Jane Gray, known as the Nettle Lady, shared her journey from Brighton to Cornwall, highlighting her transformation from a stay-at-home mother to a university graduate and nettle weaver.
She discussed her challenges, including a tumour diagnosis and the loss of her great friend, Howard.
Jane emphasised the health and sustainability benefits of nettles, including their use in textiles and teas. She founded Nettle Revolution, promoting natural fibres and sustainable practices.
Jane also mentioned her involvement in the Golden Zones project and her son's gratitude journaling app, which has positively impacted her outlook.
She advocates for using nettles for their numerous health and environmental benefits.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Jane Gray, known as the nettle lady, is
a visionary, an artist, weaver, and
founder of the nettle
revolution. What if the weed stinging
your ankles on a country walk could
clothe your back, heal your gut, and
change your perspective on aging, grief,
(00:22):
and the planet. Her work with Nettles
brought her national recognition,
including a
Theopathus Small Business Sunday Award,
but it's her gentle approach to healing,
creativity, and sustainability that
really stands
out. This conversation will take us from
grief to growth, sting to strength, and
(00:46):
show how nature can shape us if we let
it. Hi, I'm Curly Steve and we're
searching for a greener room.
Hi Jane, welcome to the show. Hi Curly.
(01:06):
Nice to see you. So, thank you so much
for coming in. Um, let's rewind. Let's
start at the very beginning. Tell me a
little bit about your uh where did you
come from? What was your journey? Oh my
goodness, Curly. Thanks for having me.
This is just such a a privilege and I'm
really excited to be here. I
um started 66 years ago actually in
(01:29):
Brighton and uh my parents were about 20
when um they had me and um my father was
a little bit concerned at the time. He
was a signw writer. So he um took us all
to Manchester to make some money and um
um that's where my life began. And um I
(01:49):
grew up in Manchester. Um have a little
bit of a northern twang in my accent.
And then eventually my father having
made some money wanted to live back by
the sea but didn't go back to Brighton.
He came to Cornwall. And by then I was
married and I had four
children. And um I had a fabulous time
(02:11):
being a mother, stay-at-home mother. And
uh initially we lived um in St Ives
um top of St Ives on a farm that my
father bought and I lived in a caravan
and surrounded uh by fields and we had
so many different animals and we grew
(02:32):
our own veg and I think that's my first
immersion into nature was in Stant Ives
on the farm with the wind swirling
around and all those animals and my kids
loved it. What an amazing place to grow
up. I mean, being in Cornwall as a as a
youth is is such a a pleasure, isn't it?
(02:52):
Yeah. Yeah. Such a natural place to be.
Awesome. So, tell what happened from
there. Well, living in a caravan wasn't
my ideal situation because literally the
caravan was put in a field and it had
no facilities, no
electricity. I had no washing machine.
We didn't have running water. Uh we
(03:14):
didn't have lights. We had those mantels
that you lit. Yeah. And um gas the
little gas lamps. It was all very very
simple which my husband loved. Okay. But
for me with two children initially in uh
the first second one was in nappies and
I had territorial in nappies. I wasn't I
(03:35):
was struggling without a washing
machine. So I did start saying please
can we get a house which wasn't very
viable at the time because he was still
trying to build a business to enable us
to have the funds to buy a house.
Eventually that happened and we moved to
Hail where there was a bit more space
for us and more affordable at the time
(03:55):
into a house into a house. Okay, cool.
Yeah. So um yeah, my children went to
school in Hail and I had two more
children and uh I eventually then moved
to Upton Towers nearer to the beach and
I can walk every day straight out to the
beach and it's just fabulous. A
(04:15):
beautiful area there. Yeah. Wonderful.
So um forward on a few years there and
uh you decided to uh well tell me the
story of um what got you to uh to
university.
Ah
so a few lifech
(04:35):
changing situations occurred. One of
them was me deciding I had a voice uh or
well I wanted one. Um, and having been a
stay-at-home mother for
uh, well, up till 2000, I don't know how
(04:55):
old I was then. I'm trying to work it
out.
Um, I had been, well, a mom. Mhm. It's a
fabulous job. I, you know, recommend it
to everybody, but, um, I didn't go to
work at that time. I wanted to give my
children my full attention and um and
also my background history of the way I
(05:18):
was raised
um was a kind of different kind of life
that I found or felt I needed to move on
from. So it was a religious background
and
um I just
felt I needed to grow and living the
(05:40):
life that I was raised in and I'd
married into I couldn't do that. It it
just wasn't feeling it wasn't sitting
right with me.
um I started feeling depressed in that
situation and I didn't want to live a
life where
um I was stuck. So unfortunately I
(06:02):
decided to leave that religion which
meant I got divorced and that kind of
changed a lot of things especially for
the children. It was a a period of deep
reflection and um I was I went I went to
work for Barclay's Bank. I did a period
working for Barclay's Bank. I didn't
(06:23):
know I was dyslexic sick then. So that
was fun. Mhm. Um I didn't lose money. So
this was sorry just was this after
divorce or before divorce that you
started working with after. So I got
divorced around 2000 and then about 2003
I was working for Barclays. And this is
when you started feeling that you found
(06:43):
your voice. This is me looking for my
voice. Okay. I was searching for my
voice. So So just uh we we won't dwell
on it, but the the religion was one that
uh the the female side is is kept
relatively quiet.
(07:03):
The female side is kept in its place.
Right. Okay.
So yeah, my my um relationship with my
husband was um I would prov he would uh
provide for the meals and I would make
(07:25):
the meals and uh I used to cook whole
who wholesomely. So I would be baking
and making cake and putting lovely meals
on the table every day and I would be
looking after him and um he would just
go to work. Well, not just but he would
go to work and that was how it was. So
(07:45):
where where was your creativity at this
stage? Were you able I was a knitter. Oh
yeah, I um made things constantly. Um I
was a huge knitter. Clothes and stuff or
Yeah, I knitted everything. I I would
knit the children's school uniforms. I
would knit my clothes. Um I would make
um dresses for myself. Um I didn't
(08:07):
attempt to make boys trousers because
they put the knees out too quickly and I
would spend ages making them and they
would wreck them. So that that didn't
happen. Um at that time money was quite
hard. Um money was quite hard to come by
and my husband was a window cleaner. So,
I would get up at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday
(08:28):
mornings and be down the car boots
looking for um clothing for my children.
And we used to ek out the pennies that
way. Yeah. And um I lived a frugal life
on the farm
and on the farm without the uh
facilities to you have a washing
(08:49):
machine, handwashing in literally
um uh old baths that were put there in
the field for the animals to drink from.
I would be there washing my hair
sometimes or um washing out the nappers
and then and that's tough with with the
old Terry nappies, isn't it? very tough
especially in the winter. Yeah, I did
have enough of it. I did I I did get to
(09:12):
the point of breaking point and I said
to my husband, you
know, we need a house. Yeah. So, so fast
forward back to um uh to you got
divorced. You started finding I I needed
to earn money. Yeah. So, I I didn't know
who she was at the time. Um this this
(09:35):
lady. So I um I was just taking jobs
that I could um you know apply for and
that was local. So I um first of all
work for bar clays but all the time I at
that time because I started this new uh
path of looking for who I was. I started
(09:57):
attending um evening courses um at
Penworth College and I learned to become
a masseuse. Um I did teacher training
whilst I was working and after the
Barclay's bank
um that didn't really work out having
found out I was dyslexic. They put me
(10:17):
through you know the program so it was
official. Um I um I went into care work.
So I worked for a number of companies
but MENAP was the main one. And
um obviously I empathize with people.
I'm a people person. I love working with
(10:38):
people. Um but I I knew I didn't want to
stay
uh as a carer. And at that time, MENAP
was going through a difficult period in
the department I was working and it made
me quite ill.
So I ended up feeling some paralysis
(11:00):
down my left side and I was having
blurred vision and headaches and went to
the
doctors and uh they said I had a tumor
so on my brain just under the brain and
a dear friend at that time said to me
look don't go back to MENAP when you're
(11:22):
come through this operation.
let's find you an art gallery that
you've always
wanted.
So he was uh very kindly um encouraging
me because obviously I was quite
frightened. A tumor on the brain you
start thinking all sorts and also they
did mention the C word. So they didn't
(11:42):
know what it was until they till the day
that they um opened things up and had a
look.
Fortunately, all went well and it was
keyhole surgery up through my nose and
after that
um Howard did keep his promise and while
I was
(12:04):
recuperating from and having some time
off work to um recover from the bleed
that was going on after the operation,
um we went to St Ives and we looked
around and we found a beautiful venue
for me to have as a
gallery. And I didn't really know what I
(12:26):
was going to be doing in this place, but
I was already making textile pictures
from
um pieces of fabric that would have
ended up in landfill. So, I was already
um starting to look at
sustainability and how I might promote
(12:46):
it. And in 2008 my first grandchild was
born. So that was quite significant
because I felt I needed to start leading
the way and setting setting an example
in this field of sustainability.
Excellent. So just um can you tell us
who Howard is? Howard was a lovely
(13:08):
gentleman who was reaching
retirement and he was a lecturer at
Halum University and he moved to
Cornwall to
retire and he was working on various
projects in hail one one of them was
save our sands and he worked for um as a
volunteer for different departments and
(13:30):
that's where I met him and you became
great friends. we became friends. Um we
started going to the Minak Theater for
picnics and watching shows and just um
hanging out. And um he said to me that
he was looking forward to his
pension and he told me how much he'd
(13:53):
accumulated and it was a substantial
amount.
and he joked with me saying, "Well, if
you married me and anything ever
happened to me, you know, you'd inherit
my pension because um the way it works,
pensions die with the person if they're
single." So, I just
giggled. And uh we set up this lovely
business in St Ives and he would sit in
(14:16):
the gallery and sell my work and I would
be at home making it. Amazing. So at
that
time chickens came into my life. Okay.
So chickens was my first point of
making. Um they inspired me to create
these pictures of
(14:37):
chickens. And the first two chickens
that came into my life were because on
an estate near where I was living,
um, people had moved and left these
chickens in the back garden. And my
daughter knew I was quite keen on having
chickens and her f and my daughter's
friend had said, "Tell your mom that
(14:58):
these chickens will pass away because
there's nobody caring for them." So,
they needed rescuing. Go rescue them.
And those chickens rescued me right
back.
That's brilliant. I love that. Yeah,
they did. They were so Well, after we
settled them into their new home, I had
quickly had to have a home built for
them. Um, they had the free range of my
(15:20):
garden. They became so humorous. They
became so loving. They were they were so
funny. They'd be hopping around chasing
flies and doing all sorts of funny
little antics and, you know, dusting
themselves. They chickens love to be
clean. and they created a little hollow
in my lawn, but you know, I'll let them
keep it. And um they would be dusting
(15:42):
their feathers. And so my research
started around
uh what do chickens need? And you know
um it led me it led me into the area
which became very sad which
was how chickens are kept for industrial
(16:04):
purposes. So I went down that rabbit
hole quite deeply and
became aware
of the adaptations or modifying of
chickens in the very early embryionic
stage or before that even how they
(16:27):
um create chickens to put on more flesh
for meat and how these poor chickens
grow very rapidly. ly putting on the
meat and then they can't hold their
weight and then they fall over in the
barns and they get ulcerated bodies and
other chickens peck them because they
become vulnerable and all these kind of
(16:47):
things started affecting me and I I was
getting rather sad about what I was
seeing and so my chickens became even um
more relevant
because I wanted
to get a message out to the public that
(17:09):
chickens are sentient beings. They have
feelings. They know their uh GPS
position on the planet. They're
intelligent. They have a hierarchy.
Um, and and so by getting that message
out, I wanted people to think if they're
going to eat
(17:30):
chicken and enjoy it, please give thanks
for the life of that chicken that
produced it, don't just go down to those
big places that produce a lot of chicken
and sell it cheaply and enjoy that um
quick fast food without appreciating the
life and maybe some trauma that that
(17:53):
chicken had to go through to produce
that meat for you. Plus the way they
farm get the chickens um producing eggs.
It was cruel back in the day confining
them to small cages. I think it still is
now to to an extent, isn't it?
But yeah, they they they try to change
(18:13):
legislation.
There's periods of my time when I was
you doing all this work that I used to
keep an eye on all that. Um
so moving on to uh to nettles. Yes. Um
you've made us a lovely uh cup of tea of
(18:34):
of nettle tea today. Yeah. Enjoy. And
it's nettles mints. So, I love nettles
as nettles is, but when I make my cups
of tea to encourage other people to
start drinking nettles, I suggest um
putting a little bit of mint in because
people are familiar with mint. So, um
(18:55):
something they recognize, but at the
back, the undertone of the mint is the
nettles with with its huge benefits. And
I So, before we go any further, that
that is super fresh. It's tasty. It's
It's a really nice cup of tea. I've
never had nettle tea before. Oh,
wonderful. Um, so that's really special.
