Texas Heat!

[jinman]

It's so hot and dry here, I'm afraid my bull nettles may be dying!!
I'm kidding. But, for those who don't know what a bull nettle is: Cnidoscolus texanus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's funny!:laughing: Last week my wife and I were driving down the highway and commenting about how dry everything is. I asked her if she knew what the very green plants were in the fields with all the white blooms. She didn't really know because she didn't get a good look at them, but I immediately recognized bull nettles.

Have you ever eaten bull nettle seed kernels? They are delicious and bigger than sunflower seeds. You pick the dried seed pod and then break off the needles. Open the individual seeds (3 per pod) and remove a hard skin on the seeds. It's a little work, but if I was hungry and didn't have food, I'd be feasting on bull nettle seeds. YUM!

 

[Bird]

I haven't been stung by bull nettles since I was a kid, but you guys made me look back at an old log and on 6/17/93, I was doing a gas leakage survey at Sayre, PA, and had to walk through a big patch of them going down to the Susquehanna River. I was wearing blue jeans and they didn't bother me, but the gas company guy who was with me was wearing thinner uniform slacks and they got him good. I felt sorry for him. I don't know if the nettles there were the same as our Texas bull nettles, but the effect was the same. I think there's a little difference and the ones up north may be called "stinging nettles."

 

[Bigfoot62]

I haven't been stung by bull nettles since I was a kid, but you guys made me look back . . .

Can't speak for Jim, but I'm glad to be of service to you. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, just knowing that I made an old codger's brain function, even if only for a few seconds. :laughing:

Sorry, I just can't help myself. I was born a smart-alec!

 

[Bigfoot62]

. . . Have you ever eaten bull nettle seed kernels? They are delicious and bigger than sunflower seeds. You pick the dried seed pod and then break off the needles. Open the individual seeds (3 per pod) and remove a hard skin on the seeds. It's a little work, but if I was hungry and didn't have food, I'd be feasting on bull nettle seeds. YUM!

Yep, we used to do it all the time. Just put on a pair of leather gloves and get after it. Alternately, you can take a propane torch and singe the nettles for a few seconds. That also has the effect of almost toasting the nuts. Makes 'em taste better. :licking:

BTW, you and Bird are aware of the standard "treatment" for bull nettle stings?

 

[Bird]

Even us old codgers learn something every once in a while. I never heard of eating the seeds.:laughing: But fortunatly, it's been so long since I was stung by the bull nettles that I've forgotten what cure there was besides time.

 

[Bigfoot62]

. . . But fortunatly, it's been so long since I was stung by the bull nettles that I've forgotten what cure there was besides time.

Urinate on the affected area. The ammonia in the urine kills the sting. I'm not kidding.

 

[Bird]

so Bird ----where's that son? ....my wife right now is at her Dad's doing weekly house duties...guess that will be on us now that her Mom passed. Her brother's no help.

Mike, my wife keeps up with all the neighborhood news better than I do. She just told me our neighbor's son had a heart attack 3 or 4 months ago, and that they have a son in Iraq in the military, and their daughter-in-law and grandbaby living with them.

I do know that, even though they live right here in town, they have a half dozen hens, Rhode Island Reds, I think, and he's mentioned his garden about burned up except for the okra. They've brought me a few dozen eggs and they're very good eggs, but when I buy eggs, I buy the "Jumbo" eggs, so the brown eggs they bring me sure seem small.:laughing: But of course that's OK, too.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Urinate on the affected area. The ammonia in the urine kills the sting. I'm not kidding.

The juice of a dock stem will also ease the sting.

 

[NativeSon]

Urinate on the affected area. The ammonia in the urine kills the sting. I'm not kidding.

That's the cure my half-Cherokee Grandmother used on us when we got hung up in the bull nettles. Works on bee stings too.

Charlie

 

[txdon]

It's so hot and dry here, I'm afraid my bull nettles may be dying!!
I'm kidding.

I'm not kidding, Ive lost 80% of my nettle crop. Here is what they look like now.