My arms sting!

Soooo many nettles. Already a week has passed. Weather, work, life has kept me from my new baby.
I guess I could have found time in between the downpours, but I wanted to share this experience with someone. Who better than my man and helpmate; Hudge. Time to test his husbandry skills. Get him to grow as well as cook. As luck would have it, he returned from work early last night and there was a break in the clouds, so off to the allotment we went.
The weeds and nettles awaited. In the intervening time they had grown to triffid proportions. We were not daunted. We stoically set to work.
We found; a rake; a hose; lots of netting; old plastic milk cartons; and rotted down plastic sacks. And that was only in the small portion that we cleared.
We were thanking the rain. The ground was so soft that the spiteful things pulled out easily, roots and all. The giant thistles followed them. The piles grew. Eric had said to leave them to frazzle in the sun then pop them on the compost heap. but I have my doubts... the compost heap seems to be a source of the nettles it's self. I am going to come back with the car and a tarp' and haul the lot off to the dump.
Knackered and hungry we decided to stop for the night.
Our slow amble back enabled Hudge to photograph all the scarecrows we saw. We had a short stop for a chat with another evening gardener. He was a source of information about broad beans; They are growing on the plot and we don't know how to cook them, they are not something we buy at Sainsburys. He kindly answered my questions, and now I know. You take them out of their pods and cook like peas. Pick them early, they are small and sweet, leave them to long, hard and bitter.
Home at last and our arms were red and stinging. We slathered on the antihistamine cream and waited for modern science to relieve our pain.
Hudge's Photos