(19:16):
What What about the the tea nettle tea
that you can buy sort of off the shelf?
Obviously, it's not as fresh, but is
that still Yeah. So, Clipper Clipper do
a very nice organic nettle tea in a tea
bag. Um, I
recommend having nettles whichever way
you can choose to have it. So obviously
(19:39):
in some places where nettles are not
growing freely and you can't just go and
pick them city areas you know if you can
purchase nettle um dry nettle you can
buy it in loose like you would buy loose
tea you can buy dried nettle um you can
buy it in a tea bag form but best of all
(20:00):
is going out picking it yourself and you
know it immerses you in the nature and
you can learn so much by just looking
where the nettles is growing. So let's
let's go to where your nettle journey
came from because this is fascinating.
You went to university at the age of
late 50s. Late 50s and you went to
(20:23):
Felmouth University. I did. And let's
let's let's go with that journey. Okay.
So just picking up from the chickens. So
I was creating all this wonderful work.
I thought it was wonderful, but it must
have been because it was selling. So,
um, a lady in Birmingham actually, she
filled her whole solicitor's office with
(20:45):
all my work. She invited me to go there.
It was literally walls like this, just
full of my work. She would purchase it.
What was this? This was artwork. This
was all the sustainable textiles. I
would stitch the pictures of chickens. I
would have a sewing machine and because
my eyes are not brilliant, I would do a
zigzag stitch um rather than a running
(21:06):
stitch. So these pictures became very
lively, very flamboyant and these
chickens used to get up to all sorts. I
I would I would create their legs and
you know they would be doing all sorts
and they became pictures with telling
stories within the pictures and
um at that point of of having a couple
of years of success with the chickens my
(21:28):
friend passed away. Ah this your friend
Howard? Yeah my friend Howard right it
was very unexpected and he hadn't even
drawn his first pension. Um, and it was
tragic and it just took the wind right
out of my sales. My business was gone.
Howard was gone and I was lost again. I
(21:49):
was just picking up at that point. This
was 2015. So, I'd had 15 years of
creating Jane and getting this funky,
fun,
lively person going. you know, I was
just getting somewhere
and and and looking to the future to
(22:10):
have a financial some financial
stability when um we no longer had
Howard and I just was taken back so
abruptly that um the grief and the shock
I just didn't know what to do with
myself and
so obviously I didn't want to go back to
(22:31):
where I had been with working for
um somebody else because I was now um
entrepreneurial, you know, I was I I was
keen to create. Um also at that time I
did get a patent under my belt. I
created something else, but that's
(22:51):
another story. Um so I was busy working
on that project.
Um and I had met somebody on a catwalk.
We were doing a um charitable fashion
um evening to raise money. I can't
remember the cause, sorry, but it was
(23:12):
down at the Queen's Hotel in Penzance.
And I was paired up with a lady that I
didn't know. And our nurse were a little
bit, you know, all over the place that
evening. We had to they'd put a raised
um runway or what do you call it? Um you
know, for for us to walk. The catwalk.
The catwalk. It was raised and I could
see all these people kind of looking up,
(23:34):
you know, to where we'd be walking. It
was a bit nerve-wracking. So, you were
modeling, were you? I was modeling
clothes. Yeah. So, for a for a a shop,
um, it was called McKay's in Penzance at
the time. I think they've gone from
Penzance now. So, I was paired up with a
lady called an was at university and she
(23:55):
was a little bit older than me. So when
she told me she was a student, I was
like, "Student at your age? Wow. How did
you become a student? Sure. You just
phoned them up." Yeah. So that that was
it really. So I um we we had our evening
and I said, "Oh, I'd really like to talk
to you some more about your experience
at Farmouth University." She did
(24:15):
journalism. So um I met up with her for
a coffee some days later. I was ke this
was probably springtime and obviously
with university looming for September I
was keen to go if I could and I I'd had
a quick look online at the courses and I
thought well when people came into my
(24:36):
gallery and said to me oh these pictures
are amazing how uh where did you do your
design art degree I would always sort of
say well I don't have a degree and there
was just something about um my
confidence that got knocked a little. I
don't know why imposter syndrome. Well,
it was really so at that point I thought
(24:59):
this is an opportunity to underpin all
that I've been doing with a
degree and um I met an and she said oh
I'll help you you know let's have a look
online and we'll get the phone number of
Falmouth uni and she was keen for me to
go. So she was leaving before I started
(25:20):
so I never actually got to see her there
but um I applied I got in and the rest
is history. I finished in lockdown
though that was a bit of a bummer
because at the end of your three years
you have a graduation celebration and
exhibition of your work which for me
(25:42):
didn't happen. Ah okay. So, so just
while you were at university,
uh, tell me the story of, um, how you
found nettles. So, yes, that's where it
all began. That's where it all began.
That's where the the nettle revolution
began. It did. I didn't call it that
till after uni when um I decided I
(26:05):
needed a website. So, yeah, a bit of
brainstorming for Nettle Revolution. But
at university I studied textile
design. And um you had three options.
You could print, embroider or weave. And
I went to university wanting to become a
weaver because whilst I was working on
(26:27):
getting a prototype and a patent for a
vehicle to get my grandchildren to the
beach over the sandunes, which wasn't a
push chair with little wheels. This was
a mono vehicle. I had to go to meet
people. I had meetings um with uh with
um Oxford
(26:48):
Innovation and they enabled me they had
they they backed me with some funding
and they enabled me to get a prototype
made. It was made in wood. It's in my
back garden still all these years later.
Um and I had to walk through the weave
department. Isn't it funny? life. So, I
(27:09):
had to walk walk through the weave
department to get to this guy's office
to talk about what the um prototype was
going to look like, how much it was
going to cost, how long it would take,
and all these kind of things. And I
would see uh out of
hours um probably during the holidays,
(27:31):
all these looms stood in rows like
soldiers. It was amazing. And I thought,
do you know what? I'm getting weaving
looms. Weaving looms. Traditional looms.
Yeah. And I thought, I would love love
love to um know how to operate one of
those machines. They're made of wood.
They look so natural. This is history.
(27:53):
You know, this is how people made our
cloth. And it was all turnurning around
in my head. So getting an opportunity to
go to university meant that I was now
going to be able to learn how to operate
one of these machines and it was just a
dream come true. It was just as simple
as that. It was magic. So you so you
learned how to use them the machine and
(28:14):
then and then they said to you, you've
got to choose a a a material or a a a
fiber to use. Well, that's how it works.
So all our clothing
um
has is is a fabric and back in the day
it would be natural fabric because
(28:36):
that's what we would grow and so that
was what was used. It's unfortunate that
plastic came onto the scene and years
down the line we've got polyester and
various other artificial
uh fabrics
which I wanted to get away from because
now I'm thinking sustainably. I'm
(28:58):
looking for a greener room. I want
everybody to um know uh the things that
I was learning. So I started looking at
natural fibers, started my research. I
came across flax and cotton and linen,
silk
um and
wool and eventually nettles. Um for the
(29:23):
people who are vegan and um you know
like me, you know, I I care about
animals deeply. I didn't want to touch
silk because they actually use
the the cocoon of the silk worm um and
they plunge it into boiling water to
(29:44):
process the silk and the little uh
silkworm inside gets boiled alive and
it's not a nice process. So I I I didn't
want to go that route. So a few of my
colleagues at the time were
um researching
flax. So I
(30:04):
decided I did something different and I
came across
nettles. Um I had nothing I had no
knowledge on anything um about the fiber
of nettles but once I started digging a
little I could see that there was a big
story to be had. So I went that way that
(30:24):
that route and it was amazing. It opened
up a a whole new world. Who would have
believed it? But once I started
researching nettles, I came across
Nettles for Textiles, which was a face
which is a Facebook group um a growing
rapidly growing Facebook page now. Um
(30:46):
run by a few people, but Alan Brown was
on uh on there and Jillian Eden, I have
her book here
somewhere.
Um I got hold of Alan Brown. I contacted
him and said that I was writing a
dissertation all about nettle fiber and
(31:07):
could I ask him a few questions to
include in the
dissertation. So we kind of grew a
friendship from there and at that
time I was just loving all the history
of the nettles. So I have a book here
called a natural history of nettles. uh
lots of uh information in that yellow
(31:29):
book here that I was able to use in my
dissertation and uh and I ended up kind
of going online um using the
universities
um
search engines and finding different
books and
um well whilst I'm doing all this Alan
(31:51):
Brown not that I knew directly at that
time was going through a very tragic
time of his wife becoming sick with
cancer and he was trying to cope with
all this um going for long walks with
his lovely dog Bonnie into Brighton
Woods. It's coincidence that he was
living in Brighton and that's where I'm
(32:12):
from. So it was a lovely connection. Um
and he was looking at the nettles
wondering about a story that he had in
his head and Christian Anderson about
some swans. These these swans had these
the swans were had been um the brothers
of a young woman. Um but they'd had a a
(32:35):
spell cast upon them and they'd become
swans. And this young woman wanted her
brother's back. So she had to seek um
the wicked person who'd cast the spell.
And the person said, this is the story
in Hans Christian Anerson, um that if
she wanted her brothers back, she would
have to go into a graveyard and weave
(32:58):
nettle jackets for them.
And that interest in Alan Brown's head
was, well, I wonder how you can do that.
You know, how is this a true story?
What's this all about? Um, he he then
(33:18):
um spent a lot of time gathering nettles
when the stems are about five or six
foot long and returning home with them.
And he started teaching himself how to
get the fiber out. So, while he's
teaching himself to do this, he has a
friend called Dylan. And he says to
Dylan, "On the Facebook page, I've been
talking about creating these fibers."
(33:39):
And people are showing interest. So,
could you do a little bit of filming?
You know, perhaps just catch me, you
know, breaking them and so I can show
people how they might have a go. So, he
starts, so Dylan starts making small
films of him doing
that. And then the process when you're
(34:01):
breaking open your nettle fiber, you get
your your lengths of fibers out, but
then you have to process those. You have
to ply those fibers to make them
stronger. So that's so that's so first
you get a single fiber and then you have
to ply it into like a string. So you
know if I pulled I can pull easily pull
(34:21):
out one of my hairs, you know, it'll
just I can pull that out. But then if I
get a little bundle Yeah. you know this
almost impossible. Yeah. Yeah. That's
right. I mean so you're looking at
strength there. You're looking at
strength. So it's called plying. So um
um Allan had to learn how to
spin. And then he had to learn how to
(34:45):
take the yarn he'd created to make a
fabric because during this process he
thought I wonder how I can make a cloth
you know and he's also doing the
research. uh looking at ancestral
fabrics. So I was very curious about all
this. Um, and at that point over a
number of years of me watching his
(35:06):
progress and him watching my progress,
um, I
discovered that,
um, they they they'd created quite a lot
of, uh, information, filmed it, and
decided they could probably put a small
film together about the whole process.
And in the meantime, his wife did pass
(35:28):
away. Yeah. So in the story it's about
uh grief. It's about the love of the
land. It's about historical relevance to
the history of the land. It's about how
our ancestors used to create cloth from
our land. And it's h and it's all about
(35:48):
where we will end up eventually. M it's
about our how fragile our life is how
strong we can make it while we're here
but then how fragile it can become will
become and how then
compostable you
know the things that we make from
nettles my nettle scarves you know the
(36:10):
the cloth that I
make I can lay that in my garden and
over a period of time it will just
decompost back and become soil the
creatures in the soil, the bacterial
elements
and insects will eat it and so it's not
going to sit there like plastic for 100
years not or more. So, so the whole
(36:32):
story for me, the background story is
promote natural materials
um so that we're saving our planet from
these plastics. And now I have eight
grandchildren. My story has become I've
become more determined to get this story
across and some of the grandchildren too
(36:53):
young to understand what I'm doing. But
there'll come a day when they'll think,
"Oh, that's why grandma was weaving and
that's why she had those strange looking
scars wrapped around." They'll take this
forward as well, won't they? Hopefully,
potentially
hopefully um I will have imparted
knowledge. Yeah, for sure. and history
(37:17):
and even if they don't take it forward
the legacy that I leave that I hope to
leave in the work that I'm doing will um
sustain some future. So you graduated
university, you've found nettles, you've
uh you've met several people on your
(37:37):
journey of researching nettles and
you've created is this when you've
created uh the nettle revolution.
So yes, having left uni, had a studio
built to house all my looms that I'd
acquired. Um so my son-in-law built the
studio during lockdown cuz he was a
(37:57):
builder, couldn't work. So that was
fortuitous in that respect. So I have a
lovely studio. Um I wanted to run
workshops on how to weave and um talk
about
nettles. Uh but nobody in Cornwall feels
um basically they didn't want to pay me
(38:17):
to teach them. Um it was quite hard to
earn a money um showing
people the skills of setting up a loom
and weaving.
