So hey everybody, I am Ferrel Kevin and here we are on my balcony again in Oakland. And this time I have one of my favorite plants growing here, Stinging Netal and a variety harvested from this pot here. Two other times that looks like it’s ready to go again. You do not want to get the leaves when they are any older than this, as they can. Or when they are flowering as they can create compounds that are irritating to the kidneys and also tastes sort of gritty. So what we are going to do here is we are just going to use scissors to cut them right at the node, just like you are pruning it. Pruners would work fine but I don’t have my pruners handy, so I am just going to use scissors, so after you cut it with the scissors, you can then use the scissors like tongs and just put them in a container.
Put it in here so we could wash it off. So come down, looks like there are some aphids on there too. Make a cut on the node so the plants regenerate properly. Use the scissors as tongs; put it in the container you want. You can also this out in the field and just use a bag. So there are other ways to harvest netals by breaking it off with your hands, only touching certain parts of the leaf, by using gloves, but this just seems the easiest. As you cut it, so you do not damage the plant so…because I am intending for it to regenerate so I can harvest more netals.
Put the netals in there. And this one looks good. I hate it when it falls like that. Put that in there. I am getting quite a bit here. Oh, I will go ahead and cut that leaf off, that one looks good again, using the scissors as tongs. That top looks nice. And I tell you what, even though I… me being careful in using the scissors as tongs, I have gotten stung, several times already, probably because I am trying to film. That looks like enough, let us go wash it off and then cook it up.
So I am going to take the netals and we are going to put them in a pan with water. Netals in the pot on the stove with water, so let us turn on the heat, just cover and boil, simple as that! If you do not like the stems, cut the stems out. Just use the leaves. Do whatever you want to do. I am trying to make a gourmet dish I am just trying to cook the netals so I can eat them.
So what I am trying to show you how to do here is just the simple and most Ferrel easy way to get netals from outside into your belly. So the reason we cook netals is so that the render the sting harmless. So netals do not actually have thorns as you may have know, they have this little tiny needles that inject very painful poisons into you. And so you know, it has evolved to prevent animals from indiscriminately just straddling down on it, so but cooking destroys the stinging potential. The reason why I like to make netal soup is because when you boil the leaves, you get to eat the leaves and the soup but then the broth, you get the, a lot of nutrients too.
You just have to boil the greens and then you know scoop them out like such. And serve them like boiled greens; a lot of your nutrition will be in the water. And so, you can drink that water too. In the South, we used to call that puck licker. But the easiest thing to do is just cook a soup with fresh netals in it. And so that is what I am going to do here. So I am going to boil it out first, I am going to add some salt, some cream, and that is the most simple Netal Soup you can possibly make.
You are going to have a little sea salt, and again, you can have onion, spices and all kinds of yummy things that make this a gourmet food. And of course most people would prefer vanalese to be chopped but this is the lazy more convenient Ferrel way to do it. The netals are nicely boiled so let us just add cream. Stir it up, cream of Netal Soup.
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