During the winter, my pants seem to have shrunk. To lose some of the long nights hibernation fat, I am eating less. It's a wild idea I thought I'd try.
My elderly farmer neighbor years ago extolled the taste of spring nettle greens. It sounded a little scary to me, to actually put something in my mouth that caused blisters on the skin. Well, this spring I got brave and tried some.
Cutting the greens with scissors, while wearing gloves (I'm not all that brave) I then checked online to see if this really was a sensible thing to do. Imagining it would require sixteen changes of water, I was relieved to see that the painful parts of stinging nettles disappear after a mere thirty seconds in boiling water.
They turned out to be not only tasty, but a fabulous way to lose weight. Right away, I could feel my pants getting looser. That was last week.
Just knowing that I had access to that miracle diet food cheered me immensely. I thought about its slimming effects as I cut firewood with the chain saw. It was in the back of my mind as I pulled the little wagon loads through the woods, then loaded the wood into Rosie's cart, down on the river bottom, and as I unloaded it after finding I had a flat tire. Ditto for when I hauled the chain saw back up the steep hill in the little wagon. Then, too, I was grateful for it when I planted the strawberries, which won't bear for a year. As I ran Tillie in the garden and planted the early veggies, which would take weeks to be ready for eating, I was content, knowing the nettles were available without delay. I admired the nettles for their perfect properties as I dug up plants to exchange with Izzy. I ruminated on their life-giving goodness as I planted my gift grasses and shrubs. Hacking out several years' growth of irises, carrying them in buckets to the big compost heap, I revered the slimming nettles,
not available in stores.
This afternoon, while down on the river bottoms, looking for early morel mushrooms, I spied more of the nettles. Hiking back up to the house, I armed myself with the gloves and scissors and a big bowl.
It was the third time today that I climbed the steep hill from the river. It was worth it, for such great diet fare, and free, too.
Unfortunately, today's greens were a little more furry and the stems were not as tender. So that may be it for this season's diet delight.
Next on the woodland menu are the morels, which taste best fried and served with beer.