Um, so I was looking for other
opportunities to earn a living. Mhm.
Um so I I thought I need a website and
(38:41):
during that period oh one interesting
thing that happened whilst I was still
at university on my graduation day I was
given this book and it's a book that was
just being handed out to all graduates
and I thought it looks like a really
interesting book and actually I'm
(39:01):
gifting you this book. Oh wow. It's um
from um Creative Uprising by George
Harwick. Yep. So George Hardwick. Um
Thank you. Yeah. At that time I thought
he was in Glastonbury because there's
lots of references of him being sound
engineer at Glastonbury
(39:24):
um music festivals and things like that.
And there's a reference in there to Ed
Sheeran because he was working with
George was working with Ed and Ed was
quite young and he was getting under
George's feet while George was putting
out all the you know sound equipment and
everything. And anyway, I read the book
and it's got just some great information
(39:46):
in there and I wanted to thank George
because it moved me this book. It taught
me there's a quote in there. It taught
me something very powerful. It said it's
there's a quote in there um that says
that um let
nature shape you into a force of nature.
(40:07):
And I thought well that's exactly what's
happening to me. You know I am becoming
a force of nature. I can I just stop you
there? Let me just um just just hear
that slowly. Let nature
Let the force of nature force of nature
shape you into a force of nature. Yeah,
(40:28):
that's beautiful, isn't it? It is. Yeah.
Sorry to interrupt you there. Carry on.
So, I I really resonated with that
phrase
and the name of the gentleman is in that
book. It's Malister. I sorry, I've
forgotten his name exactly. That's okay.
We'll have a look at that later.
(40:50):
Um, but I said to George, "Would he mind
me pinching that quote?" He said, "I'm
I'm sure he wouldn't." So, um, at that
time, so so I wanted to thank, um,
George for this great publication and,
um, I went on LinkedIn to look for him
(41:10):
and I sent him a private message to say,
"I've read your book. It's amazing." And
um next thing I know he's phoning me and
said, "Let's meet." Amazing. And um he
happened to be at the launch pad at
Felmouth at the time. So he was on my
doorstep. I couldn't believe it. And
(41:31):
he'd teamed up with Mike Turner and they
were setting up a business called The
Greater Life for People over 50. Um so
that there is this period or this
um misconception really that uh we get
to a retirement age and we're done.
(41:54):
Yeah.
And I knew that you're only just getting
started. Well, exactly. I knew that I
was just getting to the point where I
was building something. So there was no
way I would be wanting to retire. And
Mike Turner is is obviously a similar
age and he he is just building a new
(42:17):
business so he's not going to be wanting
to retire. So this is this is how the
nettle revolution was born. Yeah. So I
got together with these guys to find out
what they were doing and being over 50
they decided that they could interview
me in various ways. I I could help them
um by feed giving feedback and so that
(42:38):
they would know how they could take
their a business forward which would
appeal to people over the age of 50.
and we formed a a little founding group
and we would meet every Sunday on Zoom
and there was a few of us by now and we
would all um brainstorm their new
(42:59):
business which was in alignment with
what what I was doing now
because I wanted to grow Nettle
Revolution. So they helped me by um
creating a website for me and
brainstorming names. You know I was
coming up with all sorts of nettle um
con you know uh phrases with nettles in
(43:22):
it. Anyway, we settled for nettle
revolution and on the 3rd of January
just a few years ago the website was
born. The name was bought and born and
and I am I became little revolution. I'm
loving it.
Brilliant. So, tell me what what what
does nettle revolution look like? What
(43:43):
does it do? Well, I take the sting out
of nettles. I love that. That's what I
do. And that's a that's a um a metaphor
for life, right? So, you've taken the
sting out of your life. So, let me show
you. And you've taken the sting out of
your life and
used something that that would normally
sting you for something so valuable. and
(44:05):
um you know and creative etc etc.
Exactly. So there's usually two sides to
things, isn't there? Yeah. An upside and
a downside, a bad side and a good side.
A dark side and a light side. And that's
how I see the nettles. So the nettles
are magical. They really, really are
(44:27):
magical. If anybody can watch the nettle
film, the sorry the nettle dress fil
um they will appreciate the magic behind
nettles because in that film it's
captured perfectly. So I in my research
was discovering the magic of
nettles. They are mystical. They are
(44:49):
strong, resilient, powerful, energetic,
lively,
nutritionally rich. They're they're
abundant in fiber. They're abundant in
producing life for creatures
um that need a habitat.
Um there's just so much I could probably
(45:12):
spend hours just talking about the
nettle. So, I like to think of nettle as
a metaphor and that my life to this
point has had quite a few knocks and
some stings and you know the pain that
you feel if you get stung by a nettle
(45:33):
accidentally when you're just brushing
through them and you're totally not
expecting you. It does take your breath
away sometimes and you do say ouch or
worse. And kids do cry if they fall off
their bike and get stung.
Um but for me now uh I embrace those
stings. I I look at any obstacle in my
(45:56):
pathway as a opportunity to grow, a
learning experience, a learning
experience. And I also have learned so
much from the
nettle. Um, in as much as I am careful
how I use my words because like the
(46:18):
nettle, the nettle can
harm and it can also heal. And it's like
a two-edged sword. And our words are the
same. Our words can harm or heal.
And over this period of learning about
nettles, I've got deeper and deeper into
(46:38):
becoming a creative force of
nature. And something happened along the
way whereby my son approached me and
said, "Mom, could you
please trial this um website for me,
this
um program that I've developed?" And I
said, "Yes, of course. And what is it?"
(46:59):
and he said to me back in October, "I've
created an app for J for gratitude
journaling." And I thought, "Well,
that's right up my street. That's
amazing. I wonder where all that came
from because it it was a bit like my my
son was working from home because
postcoid he was still working from home
at that time. And his home was much like
(47:24):
your office here, you know, in the other
room. It was just full of screens and
coding and he was coding and uh creating
and
I looked at his um gratitude journaling
app. It's called say thank say say
thanks.ai AI. And it gave me a prompt
(47:45):
each day and I would think about the
prompt and then
respond and then it would respond back
saying, you know, you're on the right
path or think about it from this aspect
or that angle. And over the last six
months, it's rewired my whole brain. I'm
(48:07):
not saying it's done yet, but it's
rewiring my whole brain to remove all
the negativity from my past. All that
harmful toxic stuff that maybe I'd
stored and revisited from time to time.
I don't want to do that anymore.
So, I want to just be uplifted by the
(48:29):
nettle and I I I want to just stay on
the positive side of life
and for every obstacle that comes my
way, I'm just going to be looking at the
positives and take everything as a
learning opportunity and so that I can
(48:52):
move forward and teach people what I'm
learning myself.
So you this is amazing stuff. You've
you've you've taken nettles and you've
taken affirmations and um and you've
you've healed yourself uh or you're
healing yourself with them. And this is
nature, right? This is nature, right?
(49:12):
This is about as nature as it comes. So,
so the other aspect of
this is whilst I was researching nettles
as a
fiber, I was being inundated with
nettles for the health bi benefits that
I could be rewarded with by embracing
(49:35):
nutritional nettles in my life and in my
diet. So, not only am I weaving with
them to make clothing now, I'm
also creating teas, um, chopping them up
and putting them in my stews,
um, using them in in all sorts of way,
making nettle balm. I'm doing all sorts
(49:57):
of things with them now. Um,
and the nutritional benefits are just
vast. M and I realized although my
website Nettle Revolution was created to
be a show case for my scarves to sell
scarves and I have been selling nettle
(50:18):
scarves
um I wanted to add in there all the um
extra information to help improve
people's lives in a physical well-being
kind of way.
Amazing. and tell us about um Theopathus
(50:39):
and uh is it small business Sunday? So
along the
way I'm looking for ways to grow and
expand and years ago when I had my
chickens I came across Theopites's small
business Sunday and I would every Sunday
I would write my little um Twitter text
(51:01):
and pitch to him with my about chickens.
I would make it humorous. I would make
it sad. I would make it any which way to
try and appeal to him. Did it for years
and I I I didn't hear back from him, but
I tried. And so the first time I did
that, well, it occurred to me I could
(51:21):
start again with the
nettles. And uh the first time I did
it, the following day I get a message
from Theopo Pitus that I'm a winner. I
was like, I just couldn't believe it.
This is with Nettle Revolution. Yeah.
Amazing. So, I messaged him on Twitter
(51:41):
because you you can pitch to him on
Sundays between a certain period of time
and then on the Monday he picks
um it was three winners back in those
days. It's more now because he's
expanded to Instagram and LinkedIn, but
it was just Twitter then which is now X
and
(52:02):
um yeah 8:00 he reveals the winners. So
when you become a a winner
um it's less than 1% of people that have
actually submitted a pitch to him. So
it's a big deal. M and I had said that
I'm now um
creating scarves from stinging nettles.
(52:26):
And I my my little tagline that I
believe won it for me was the um bit
where I do say I take the sting out of
the nettles because I think it was
punchy enough to get his attention. So
what that meant was I get to um go and
meet him uh receive an award and each
(52:50):
year now we have a big celebration which
is held I've been to two now um I won
two years ago um it was Birmingham at
the
IC and uh he brings in wonderful
speakers. So last year was Stacy Solomon
um and this year and others and this
(53:13):
year oh sorry Maxine Laceby she's she's
been amazing um mentor to me and Maxine
particularly
um came on Zoom and helped me with uh
promoting ways of promoting my nettle
bomb because I wanted to um scale up
(53:35):
because uh at the time Theo said at this
event, "How are you going to scale up
your business?" And I knew I couldn't
scale up by weaving
scarves. It's not fast enough.
Um so I decided to make Nettlebomb and
the wonderful Maxine Lace was one of his
(53:56):
keynote speakers of the day and she was
humbled enough to spend time mentoring
me on Zoom. That was a wonderful
experience. She Maxine Laceby owns
Absolute Collagen. It's huge. I've met
her actually. Wonderful. I believe.
Yeah. Yeah. She's just become a grandma
(54:16):
conference last year. She's lovely. Um
so we connected on um socials.
Um, in the
meantime, I met a GP down in Marazion,
uh, which has taken me on a little bit
(54:37):
of a trajectory,
um, away from the nettle bomb,
um, because we started looking at ways
of using Nettle
Revolution to help heal people
um, and and prevent them from needing to
go to uh the doctor's surgery because
(54:58):
it's so hard to get appointments at the
moment. So, the lady Helen Angel that I
met, she's uh a current GP. So, we're
planning to have um have Helen on the
show at some stage. Wonderful. Solve is
an SEO and web design agency that builds
highquality sustainable websites and
strategies to help businesses grow
(55:20):
online.
They're also BC Corp, meaning they're a
business for good, making a positive
impact while driving real results. As a
special offer for our listeners, Solve
is offering a free website audit and
consultation. Just mention searching for
a greener room to claim
(55:40):
yours. So, yeah, we're hoping to get
Helen on the show at some stage. This
actually leads us nicely into your um
the evidence that you uh you've brought
along with you this time. So, we've
asked you to bring along five bits of
evidence and uh for a bit of fun, what
we're going to do is we're going to give
you a minute to talk about each one if
you can if you can last that long. Alex
(56:03):
over there has got a dinner bell and
he's going to be timing. So, at a minute
he's going to ring the dinner bell. So,
the first one, this is going back to uh
to Helen. Um, Live to 100, Secrets of
the Blue Zones. It's a Netflix film by
Dan Bha. Is that how you say it? Bner.
There we go.
(56:24):
Oh. Um, yes. So,
I was um busy with Nettle Revolution,
building it up and taking myself off for
walks because that's when I can do my
thinking. And I kept bumping into a a
woman on the beach. And uh one
particular time uh talking to her and
(56:47):
she said um oh there's a lady you need
to meet called Dr. Helen Angel. She's
very much aligned with what you're
telling me. Um you may have you know be
able to do something together. And so I
went to meet Helen and yes, we hit it
off and we are setting up the golden
zones which is um an even greater uh
(57:09):
project than the blue zones because
we're creating it here in Cornwall and
we are the golden ladies the and and and
it's been established on the golden
mile. Go on, carry on for a minute. The
golden mile in Marazion was um initially
um known for um it's seaweed and the
(57:30):
farmers used to collect it to put on
their fields as a way of fertilizing it
and making cornal much more uh fertile
and sustainable. So what's what actually
uh is the golden zone? So, what we want
to do is help people uh stay well, be
become fitter, and and and live longer
(57:52):
by becoming aware of what they're eating
and um eating better. And that's based
on the Blue Zone. It is. Excellent.
