittle (fingers crossed) then it's cordage time!! And there's loads more for more attempts later on in the year.