Okay. So, the next one, you've got one
minute to talk about The Nettle Dress,
which is a film by Dylan Howitt
and Alan Brown. So Alan Brown is the
creator of the nettle dress and um he's
(58:15):
done a fabulous
um he's created a fabulous film which is
all about um the
natural fiber of nettles and how you can
take it straight from the land, process
it with your own hands and turn it into
a beautiful soft fabric that he then cut
(58:37):
and created a dress for his and our
beautiful daughter and uh she's wearing
it in the film and um he just tells the
whole story of why he did it and um it's
just inspirational. It's it's it's it's
changing it's changing the way we see
nettles and the future of the planet.
(59:00):
It's so powerful.
I actually um I actually watched the
trailer last night and it looks like a
beautiful film. It's a beautiful look
forward to seeing that. So, you now have
one minute to talk about 101 uses for
stinging nettles by Pierce Warren. Oh,
I've got that one here. So, in this
little book, um it talks about the the
(59:22):
benefits of using nettles in your diet.
So, for instance, um they help with
eczema. They um produce shinier hair,
beautiful skin, um help with sore
throat, sore mouths, um gout. Um there's
recipes in this book about nettle pies,
how to make nettle cream nettle. So, my
(59:45):
grandma used to make a pudding called um
Renee. Uh is it what it's called? Renee.
Anyway, it was a it was a lovely milky
pudding and she used to use a renet in
this pudding and this book tells you
that you can use nettles instead of the
renet that she used to use. There you
go. Wonderful. So, interestingly
(01:00:07):
interested in the the eczema thing. Is
that a balm that you put on the XMO or
is that a drink that you both? So um
obviously if you have any conditions
it's good to have to work from the
inside and to also apply it on the
outside. The sometimes people are
applying lots of lotions and potions to
the skin but actually they're not
(01:00:28):
thinking about the stories that they're
telling themselves and if they're living
in a kind of negative world that's
producing a biochemistry in your system.
So, you're not going to be getting
better until you change the thoughts
that you're So, so you're talking about
the thoughts that you're having plus
(01:00:48):
what you're putting into your body plus
what you're putting outside your body.
That's the way to live a long life. That
makes absolute sense, doesn't it? That
makes absolute sense. The next one,
you've got a minute to talk about.
Nettle. Now, this is a type of nettle, I
understand.
Nettle di
doica.
(01:01:09):
Did I say ica dioica? Ertica do
dioica doica by Amanda Clenner.
Oh um I Oh so yes that's that book. Um
so I do dioica is the um Latin name for
(01:01:31):
nettle. There are actually other nettles
um that grow in different places uh of
the world, but our British version is
the erica dioa and it means two houses
and it means fire because when you get
stung it burns and you need two plants,
you need a male and a female to um
cross-pollinate to um produce. And um in
(01:01:56):
her book she she employs other um
authors and there's people in there
talking about the use. So how to make
shampoos, soaps, um food from nettles. I
love that book. Um it's very useful. And
these these are things that anyone can
do. Anyone can do it. Just follow a
recipe like you would you know make an
(01:02:17):
apple pie. You you can actually download
things from the internet. And
there we go.
Wonderful. Wonderful. So the the the
your fifth book is A Natural History of
Nettles by Keith GR Wheeler. Well, this
was a book that I used um to get a lot
of information from for my dissertation.
(01:02:39):
And um interesting information in that
book, the history of nettles. Um going
back 5,000 years, um it was found in
tombs. um people had been embarmed using
nettles and it was highly priced. So it
was actually brought in 6,000 miles in
some cases to dress the person who'd
(01:03:01):
passed away. Um soldiers would um
icicate themselves uh during war periods
which meant taking off their shirt and
um beating themselves with the nettles
to stimulate their circulation because
they may have been standing around for
long periods in very cold weather. So it
(01:03:21):
would heat up their body and stimulate
them and get the blood flowing and they
may have had cramps in their feet or um
they couldn't get their feet warm. So it
would help warm their bodies up. Wow,
that's incredible. So, that's that's
five books that or five um five bits of
media there that are very worth having a
look at. Now, we're going to uh go
(01:03:43):
through your top tips. And once again,
you have one minute to talk about
drinking a daily nettle infusion. Yeah,
let's all try and get three cups of
nettles into our system each day um to
help purify our blood, to help rid
ourselves of allergies,
(01:04:04):
um to feel more alive, to boost your um
immune system, to support your kidneys
and liver, to detox. Um we're producing
negative thoughts 90% of the time, and
that produces toxins in our body.
Nettles helps flush it through. It will
help you go to the bathroom more
regularly because it's um flushing those
(01:04:28):
waste materials out of your system.
Perfect timing. Practicing this, aren't
I? Um just before we go any further,
tell us how we make a cup of nettle tea.
So, uh go pick your nettles from um a
nice clean patch where no dogs have been
or car pollutions. Um I take the top
(01:04:48):
four inches of a plant. So, here's an
example.
Um, you know, you just need the top two
two layers of uh leaves. Pop them in a
mug or a teapot or a jug. Put your hot
water on top and wait at least 20
minutes for some of the nutrition to
come filter through from the plant. And
(01:05:11):
you can then um top it up with more hot
water or drink it as it is. You can add
rosemary, mints, sage. Um, you can
flavor it with chamomile. You can flavor
it however you like. As long as you
drink it, it's really good uh healthy
natural free medicine. And um I advise
it every day. Every day. So, uh, eat
(01:05:34):
nettles in season. Go eat nettles in
season. So, they're in season a lot of
the year. So, we they're growing now.
They're low to the ground now. Start
picking them. So, uh, what is the
season? Nettles start growing um about
March time. You see them springing up.
In fact, because we're a mild climate
(01:05:56):
here in Cornwall, they don't actually
stop. Okay? But they'll start springing
up noticeably in March. And um you know,
they're well, you know, they're probably
a foot high at the moment, April time.
And then they'll grow to six foot, five
or six foot depending on shade and
light. um the opportunity
um they'll grow, you know, five or six
(01:06:18):
foot. Um and you can carry on picking
the tops off them right through to the
summer. But once they start producing
little necklaces, they they kind of the
flowers hang down from the leaves. Then
you um can stop picking them. Then I
heard it's not true, but I wouldn't like
(01:06:40):
to um say for sure that uh this is when
the plant may change and become a little
u intolerant to some people um creating
some um I can't remember the name of the
um crystals that are formed in the
body. Yeah. But
(01:07:02):
um at that point the seeds are forming
and I collect the seeds and then I keep
the seeds all winter. One spoonful, two
spoonfuls of seeds on your breakfast
cereal in the morning or in a smoothie.
Um are like a caffeine lift. Ah full of
nutrients and uh another boost for your
(01:07:22):
immune system during winter. Amazing.
And the roots are very important to use.
So you can use all the plant. The roots
are um very useful especially to men to
support the prostate. Um, so you would
wash the roots and then chop them up and
put them into vodka, let them sit there
(01:07:43):
for a few weeks and then you can take a
little bit of that um liquid, add it to
water and have it as a tincture to help
um support
um yeah your body. Amazing. So uh the
next one is choose natural fibers.
(01:08:05):
I try hard to choose natural fibers. Um,
there are some shops I would never shop
at. Um, and I'm wearing this jacket
because it is bought recently from I had
a little break. We took my grandson. He
(01:08:26):
had a little op and we took him away to
recuperate. We stayed in Xmouth and I
walked to Budley Solstitton one
afternoon because I needed some time out
on my own. And I I saw a a um a shop
which was, you know, time around again
or second time around again. And I saw
this jacket and I thought, "Oh, that
looks like um a jacket I could wear, you
(01:08:48):
know, for in years." Yeah. And and it
has a Jagger label in it. Okay. So, I
asked AI to identify the period of this
vintage jacket, and it said 19 um 80s.
1980s. So, it's quite an old jacket, and
it's pure wool. Amazing. So, um while
(01:09:10):
we're there, you you we spoke earlier
about your scarfs and you said that you
use a mix of nettle and linen. I didn't
know what linen is. Tell us what linen
is. So linen comes from linseed. Um it
grows like flax and um nettles. Um and
(01:09:30):
it's a beautiful cloth. It makes a
beautiful cloth and it's well known for
being produced in
Ireland. It's a very strong material. A
lot of people are put off wearing it
because it creases quite a lot. But
these days, which isn't a good great
thing, but they do mix um synthetic
fibers with it to make it, you know, but
(01:09:53):
when you weave pure linen in with
nettles, it makes a a super strong and
uh and soft material. I don't tend to uh
weave with just nettles because when you
put your uh fiber onto a loom, you put
it under
pressure. There's a tension that you
have to create to get the cloth to
(01:10:15):
stabilize as you're weaving. And I find
it breaks a lot because my um yarn is
handspun and um because it's not done by
machine, it has imperfections, weak weak
weak places and and it it regularly
snaps. So I buy dead stock linen. Do you
want to know what dead stock is?
(01:10:35):
Absolutely. So um because I work in
sustain sustainability and I'm a waste
not want kind of girl. I hate waste. So
when mills close around the world and in
England we've lost a lot of um almost
all of them mills there is a chap in
Manchester who will go and
(01:10:56):
collect the um dead stock. So sometimes
the place closed down. They're waiting
for developers to come in to decide what
the building's going to become. And
these um cones of linen can be sitting
on machines for a number of years and
get dusty and dirty. Then they can't be
(01:11:16):
sold.
So kind of it would they would end up in
um landfill if there wasn't somebody
like me that would would doesn't mind
buying them in that state and I um I use
them. Amazing. In my work. Amazing. So
um this one's we've already sort of gone
(01:11:37):
into which is practice out uh outdoor
gratitude. Yeah. So we've talked about
um your son's app and and how you use
gratitude but tell us about practicing
outdoor gratitude.
Uh I did a workshop on Friday as it
happens um and it was about sensing
nature. So, we were into Hiddi and we
(01:12:01):
um walked in nature, had a good old
close look at all the beautiful shapes,
colors, scents, sights, and we collected
things and then we came back and we made
twoy moosees from what we collected. I
remember you telling me about tousy
moosees the other day. Now, tell us what
a tousy moosey is. It's a posie. Uhhuh.
(01:12:24):
And the moosey bit, the tusy bits, posy
and the mousy bit is back in the plague.
Um they used to wrap moss around the
bottom of the stems to keep them um
moist to give the posie a little bit
more longevity. During the plague,
ladies used to pick roses, honeysuckle
and lavender from the gardens and then
(01:12:46):
walk through the
unsanitated is it
unsanitated? Is unsanitated a word?
streets streets uh with these poses
under their nose um later became nose
gaze because they gave a heavenly scent
to the nose while they were walking
along. Queen Victoria reinvented them
(01:13:08):
almost 200 years later. She um created
um she gave flowers names uh meaning. So
we like have uh roses are indicative of
love and maybe a lily is more
representative of grief. Um and and
(01:13:28):
flowers all had meaning and young ladies
back in the day would be given a posy
from a gentleman and she'd be able to go
home, get out her book of meanings for
flowers and look to see whether he had
an intention just to go for a walk with
her or whether he was proposing
marriage. Bring bring that one back. And
(01:13:49):
then I decided to reinvent them in a
sustainable way almost 200 years later
again. um and looking at nature
from a sustainable way and seeing how we
can create beautiful things from hedros,
things that have died like dried
campion, things that have gone to seed,
(01:14:10):
but also adding in beautiful um herbs
from gardens like lavender and um
rosemary and sage and scented elements.
And then the last one here you've got is
share the nettle story with someone you
love. So I I just want to get out there
and talk to people about nettles now and
(01:14:32):
spread the word of they're free and
don't spray them with pesticides. You're
killing a habitat. You're destroying
nature. Um you're actually um putting a
dampener on a food that is so beneficial
to your health. So make your tea, chop
them up and create use them like a
(01:14:54):
spinach, you know, chop them up and add
them to other vegetables. Just soautay
them and um just add them into smoothies
and just take them however you can
because they are there. Um they they
also say that they have a
sting. It's a thought. It's just a myth
because who knows? But they they believe
(01:15:15):
that the sting is to prevent animals
from eating them so that they are left
for us because they are so beneficial
and nourishing for us human people.
Brilliant. Well, that's that's a lovely
way to bring that to an end. Um and
we've just got one more question for
(01:15:36):
you. um which is uh what can people do
today to make a better tomorrow and help
us find a greener room.
Well, I would say what I said earlier,
let the force of nature shape you into a
force of nature. Let's all look at
(01:15:57):
nature as a gift
and appreciate it for what it is. I did
a project at university called moanai
which is a Japanese word for do not
waste what nature has provided and they
also say in Japanese give gratitude to
nature. Amazing. How can people get hold
(01:16:20):
of you?
Have a website called Nettle Revolution
funny enough. Have um an Instagram
account Jane Grey
Nettleweaver. I have I'm on Facebook.
They can phone me any which way. I'm
here to be of service. I want to share
um with the world the benefits of using
(01:16:42):
Nettles.
Jane, thank you so much. I could chat to
you all day. Thank you so much for
coming in today and um so lovely to see
you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
That's it for this episode of Searching
for a Green Room. We'd love to hear your
thoughts. Let us know what you think,
who you'd like to hear from, any topics
(01:17:04):
you want us to cover. Drop us a comment.
Don't forget to like and subscribe so
you never miss an episode. See you next
time.
Jane Gray, known as the nettle lady, is
a visionary, an artist, weaver, and
founder of the nettle
revolution. What if the weed stinging
your ankles on a country walk could
clothe your back, heal your gut, and
change your perspective on aging, grief,
(00:22):
and the planet. Her work with Nettles
brought her national recognition,
including a
Theopathus Small Business Sunday Award,
but it's her gentle approach to healing,
creativity, and sustainability that
really stands
out. This conversation will take us from
grief to growth, sting to strength, and
(00:46):
show how nature can shape us if we let
it. Hi, I'm Curly Steve and we're
searching for a greener room.
Hi Jane, welcome to the show. Hi Curly.
(01:06):
Nice to see you. So, thank you so much
for coming in. Um, let's rewind. Let's
start at the very beginning. Tell me a
little bit about your uh where did you
come from? What was your journey? Oh my
goodness, Curly. Thanks for having me.
This is just such a a privilege and I'm
really excited to be here. I
um started 66 years ago actually in
(01:29):
Brighton and uh my parents were about 20
when um they had me and um my father was
a little bit concerned at the time. He
was a signw writer. So he um took us all
to Manchester to make some money and um
um that's where my life began. And um I
(01:49):
grew up in Manchester. Um have a little
bit of a northern twang in my accent.
And then eventually my father having
made some money wanted to live back by
the sea but didn't go back to Brighton.
He came to Cornwall. And by then I was
married and I had four
children. And um I had a fabulous time
(02:11):
being a mother, stay-at-home mother. And
uh initially we lived um in St Ives
um top of St Ives on a farm that my
father bought and I lived in a caravan
and surrounded uh by fields and we had
so many different animals and we grew
(02:32):
our own veg and I think that's my first
immersion into nature was in Stant Ives
on the farm with the wind swirling
around and all those animals and my kids
loved it. What an amazing place to grow
up. I mean, being in Cornwall as a as a
youth is is such a a pleasure, isn't it?
(02:52):
Yeah. Yeah. Such a natural place to be.
Awesome. So, tell what happened from
there. Well, living in a caravan wasn't
my ideal situation because literally the
caravan was put in a field and it had
no facilities, no
electricity. I had no washing machine.
We didn't have running water. Uh we
(03:14):
didn't have lights. We had those mantels
that you lit. Yeah. And um gas the
little gas lamps. It was all very very
simple which my husband loved. Okay. But
for me with two children initially in uh
the first second one was in nappies and
I had territorial in nappies. I wasn't I
(03:35):
was struggling without a washing
machine. So I did start saying please
can we get a house which wasn't very
viable at the time because he was still
trying to build a business to enable us
to have the funds to buy a house.
Eventually that happened and we moved to
Hail where there was a bit more space
for us and more affordable at the time
(03:55):
into a house into a house. Okay, cool.
Yeah. So um yeah, my children went to
school in Hail and I had two more
children and uh I eventually then moved
to Upton Towers nearer to the beach and
I can walk every day straight out to the
beach and it's just fabulous. A
(04:15):
beautiful area there. Yeah. Wonderful.
So um forward on a few years there and
uh you decided to uh well tell me the
story of um what got you to uh to
university.
Ah
so a few lifech
(04:35):
changing situations occurred. One of
them was me deciding I had a voice uh or
well I wanted one. Um, and having been a
stay-at-home mother for
uh, well, up till 2000, I don't know how
(04:55):
old I was then. I'm trying to work it
out.
Um, I had been, well, a mom. Mhm. It's a
fabulous job. I, you know, recommend it
to everybody, but, um, I didn't go to
work at that time. I wanted to give my
children my full attention and um and
also my background history of the way I
(05:18):
was raised
um was a kind of different kind of life
that I found or felt I needed to move on
from. So it was a religious background
and
um I just
felt I needed to grow and living the
(05:40):
life that I was raised in and I'd
married into I couldn't do that. It it
just wasn't feeling it wasn't sitting
right with me.
um I started feeling depressed in that
situation and I didn't want to live a
life where
um I was stuck. So unfortunately I
(06:02):
decided to leave that religion which
meant I got divorced and that kind of
changed a lot of things especially for
the children. It was a a period of deep
reflection and um I was I went I went to
work for Barclay's Bank. I did a period
working for Barclay's Bank. I didn't
(06:23):
know I was dyslexic sick then. So that
was fun. Mhm. Um I didn't lose money. So
this was sorry just was this after
divorce or before divorce that you
started working with after. So I got
divorced around 2000 and then about 2003
I was working for Barclays. And this is
when you started feeling that you found
(06:43):
your voice. This is me looking for my
voice. Okay. I was searching for my
voice. So So just uh we we won't dwell
on it, but the the religion was one that
uh the the female side is is kept
relatively quiet.
(07:03):
The female side is kept in its place.
Right. Okay.
So yeah, my my um relationship with my
husband was um I would prov he would uh
provide for the meals and I would make
(07:25):
the meals and uh I used to cook whole
who wholesomely. So I would be baking
and making cake and putting lovely meals
on the table every day and I would be
looking after him and um he would just
go to work. Well, not just but he would
go to work and that was how it was. So
(07:45):
where where was your creativity at this
stage? Were you able I was a knitter. Oh
yeah, I um made things constantly. Um I
was a huge knitter. Clothes and stuff or
Yeah, I knitted everything. I I would
knit the children's school uniforms. I
would knit my clothes. Um I would make
um dresses for myself. Um I didn't
(08:07):
attempt to make boys trousers because
they put the knees out too quickly and I
would spend ages making them and they
would wreck them. So that that didn't
happen. Um at that time money was quite
hard. Um money was quite hard to come by
and my husband was a window cleaner. So,
I would get up at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday
(08:28):
mornings and be down the car boots
looking for um clothing for my children.
And we used to ek out the pennies that
way. Yeah. And um I lived a frugal life
on the farm
and on the farm without the uh
facilities to you have a washing
(08:49):
machine, handwashing in literally
um uh old baths that were put there in
the field for the animals to drink from.
I would be there washing my hair
sometimes or um washing out the nappers
and then and that's tough with with the
old Terry nappies, isn't it? very tough
especially in the winter. Yeah, I did
have enough of it. I did I I did get to
(09:12):
the point of breaking point and I said
to my husband, you
know, we need a house. Yeah. So, so fast
forward back to um uh to you got
divorced. You started finding I I needed
to earn money. Yeah. So, I I didn't know
who she was at the time. Um this this
(09:35):
lady. So I um I was just taking jobs
that I could um you know apply for and
that was local. So I um first of all
work for bar clays but all the time I at
that time because I started this new uh
path of looking for who I was. I started
(09:57):
attending um evening courses um at
Penworth College and I learned to become
a masseuse. Um I did teacher training
whilst I was working and after the
Barclay's bank
um that didn't really work out having
found out I was dyslexic. They put me
(10:17):
through you know the program so it was
official. Um I um I went into care work.
So I worked for a number of companies
but MENAP was the main one. And
um obviously I empathize with people.
I'm a people person. I love working with
(10:38):
people. Um but I I knew I didn't want to
stay
uh as a carer. And at that time, MENAP
was going through a difficult period in
the department I was working and it made
me quite ill.
So I ended up feeling some paralysis
(11:00):
down my left side and I was having
blurred vision and headaches and went to
the
doctors and uh they said I had a tumor
so on my brain just under the brain and
a dear friend at that time said to me
look don't go back to MENAP when you're
(11:22):
come through this operation.
let's find you an art gallery that
you've always
wanted.
So he was uh very kindly um encouraging
me because obviously I was quite
frightened. A tumor on the brain you
start thinking all sorts and also they
did mention the C word. So they didn't
(11:42):
know what it was until they till the day
that they um opened things up and had a
look.
Fortunately, all went well and it was
keyhole surgery up through my nose and
after that
um Howard did keep his promise and while
I was
(12:04):
recuperating from and having some time
off work to um recover from the bleed
that was going on after the operation,
um we went to St Ives and we looked
around and we found a beautiful venue
for me to have as a
gallery. And I didn't really know what I
(12:26):
was going to be doing in this place, but
I was already making textile pictures
from
um pieces of fabric that would have
ended up in landfill. So, I was already
um starting to look at
sustainability and how I might promote
(12:46):
it. And in 2008 my first grandchild was
born. So that was quite significant
because I felt I needed to start leading
the way and setting setting an example
in this field of sustainability.
Excellent. So just um can you tell us
who Howard is? Howard was a lovely
(13:08):
gentleman who was reaching
retirement and he was a lecturer at
Halum University and he moved to
Cornwall to
retire and he was working on various
projects in hail one one of them was
save our sands and he worked for um as a
volunteer for different departments and
(13:30):
that's where I met him and you became
great friends. we became friends. Um we
started going to the Minak Theater for
picnics and watching shows and just um
hanging out. And um he said to me that
he was looking forward to his
pension and he told me how much he'd
(13:53):
accumulated and it was a substantial
amount.
and he joked with me saying, "Well, if
you married me and anything ever
happened to me, you know, you'd inherit
my pension because um the way it works,
pensions die with the person if they're
single." So, I just
giggled. And uh we set up this lovely
business in St Ives and he would sit in
(14:16):
the gallery and sell my work and I would
be at home making it. Amazing. So at
that
time chickens came into my life. Okay.
So chickens was my first point of
making. Um they inspired me to create
these pictures of
(14:37):
chickens. And the first two chickens
that came into my life were because on
an estate near where I was living,
um, people had moved and left these
chickens in the back garden. And my
daughter knew I was quite keen on having
chickens and her f and my daughter's
friend had said, "Tell your mom that
(14:58):
these chickens will pass away because
there's nobody caring for them." So,
they needed rescuing. Go rescue them.
And those chickens rescued me right
back.
That's brilliant. I love that. Yeah,
they did. They were so Well, after we
settled them into their new home, I had
quickly had to have a home built for
them. Um, they had the free range of my
(15:20):
garden. They became so humorous. They
became so loving. They were they were so
funny. They'd be hopping around chasing
flies and doing all sorts of funny
little antics and, you know, dusting
themselves. They chickens love to be
clean. and they created a little hollow
in my lawn, but you know, I'll let them
keep it. And um they would be dusting
(15:42):
their feathers. And so my research
started around
uh what do chickens need? And you know
um it led me it led me into the area
which became very sad which
was how chickens are kept for industrial
(16:04):
purposes. So I went down that rabbit
hole quite deeply and
became aware
of the adaptations or modifying of
chickens in the very early embryionic
stage or before that even how they
(16:27):
um create chickens to put on more flesh
for meat and how these poor chickens
grow very rapidly. ly putting on the
meat and then they can't hold their
weight and then they fall over in the
barns and they get ulcerated bodies and
other chickens peck them because they
become vulnerable and all these kind of
(16:47):
things started affecting me and I I was
getting rather sad about what I was
seeing and so my chickens became even um
more relevant
because I wanted
to get a message out to the public that
(17:09):
chickens are sentient beings. They have
feelings. They know their uh GPS
position on the planet. They're
intelligent. They have a hierarchy.
Um, and and so by getting that message
out, I wanted people to think if they're
going to eat
(17:30):
chicken and enjoy it, please give thanks
for the life of that chicken that
produced it, don't just go down to those
big places that produce a lot of chicken
and sell it cheaply and enjoy that um
quick fast food without appreciating the
life and maybe some trauma that that
(17:53):
chicken had to go through to produce
that meat for you. Plus the way they
farm get the chickens um producing eggs.
It was cruel back in the day confining
them to small cages. I think it still is
now to to an extent, isn't it?
But yeah, they they they try to change
(18:13):
legislation.
There's periods of my time when I was
you doing all this work that I used to
keep an eye on all that. Um
so moving on to uh to nettles. Yes. Um
you've made us a lovely uh cup of tea of
(18:34):
of nettle tea today. Yeah. Enjoy. And
it's nettles mints. So, I love nettles
as nettles is, but when I make my cups
of tea to encourage other people to
start drinking nettles, I suggest um
putting a little bit of mint in because
people are familiar with mint. So, um
(18:55):
something they recognize, but at the
back, the undertone of the mint is the
nettles with with its huge benefits. And
I So, before we go any further, that
that is super fresh. It's tasty. It's
It's a really nice cup of tea. I've
never had nettle tea before. Oh,
wonderful. Um, so that's really special.
(19:16):
What What about the the tea nettle tea
that you can buy sort of off the shelf?
Obviously, it's not as fresh, but is
that still Yeah. So, Clipper Clipper do
a very nice organic nettle tea in a tea
bag. Um, I
recommend having nettles whichever way
you can choose to have it. So obviously
(19:39):
in some places where nettles are not
growing freely and you can't just go and
pick them city areas you know if you can
purchase nettle um dry nettle you can
buy it in loose like you would buy loose
tea you can buy dried nettle um you can
buy it in a tea bag form but best of all
(20:00):
is going out picking it yourself and you
know it immerses you in the nature and
you can learn so much by just looking
where the nettles is growing. So let's
let's go to where your nettle journey
came from because this is fascinating.
You went to university at the age of
late 50s. Late 50s and you went to
(20:23):
Felmouth University. I did. And let's
let's let's go with that journey. Okay.
So just picking up from the chickens. So
I was creating all this wonderful work.
I thought it was wonderful, but it must
have been because it was selling. So,
um, a lady in Birmingham actually, she
filled her whole solicitor's office with
(20:45):
all my work. She invited me to go there.
It was literally walls like this, just
full of my work. She would purchase it.
What was this? This was artwork. This
was all the sustainable textiles. I
would stitch the pictures of chickens. I
would have a sewing machine and because
my eyes are not brilliant, I would do a
zigzag stitch um rather than a running
(21:06):
stitch. So these pictures became very
lively, very flamboyant and these
chickens used to get up to all sorts. I
I would I would create their legs and
you know they would be doing all sorts
and they became pictures with telling
stories within the pictures and
um at that point of of having a couple
of years of success with the chickens my
(21:28):
friend passed away. Ah this your friend
Howard? Yeah my friend Howard right it
was very unexpected and he hadn't even
drawn his first pension. Um, and it was
tragic and it just took the wind right
out of my sales. My business was gone.
Howard was gone and I was lost again. I
(21:49):
was just picking up at that point. This
was 2015. So, I'd had 15 years of
creating Jane and getting this funky,
fun,
lively person going. you know, I was
just getting somewhere
and and and looking to the future to
(22:10):
have a financial some financial
stability when um we no longer had
Howard and I just was taken back so
abruptly that um the grief and the shock
I just didn't know what to do with
myself and
so obviously I didn't want to go back to
(22:31):
where I had been with working for
um somebody else because I was now um
entrepreneurial, you know, I was I I was
keen to create. Um also at that time I
did get a patent under my belt. I
created something else, but that's
(22:51):
another story. Um so I was busy working
on that project.
Um and I had met somebody on a catwalk.
We were doing a um charitable fashion
um evening to raise money. I can't
remember the cause, sorry, but it was
(23:12):
down at the Queen's Hotel in Penzance.
And I was paired up with a lady that I
didn't know. And our nurse were a little
bit, you know, all over the place that
evening. We had to they'd put a raised
um runway or what do you call it? Um you
know, for for us to walk. The catwalk.
The catwalk. It was raised and I could
see all these people kind of looking up,
(23:34):
you know, to where we'd be walking. It
was a bit nerve-wracking. So, you were
modeling, were you? I was modeling
clothes. Yeah. So, for a for a a shop,
um, it was called McKay's in Penzance at
the time. I think they've gone from
Penzance now. So, I was paired up with a
lady called an was at university and she
(23:55):
was a little bit older than me. So when
she told me she was a student, I was
like, "Student at your age? Wow. How did
you become a student? Sure. You just
phoned them up." Yeah. So that that was
it really. So I um we we had our evening
and I said, "Oh, I'd really like to talk
to you some more about your experience
at Farmouth University." She did
(24:15):
journalism. So um I met up with her for
a coffee some days later. I was ke this
was probably springtime and obviously
with university looming for September I
was keen to go if I could and I I'd had
a quick look online at the courses and I
thought well when people came into my
(24:36):
gallery and said to me oh these pictures
are amazing how uh where did you do your
design art degree I would always sort of
say well I don't have a degree and there
was just something about um my
confidence that got knocked a little. I
don't know why imposter syndrome. Well,
it was really so at that point I thought
(24:59):
this is an opportunity to underpin all
that I've been doing with a
degree and um I met an and she said oh
I'll help you you know let's have a look
online and we'll get the phone number of
Falmouth uni and she was keen for me to
go. So she was leaving before I started
(25:20):
so I never actually got to see her there
but um I applied I got in and the rest
is history. I finished in lockdown
though that was a bit of a bummer
because at the end of your three years
you have a graduation celebration and
exhibition of your work which for me
(25:42):
didn't happen. Ah okay. So, so just
while you were at university,
uh, tell me the story of, um, how you
found nettles. So, yes, that's where it
all began. That's where it all began.
That's where the the nettle revolution
began. It did. I didn't call it that
till after uni when um I decided I
(26:05):
needed a website. So, yeah, a bit of
brainstorming for Nettle Revolution. But
at university I studied textile
design. And um you had three options.
You could print, embroider or weave. And
I went to university wanting to become a
weaver because whilst I was working on
(26:27):
getting a prototype and a patent for a
vehicle to get my grandchildren to the
beach over the sandunes, which wasn't a
push chair with little wheels. This was
a mono vehicle. I had to go to meet
people. I had meetings um with uh with
um Oxford
(26:48):
Innovation and they enabled me they had
they they backed me with some funding
and they enabled me to get a prototype
made. It was made in wood. It's in my
back garden still all these years later.
Um and I had to walk through the weave
department. Isn't it funny? life. So, I
(27:09):
had to walk walk through the weave
department to get to this guy's office
to talk about what the um prototype was
going to look like, how much it was
going to cost, how long it would take,
and all these kind of things. And I
would see uh out of
hours um probably during the holidays,
(27:31):
all these looms stood in rows like
soldiers. It was amazing. And I thought,
do you know what? I'm getting weaving
looms. Weaving looms. Traditional looms.
Yeah. And I thought, I would love love
love to um know how to operate one of
those machines. They're made of wood.
They look so natural. This is history.
(27:53):
You know, this is how people made our
cloth. And it was all turnurning around
in my head. So getting an opportunity to
go to university meant that I was now
going to be able to learn how to operate
one of these machines and it was just a
dream come true. It was just as simple
as that. It was magic. So you so you
learned how to use them the machine and
(28:14):
then and then they said to you, you've
got to choose a a a material or a a a
fiber to use. Well, that's how it works.
So all our clothing
um
has is is a fabric and back in the day
it would be natural fabric because
(28:36):
that's what we would grow and so that
was what was used. It's unfortunate that
plastic came onto the scene and years
down the line we've got polyester and
various other artificial
uh fabrics
which I wanted to get away from because
now I'm thinking sustainably. I'm
(28:58):
looking for a greener room. I want
everybody to um know uh the things that
I was learning. So I started looking at
natural fibers, started my research. I
came across flax and cotton and linen,
silk
um and
wool and eventually nettles. Um for the
(29:23):
people who are vegan and um you know
like me, you know, I I care about
animals deeply. I didn't want to touch
silk because they actually use
the the cocoon of the silk worm um and
they plunge it into boiling water to
(29:44):
process the silk and the little uh
silkworm inside gets boiled alive and
it's not a nice process. So I I I didn't
want to go that route. So a few of my
colleagues at the time were
um researching
flax. So I
(30:04):
decided I did something different and I
came across
nettles. Um I had nothing I had no
knowledge on anything um about the fiber
of nettles but once I started digging a
little I could see that there was a big
story to be had. So I went that way that
(30:24):
that route and it was amazing. It opened
up a a whole new world. Who would have
believed it? But once I started
researching nettles, I came across
Nettles for Textiles, which was a face
which is a Facebook group um a growing
rapidly growing Facebook page now. Um
(30:46):
run by a few people, but Alan Brown was
on uh on there and Jillian Eden, I have
her book here
somewhere.
Um I got hold of Alan Brown. I contacted
him and said that I was writing a
dissertation all about nettle fiber and
(31:07):
could I ask him a few questions to
include in the
dissertation. So we kind of grew a
friendship from there and at that
time I was just loving all the history
of the nettles. So I have a book here
called a natural history of nettles. uh
lots of uh information in that yellow
(31:29):
book here that I was able to use in my
dissertation and uh and I ended up kind
of going online um using the
universities
um
search engines and finding different
books and
um well whilst I'm doing all this Alan
(31:51):
Brown not that I knew directly at that
time was going through a very tragic
time of his wife becoming sick with
cancer and he was trying to cope with
all this um going for long walks with
his lovely dog Bonnie into Brighton
Woods. It's coincidence that he was
living in Brighton and that's where I'm
(32:12):
from. So it was a lovely connection. Um
and he was looking at the nettles
wondering about a story that he had in
his head and Christian Anderson about
some swans. These these swans had these
the swans were had been um the brothers
of a young woman. Um but they'd had a a
(32:35):
spell cast upon them and they'd become
swans. And this young woman wanted her
brother's back. So she had to seek um
the wicked person who'd cast the spell.
And the person said, this is the story
in Hans Christian Anerson, um that if
she wanted her brothers back, she would
have to go into a graveyard and weave
(32:58):
nettle jackets for them.
And that interest in Alan Brown's head
was, well, I wonder how you can do that.
You know, how is this a true story?
What's this all about? Um, he he then
(33:18):
um spent a lot of time gathering nettles
when the stems are about five or six
foot long and returning home with them.
And he started teaching himself how to
get the fiber out. So, while he's
teaching himself to do this, he has a
friend called Dylan. And he says to
Dylan, "On the Facebook page, I've been
talking about creating these fibers."
(33:39):
And people are showing interest. So,
could you do a little bit of filming?
You know, perhaps just catch me, you
know, breaking them and so I can show
people how they might have a go. So, he
starts, so Dylan starts making small
films of him doing
that. And then the process when you're
(34:01):
breaking open your nettle fiber, you get
your your lengths of fibers out, but
then you have to process those. You have
to ply those fibers to make them
stronger. So that's so that's so first
you get a single fiber and then you have
to ply it into like a string. So you
know if I pulled I can pull easily pull
(34:21):
out one of my hairs, you know, it'll
just I can pull that out. But then if I
get a little bundle Yeah. you know this
almost impossible. Yeah. Yeah. That's
right. I mean so you're looking at
strength there. You're looking at
strength. So it's called plying. So um
um Allan had to learn how to
spin. And then he had to learn how to
(34:45):
take the yarn he'd created to make a
fabric because during this process he
thought I wonder how I can make a cloth
you know and he's also doing the
research. uh looking at ancestral
fabrics. So I was very curious about all
this. Um, and at that point over a
number of years of me watching his
(35:06):
progress and him watching my progress,
um, I
discovered that,
um, they they they'd created quite a lot
of, uh, information, filmed it, and
decided they could probably put a small
film together about the whole process.
And in the meantime, his wife did pass
(35:28):
away. Yeah. So in the story it's about
uh grief. It's about the love of the
land. It's about historical relevance to
the history of the land. It's about how
our ancestors used to create cloth from
our land. And it's h and it's all about
(35:48):
where we will end up eventually. M it's
about our how fragile our life is how
strong we can make it while we're here
but then how fragile it can become will
become and how then
compostable you
know the things that we make from
nettles my nettle scarves you know the
(36:10):
the cloth that I
make I can lay that in my garden and
over a period of time it will just
decompost back and become soil the
creatures in the soil, the bacterial
elements
and insects will eat it and so it's not
going to sit there like plastic for 100
years not or more. So, so the whole
(36:32):
story for me, the background story is
promote natural materials
um so that we're saving our planet from
these plastics. And now I have eight
grandchildren. My story has become I've
become more determined to get this story
across and some of the grandchildren too
(36:53):
young to understand what I'm doing. But
there'll come a day when they'll think,
"Oh, that's why grandma was weaving and
that's why she had those strange looking
scars wrapped around." They'll take this
forward as well, won't they? Hopefully,
potentially
hopefully um I will have imparted
knowledge. Yeah, for sure. and history
(37:17):
and even if they don't take it forward
the legacy that I leave that I hope to
leave in the work that I'm doing will um
sustain some future. So you graduated
university, you've found nettles, you've
uh you've met several people on your
(37:37):
journey of researching nettles and
you've created is this when you've
created uh the nettle revolution.
So yes, having left uni, had a studio
built to house all my looms that I'd
acquired. Um so my son-in-law built the
studio during lockdown cuz he was a
(37:57):
builder, couldn't work. So that was
fortuitous in that respect. So I have a
lovely studio. Um I wanted to run
workshops on how to weave and um talk
about
nettles. Uh but nobody in Cornwall feels
um basically they didn't want to pay me
(38:17):
to teach them. Um it was quite hard to
earn a money um showing
people the skills of setting up a loom
and weaving.
Um, so I was looking for other
opportunities to earn a living. Mhm.
Um so I I thought I need a website and
(38:41):
during that period oh one interesting
thing that happened whilst I was still
at university on my graduation day I was
given this book and it's a book that was
just being handed out to all graduates
and I thought it looks like a really
interesting book and actually I'm
(39:01):
gifting you this book. Oh wow. It's um
from um Creative Uprising by George
Harwick. Yep. So George Hardwick. Um
Thank you. Yeah. At that time I thought
he was in Glastonbury because there's
lots of references of him being sound
engineer at Glastonbury
(39:24):
um music festivals and things like that.
And there's a reference in there to Ed
Sheeran because he was working with
George was working with Ed and Ed was
quite young and he was getting under
George's feet while George was putting
out all the you know sound equipment and
everything. And anyway, I read the book
and it's got just some great information
(39:46):
in there and I wanted to thank George
because it moved me this book. It taught
me there's a quote in there. It taught
me something very powerful. It said it's
there's a quote in there um that says
that um let
nature shape you into a force of nature.
(40:07):
And I thought well that's exactly what's
happening to me. You know I am becoming
a force of nature. I can I just stop you
there? Let me just um just just hear
that slowly. Let nature
Let the force of nature force of nature
shape you into a force of nature. Yeah,
(40:28):
that's beautiful, isn't it? It is. Yeah.
Sorry to interrupt you there. Carry on.
So, I I really resonated with that
phrase
and the name of the gentleman is in that
book. It's Malister. I sorry, I've
forgotten his name exactly. That's okay.
We'll have a look at that later.
(40:50):
Um, but I said to George, "Would he mind
me pinching that quote?" He said, "I'm
I'm sure he wouldn't." So, um, at that
time, so so I wanted to thank, um,
George for this great publication and,
um, I went on LinkedIn to look for him
(41:10):
and I sent him a private message to say,
"I've read your book. It's amazing." And
um next thing I know he's phoning me and
said, "Let's meet." Amazing. And um he
happened to be at the launch pad at
Felmouth at the time. So he was on my
doorstep. I couldn't believe it. And
(41:31):
he'd teamed up with Mike Turner and they
were setting up a business called The
Greater Life for People over 50. Um so
that there is this period or this
um misconception really that uh we get
to a retirement age and we're done.
(41:54):
Yeah.
And I knew that you're only just getting
started. Well, exactly. I knew that I
was just getting to the point where I
was building something. So there was no
way I would be wanting to retire. And
Mike Turner is is obviously a similar
age and he he is just building a new
(42:17):
business so he's not going to be wanting
to retire. So this is this is how the
nettle revolution was born. Yeah. So I
got together with these guys to find out
what they were doing and being over 50
they decided that they could interview
me in various ways. I I could help them
um by feed giving feedback and so that
(42:38):
they would know how they could take
their a business forward which would
appeal to people over the age of 50.
and we formed a a little founding group
and we would meet every Sunday on Zoom
and there was a few of us by now and we
would all um brainstorm their new
(42:59):
business which was in alignment with
what what I was doing now
because I wanted to grow Nettle
Revolution. So they helped me by um
creating a website for me and
brainstorming names. You know I was
coming up with all sorts of nettle um
con you know uh phrases with nettles in
(43:22):
it. Anyway, we settled for nettle
revolution and on the 3rd of January
just a few years ago the website was
born. The name was bought and born and
and I am I became little revolution. I'm
loving it.
Brilliant. So, tell me what what what
does nettle revolution look like? What
(43:43):
does it do? Well, I take the sting out
of nettles. I love that. That's what I
do. And that's a that's a um a metaphor
for life, right? So, you've taken the
sting out of your life. So, let me show
you. And you've taken the sting out of
your life and
used something that that would normally
sting you for something so valuable. and
(44:05):
um you know and creative etc etc.
Exactly. So there's usually two sides to
things, isn't there? Yeah. An upside and
a downside, a bad side and a good side.
A dark side and a light side. And that's
how I see the nettles. So the nettles
are magical. They really, really are
(44:27):
magical. If anybody can watch the nettle
film, the sorry the nettle dress fil
um they will appreciate the magic behind
nettles because in that film it's
captured perfectly. So I in my research
was discovering the magic of
nettles. They are mystical. They are
(44:49):
strong, resilient, powerful, energetic,
lively,
nutritionally rich. They're they're
abundant in fiber. They're abundant in
producing life for creatures
um that need a habitat.
Um there's just so much I could probably
(45:12):
spend hours just talking about the
nettle. So, I like to think of nettle as
a metaphor and that my life to this
point has had quite a few knocks and
some stings and you know the pain that
you feel if you get stung by a nettle
(45:33):
accidentally when you're just brushing
through them and you're totally not
expecting you. It does take your breath
away sometimes and you do say ouch or
worse. And kids do cry if they fall off
their bike and get stung.
Um but for me now uh I embrace those
stings. I I look at any obstacle in my
(45:56):
pathway as a opportunity to grow, a
learning experience, a learning
experience. And I also have learned so
much from the
nettle. Um, in as much as I am careful
how I use my words because like the
(46:18):
nettle, the nettle can
harm and it can also heal. And it's like
a two-edged sword. And our words are the
same. Our words can harm or heal.
And over this period of learning about
nettles, I've got deeper and deeper into
(46:38):
becoming a creative force of
nature. And something happened along the
way whereby my son approached me and
said, "Mom, could you
please trial this um website for me,
this
um program that I've developed?" And I
said, "Yes, of course. And what is it?"
(46:59):
and he said to me back in October, "I've
created an app for J for gratitude
journaling." And I thought, "Well,
that's right up my street. That's
amazing. I wonder where all that came
from because it it was a bit like my my
son was working from home because
postcoid he was still working from home
at that time. And his home was much like
(47:24):
your office here, you know, in the other
room. It was just full of screens and
coding and he was coding and uh creating
and
I looked at his um gratitude journaling
app. It's called say thank say say
thanks.ai AI. And it gave me a prompt
(47:45):
each day and I would think about the
prompt and then
respond and then it would respond back
saying, you know, you're on the right
path or think about it from this aspect
or that angle. And over the last six
months, it's rewired my whole brain. I'm
(48:07):
not saying it's done yet, but it's
rewiring my whole brain to remove all
the negativity from my past. All that
harmful toxic stuff that maybe I'd
stored and revisited from time to time.
I don't want to do that anymore.
So, I want to just be uplifted by the
(48:29):
nettle and I I I want to just stay on
the positive side of life
and for every obstacle that comes my
way, I'm just going to be looking at the
positives and take everything as a
learning opportunity and so that I can
(48:52):
move forward and teach people what I'm
learning myself.
So you this is amazing stuff. You've
you've you've taken nettles and you've
taken affirmations and um and you've
you've healed yourself uh or you're
healing yourself with them. And this is
nature, right? This is nature, right?
(49:12):
This is about as nature as it comes. So,
so the other aspect of
this is whilst I was researching nettles
as a
fiber, I was being inundated with
nettles for the health bi benefits that
I could be rewarded with by embracing
(49:35):
nutritional nettles in my life and in my
diet. So, not only am I weaving with
them to make clothing now, I'm
also creating teas, um, chopping them up
and putting them in my stews,
um, using them in in all sorts of way,
making nettle balm. I'm doing all sorts
(49:57):
of things with them now. Um,
and the nutritional benefits are just
vast. M and I realized although my
website Nettle Revolution was created to
be a show case for my scarves to sell
scarves and I have been selling nettle
(50:18):
scarves
um I wanted to add in there all the um
extra information to help improve
people's lives in a physical well-being
kind of way.
Amazing. and tell us about um Theopathus
(50:39):
and uh is it small business Sunday? So
along the
way I'm looking for ways to grow and
expand and years ago when I had my
chickens I came across Theopites's small
business Sunday and I would every Sunday
I would write my little um Twitter text
(51:01):
and pitch to him with my about chickens.
I would make it humorous. I would make
it sad. I would make it any which way to
try and appeal to him. Did it for years
and I I I didn't hear back from him, but
I tried. And so the first time I did
that, well, it occurred to me I could
(51:21):
start again with the
nettles. And uh the first time I did
it, the following day I get a message
from Theopo Pitus that I'm a winner. I
was like, I just couldn't believe it.
This is with Nettle Revolution. Yeah.
Amazing. So, I messaged him on Twitter
(51:41):
because you you can pitch to him on
Sundays between a certain period of time
and then on the Monday he picks
um it was three winners back in those
days. It's more now because he's
expanded to Instagram and LinkedIn, but
it was just Twitter then which is now X
and
(52:02):
um yeah 8:00 he reveals the winners. So
when you become a a winner
um it's less than 1% of people that have
actually submitted a pitch to him. So
it's a big deal. M and I had said that
I'm now um
creating scarves from stinging nettles.
(52:26):
And I my my little tagline that I
believe won it for me was the um bit
where I do say I take the sting out of
the nettles because I think it was
punchy enough to get his attention. So
what that meant was I get to um go and
meet him uh receive an award and each
(52:50):
year now we have a big celebration which
is held I've been to two now um I won
two years ago um it was Birmingham at
the
IC and uh he brings in wonderful
speakers. So last year was Stacy Solomon
um and this year and others and this
(53:13):
year oh sorry Maxine Laceby she's she's
been amazing um mentor to me and Maxine
particularly
um came on Zoom and helped me with uh
promoting ways of promoting my nettle
bomb because I wanted to um scale up
(53:35):
because uh at the time Theo said at this
event, "How are you going to scale up
your business?" And I knew I couldn't
scale up by weaving
scarves. It's not fast enough.
Um so I decided to make Nettlebomb and
the wonderful Maxine Lace was one of his
(53:56):
keynote speakers of the day and she was
humbled enough to spend time mentoring
me on Zoom. That was a wonderful
experience. She Maxine Laceby owns
Absolute Collagen. It's huge. I've met
her actually. Wonderful. I believe.
Yeah. Yeah. She's just become a grandma
(54:16):
conference last year. She's lovely. Um
so we connected on um socials.
Um, in the
meantime, I met a GP down in Marazion,
uh, which has taken me on a little bit
(54:37):
of a trajectory,
um, away from the nettle bomb,
um, because we started looking at ways
of using Nettle
Revolution to help heal people
um, and and prevent them from needing to
go to uh the doctor's surgery because
(54:58):
it's so hard to get appointments at the
moment. So, the lady Helen Angel that I
met, she's uh a current GP. So, we're
planning to have um have Helen on the
show at some stage. Wonderful. Solve is
an SEO and web design agency that builds
highquality sustainable websites and
strategies to help businesses grow
(55:20):
online.
They're also BC Corp, meaning they're a
business for good, making a positive
impact while driving real results. As a
special offer for our listeners, Solve
is offering a free website audit and
consultation. Just mention searching for
a greener room to claim
(55:40):
yours. So, yeah, we're hoping to get
Helen on the show at some stage. This
actually leads us nicely into your um
the evidence that you uh you've brought
along with you this time. So, we've
asked you to bring along five bits of
evidence and uh for a bit of fun, what
we're going to do is we're going to give
you a minute to talk about each one if
you can if you can last that long. Alex
(56:03):
over there has got a dinner bell and
he's going to be timing. So, at a minute
he's going to ring the dinner bell. So,
the first one, this is going back to uh
to Helen. Um, Live to 100, Secrets of
the Blue Zones. It's a Netflix film by
Dan Bha. Is that how you say it? Bner.
There we go.
(56:24):
Oh. Um, yes. So,
I was um busy with Nettle Revolution,
building it up and taking myself off for
walks because that's when I can do my
thinking. And I kept bumping into a a
woman on the beach. And uh one
particular time uh talking to her and
(56:47):
she said um oh there's a lady you need
to meet called Dr. Helen Angel. She's
very much aligned with what you're
telling me. Um you may have you know be
able to do something together. And so I
went to meet Helen and yes, we hit it
off and we are setting up the golden
zones which is um an even greater uh
(57:09):
project than the blue zones because
we're creating it here in Cornwall and
we are the golden ladies the and and and
it's been established on the golden
mile. Go on, carry on for a minute. The
golden mile in Marazion was um initially
um known for um it's seaweed and the
(57:30):
farmers used to collect it to put on
their fields as a way of fertilizing it
and making cornal much more uh fertile
and sustainable. So what's what actually
uh is the golden zone? So, what we want
to do is help people uh stay well, be
become fitter, and and and live longer
(57:52):
by becoming aware of what they're eating
and um eating better. And that's based
on the Blue Zone. It is. Excellent.
Okay. So, the next one, you've got one
minute to talk about The Nettle Dress,
which is a film by Dylan Howitt
and Alan Brown. So Alan Brown is the
creator of the nettle dress and um he's
(58:15):
done a fabulous
um he's created a fabulous film which is
all about um the
natural fiber of nettles and how you can
take it straight from the land, process
it with your own hands and turn it into
a beautiful soft fabric that he then cut
(58:37):
and created a dress for his and our
beautiful daughter and uh she's wearing
it in the film and um he just tells the
whole story of why he did it and um it's
just inspirational. It's it's it's it's
changing it's changing the way we see
nettles and the future of the planet.
(59:00):
It's so powerful.
I actually um I actually watched the
trailer last night and it looks like a
beautiful film. It's a beautiful look
forward to seeing that. So, you now have
one minute to talk about 101 uses for
stinging nettles by Pierce Warren. Oh,
I've got that one here. So, in this
little book, um it talks about the the
(59:22):
benefits of using nettles in your diet.
So, for instance, um they help with
eczema. They um produce shinier hair,
beautiful skin, um help with sore
throat, sore mouths, um gout. Um there's
recipes in this book about nettle pies,
how to make nettle cream nettle. So, my
(59:45):
grandma used to make a pudding called um
Renee. Uh is it what it's called? Renee.
Anyway, it was a it was a lovely milky
pudding and she used to use a renet in
this pudding and this book tells you
that you can use nettles instead of the
renet that she used to use. There you
go. Wonderful. So, interestingly
(01:00:07):
interested in the the eczema thing. Is
that a balm that you put on the XMO or
is that a drink that you both? So um
obviously if you have any conditions
it's good to have to work from the
inside and to also apply it on the
outside. The sometimes people are
applying lots of lotions and potions to
the skin but actually they're not
(01:00:28):
thinking about the stories that they're
telling themselves and if they're living
in a kind of negative world that's
producing a biochemistry in your system.
So, you're not going to be getting
better until you change the thoughts
that you're So, so you're talking about
the thoughts that you're having plus
(01:00:48):
what you're putting into your body plus
what you're putting outside your body.
That's the way to live a long life. That
makes absolute sense, doesn't it? That
makes absolute sense. The next one,
you've got a minute to talk about.
Nettle. Now, this is a type of nettle, I
understand.
Nettle di
doica.
(01:01:09):
Did I say ica dioica? Ertica do
dioica doica by Amanda Clenner.
Oh um I Oh so yes that's that book. Um
so I do dioica is the um Latin name for
(01:01:31):
nettle. There are actually other nettles
um that grow in different places uh of
the world, but our British version is
the erica dioa and it means two houses
and it means fire because when you get
stung it burns and you need two plants,
you need a male and a female to um
cross-pollinate to um produce. And um in
(01:01:56):
her book she she employs other um
authors and there's people in there
talking about the use. So how to make
shampoos, soaps, um food from nettles. I
love that book. Um it's very useful. And
these these are things that anyone can
do. Anyone can do it. Just follow a
recipe like you would you know make an
(01:02:17):
apple pie. You you can actually download
things from the internet. And
there we go.
Wonderful. Wonderful. So the the the
your fifth book is A Natural History of
Nettles by Keith GR Wheeler. Well, this
was a book that I used um to get a lot
of information from for my dissertation.
(01:02:39):
And um interesting information in that
book, the history of nettles. Um going
back 5,000 years, um it was found in
tombs. um people had been embarmed using
nettles and it was highly priced. So it
was actually brought in 6,000 miles in
some cases to dress the person who'd
(01:03:01):
passed away. Um soldiers would um
icicate themselves uh during war periods
which meant taking off their shirt and
um beating themselves with the nettles
to stimulate their circulation because
they may have been standing around for
long periods in very cold weather. So it
(01:03:21):
would heat up their body and stimulate
them and get the blood flowing and they
may have had cramps in their feet or um
they couldn't get their feet warm. So it
would help warm their bodies up. Wow,
that's incredible. So, that's that's
five books that or five um five bits of
media there that are very worth having a
look at. Now, we're going to uh go
(01:03:43):
through your top tips. And once again,
you have one minute to talk about
drinking a daily nettle infusion. Yeah,
let's all try and get three cups of
nettles into our system each day um to
help purify our blood, to help rid
ourselves of allergies,
(01:04:04):
um to feel more alive, to boost your um
immune system, to support your kidneys
and liver, to detox. Um we're producing
negative thoughts 90% of the time, and
that produces toxins in our body.
Nettles helps flush it through. It will
help you go to the bathroom more
regularly because it's um flushing those
(01:04:28):
waste materials out of your system.
Perfect timing. Practicing this, aren't
I? Um just before we go any further,
tell us how we make a cup of nettle tea.
So, uh go pick your nettles from um a
nice clean patch where no dogs have been
or car pollutions. Um I take the top
(01:04:48):
four inches of a plant. So, here's an
example.
Um, you know, you just need the top two
two layers of uh leaves. Pop them in a
mug or a teapot or a jug. Put your hot
water on top and wait at least 20
minutes for some of the nutrition to
come filter through from the plant. And
(01:05:11):
you can then um top it up with more hot
water or drink it as it is. You can add
rosemary, mints, sage. Um, you can
flavor it with chamomile. You can flavor
it however you like. As long as you
drink it, it's really good uh healthy
natural free medicine. And um I advise
it every day. Every day. So, uh, eat
(01:05:34):
nettles in season. Go eat nettles in
season. So, they're in season a lot of
the year. So, we they're growing now.
They're low to the ground now. Start
picking them. So, uh, what is the
season? Nettles start growing um about
March time. You see them springing up.
In fact, because we're a mild climate
(01:05:56):
here in Cornwall, they don't actually
stop. Okay? But they'll start springing
up noticeably in March. And um you know,
they're well, you know, they're probably
a foot high at the moment, April time.
And then they'll grow to six foot, five
or six foot depending on shade and
light. um the opportunity
um they'll grow, you know, five or six
(01:06:18):
foot. Um and you can carry on picking
the tops off them right through to the
summer. But once they start producing
little necklaces, they they kind of the
flowers hang down from the leaves. Then
you um can stop picking them. Then I
heard it's not true, but I wouldn't like
(01:06:40):
to um say for sure that uh this is when
the plant may change and become a little
u intolerant to some people um creating
some um I can't remember the name of the
um crystals that are formed in the
body. Yeah. But
(01:07:02):
um at that point the seeds are forming
and I collect the seeds and then I keep
the seeds all winter. One spoonful, two
spoonfuls of seeds on your breakfast
cereal in the morning or in a smoothie.
Um are like a caffeine lift. Ah full of
nutrients and uh another boost for your
(01:07:22):
immune system during winter. Amazing.
And the roots are very important to use.
So you can use all the plant. The roots
are um very useful especially to men to
support the prostate. Um, so you would
wash the roots and then chop them up and
put them into vodka, let them sit there
(01:07:43):
for a few weeks and then you can take a
little bit of that um liquid, add it to
water and have it as a tincture to help
um support
um yeah your body. Amazing. So uh the
next one is choose natural fibers.
(01:08:05):
I try hard to choose natural fibers. Um,
there are some shops I would never shop
at. Um, and I'm wearing this jacket
because it is bought recently from I had
a little break. We took my grandson. He
(01:08:26):
had a little op and we took him away to
recuperate. We stayed in Xmouth and I
walked to Budley Solstitton one
afternoon because I needed some time out
on my own. And I I saw a a um a shop
which was, you know, time around again
or second time around again. And I saw
this jacket and I thought, "Oh, that
looks like um a jacket I could wear, you
(01:08:48):
know, for in years." Yeah. And and it
has a Jagger label in it. Okay. So, I
asked AI to identify the period of this
vintage jacket, and it said 19 um 80s.
1980s. So, it's quite an old jacket, and
it's pure wool. Amazing. So, um while
(01:09:10):
we're there, you you we spoke earlier
about your scarfs and you said that you
use a mix of nettle and linen. I didn't
know what linen is. Tell us what linen
is. So linen comes from linseed. Um it
grows like flax and um nettles. Um and
(01:09:30):
it's a beautiful cloth. It makes a
beautiful cloth and it's well known for
being produced in
Ireland. It's a very strong material. A
lot of people are put off wearing it
because it creases quite a lot. But
these days, which isn't a good great
thing, but they do mix um synthetic
fibers with it to make it, you know, but
(01:09:53):
when you weave pure linen in with
nettles, it makes a a super strong and
uh and soft material. I don't tend to uh
weave with just nettles because when you
put your uh fiber onto a loom, you put
it under
pressure. There's a tension that you
have to create to get the cloth to
(01:10:15):
stabilize as you're weaving. And I find
it breaks a lot because my um yarn is
handspun and um because it's not done by
machine, it has imperfections, weak weak
weak places and and it it regularly
snaps. So I buy dead stock linen. Do you
want to know what dead stock is?
(01:10:35):
Absolutely. So um because I work in
sustain sustainability and I'm a waste
not want kind of girl. I hate waste. So
when mills close around the world and in
England we've lost a lot of um almost
all of them mills there is a chap in
Manchester who will go and
(01:10:56):
collect the um dead stock. So sometimes
the place closed down. They're waiting
for developers to come in to decide what
the building's going to become. And
these um cones of linen can be sitting
on machines for a number of years and
get dusty and dirty. Then they can't be
(01:11:16):
sold.
So kind of it would they would end up in
um landfill if there wasn't somebody
like me that would would doesn't mind
buying them in that state and I um I use
them. Amazing. In my work. Amazing. So
um this one's we've already sort of gone
(01:11:37):
into which is practice out uh outdoor
gratitude. Yeah. So we've talked about
um your son's app and and how you use
gratitude but tell us about practicing
outdoor gratitude.
Uh I did a workshop on Friday as it
happens um and it was about sensing
nature. So, we were into Hiddi and we
(01:12:01):
um walked in nature, had a good old
close look at all the beautiful shapes,
colors, scents, sights, and we collected
things and then we came back and we made
twoy moosees from what we collected. I
remember you telling me about tousy
moosees the other day. Now, tell us what
a tousy moosey is. It's a posie. Uhhuh.
(01:12:24):
And the moosey bit, the tusy bits, posy
and the mousy bit is back in the plague.
Um they used to wrap moss around the
bottom of the stems to keep them um
moist to give the posie a little bit
more longevity. During the plague,
ladies used to pick roses, honeysuckle
and lavender from the gardens and then
(01:12:46):
walk through the
unsanitated is it
unsanitated? Is unsanitated a word?
streets streets uh with these poses
under their nose um later became nose
gaze because they gave a heavenly scent
to the nose while they were walking
along. Queen Victoria reinvented them
(01:13:08):
almost 200 years later. She um created
um she gave flowers names uh meaning. So
we like have uh roses are indicative of
love and maybe a lily is more
representative of grief. Um and and
(01:13:28):
flowers all had meaning and young ladies
back in the day would be given a posy
from a gentleman and she'd be able to go
home, get out her book of meanings for
flowers and look to see whether he had
an intention just to go for a walk with
her or whether he was proposing
marriage. Bring bring that one back. And
(01:13:49):
then I decided to reinvent them in a
sustainable way almost 200 years later
again. um and looking at nature
from a sustainable way and seeing how we
can create beautiful things from hedros,
things that have died like dried
campion, things that have gone to seed,
(01:14:10):
but also adding in beautiful um herbs
from gardens like lavender and um
rosemary and sage and scented elements.
And then the last one here you've got is
share the nettle story with someone you
love. So I I just want to get out there
and talk to people about nettles now and
(01:14:32):
spread the word of they're free and
don't spray them with pesticides. You're
killing a habitat. You're destroying
nature. Um you're actually um putting a
dampener on a food that is so beneficial
to your health. So make your tea, chop
them up and create use them like a
(01:14:54):
spinach, you know, chop them up and add
them to other vegetables. Just soautay
them and um just add them into smoothies
and just take them however you can
because they are there. Um they they
also say that they have a
sting. It's a thought. It's just a myth
because who knows? But they they believe
(01:15:15):
that the sting is to prevent animals
from eating them so that they are left
for us because they are so beneficial
and nourishing for us human people.
Brilliant. Well, that's that's a lovely
way to bring that to an end. Um and
we've just got one more question for
(01:15:36):
you. um which is uh what can people do
today to make a better tomorrow and help
us find a greener room.
Well, I would say what I said earlier,
let the force of nature shape you into a
force of nature. Let's all look at
(01:15:57):
nature as a gift
and appreciate it for what it is. I did
a project at university called moanai
which is a Japanese word for do not
waste what nature has provided and they
also say in Japanese give gratitude to
nature. Amazing. How can people get hold
(01:16:20):
of you?
Have a website called Nettle Revolution
funny enough. Have um an Instagram
account Jane Grey
Nettleweaver. I have I'm on Facebook.
They can phone me any which way. I'm
here to be of service. I want to share
um with the world the benefits of using
(01:16:42):
Nettles.
Jane, thank you so much. I could chat to
you all day. Thank you so much for
coming in today and um so lovely to see
you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
That's it for this episode of Searching
for a Green Room. We'd love to hear your
thoughts. Let us know what you think,
who you'd like to hear from, any topics
(01:17:04):
you want us to cover. Drop us a comment.
Don't forget to like and subscribe so
you never miss an episode. See you next
time.
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