Harvesting Stinging Nettles and Seaweed

My family and I have been spending some time at our seaside cabin during the last week or so. It's been great to get away from the rush of the city and work (although I do love my job - let's not get that wrong).


I've also been using this opportunity to harvest both nettles and seaweed, which I've been dreaming about all winter.


Here is the seaside of our cabin. Most mornings we drink our coffee and eat breakfast here. Right now we're doing it with thick jackets on, and watch the steam rise from our mouths. But it's worth it.

If we walk to the end of this balcony and look over the edge, you will see where we will be building the fourth (and thank goodness the final!) balcony during this summer. After this is done, all the big work will be done for at least another 7 or 10 years or so. We're looking forward to that.

Looking down to the left, one can see the stone beach just below us. It is actually illegal to build cabins this close to the sea in modern times, but follow this blog and you will find out why we are lucky to have this place.

Looking straight down, one can see all the nettles that needs to harvested (or as my husband would say - to be gotten rid of. I'm doing my best to harvest as much as possible as it grows to at least a meter high, and he's the one who will have to work in it while building the porch. Mind you, he finds a weed-whacker works wonders).

In order to get down to the nettles, it is necessary to walk all the way around the cabin. There will be stairs down from the porch one day in the future, but as for now we need to go the long way around.

Here is the door to our basement.... and the reason why we have a cabin so close to the sea. These stone walls are part of a foundation on a living quarters that can be dated back historically to the 1700's. And it logically goes back at least 100 years before this as this is when the old farm stead (which now belongs to my husband's second cousin) was recorded historically. Many farms had what can be loosely translated as a 'farm hand' or 'yeoman' in romantic terms. This was however not a romantic title to have.

The men (and probably also their families) that lived here would be allowed to live on a small corner of the farm in exchage for 10-14 hours of work a day. After that, they were free to go home and work on their own garden and produce their own food for their own survival. They were also allowed to fish, but part of this harvest had to go to the owner of the farm. And interestingly enough, there was a law stating that one day a year (a specific date which I am not sure of, yet) the owner of the farm could throw out this man (and his family if he had one) for no reason and replace him with someone else. So when it really comes down to it, those who lived here were slaves to the farm owner with no possibility for anything else.

But this is why we have a cabin so close to the sea. It is legal to continue building on an existing foundation, something my husband's grandfather started doing immediately after WW2.

And opening the door to the cabin, we see that we use this space for storage, and not a nice and tidy storage area either.

To the left we see an old window set in stone which would not have existed in the 1700's. It was no doubt added when my grandfather-in-law when he started working on it close to 70 years ago.

Shelving on the wall directly behind the door with all sorts of old nails, pipes, and knick-knacks that have been saved by various family members during the last 50 years.

To the right of the door, we can see the foundation for the the chimney, which can no longer be used without burning down the cabin. We however are content to use small electric heaters. My husband and I have done so many reperations and additions to the cabin that to replace the chimney will be something our children will have to do.... if they decide to do so.

As one can see however, this is not a large space. It measures about 3 meters by 5 meters, at the most. It's hard to fathom that an entire family, with at least 4 children and possibly many more, used to live here.

But here it is what I'm looking after - garden gloves. Because stinging nettles is pretty nasty stuff.

Stinging Nettles, or Brennenesle as it is known in Norway is not something you want to play with. The scientific name is Urtica dioica, and when touched, it will actually inject small amounts of poison under the skin. It stings and itches like a Dickens. If you have tough adult skin and can grit your teeth for 15 or 20 minutes, it usually goes over. But if you are a kid like my daughter, and accidentally run into it while playing football while wearing shorts and short sleeves, it can leave horrible red welts all over your body. Luckily Aloevera salva tends to work quickly.

At the same time, nettles has been used for centuries both as food and for it's medicinal qualities. It's rich in both A, E and K vitamins (something desprately needed during the 1700's when there is little time to produce or collect your own food) and is also rich in flavoids and plant acids. Common uses were against internal infections, heart and kidney problems, arthritus, and as a blood stopper. For these same reasons, it can be also used for the skin, once the stinging part of the plant is destroyed.

But first I have to pick a bunch.

Here is what I picked in 15 minutes or so. And even though I was wearing garden gloves, I was stung several times on the palms of my hands, though the material of the gloves. I've since made it a point to wear latex washing gloves after this.

But instead of grabbing the Aloevera, I decided to try seaweed, which I have also heard works wonders against small rashes and scrapes.

Leaving my nettles behind, I grab a bucket and head further down my property to the sea.

This rock wall that can be seen here is the first project of work at the cabin I was given 12 years ago, newly married and living in a country where I did not speak the language. There is a reason why I'm pointing this out and I will come back to it in a bit.

Another view of the same wall for the opposite side. Stick with me, there's a reason why I'm pointing this out.

Here we have the seaweed that I will be harvesting. It looks like we have two different types located on our beach, but really this is not true. What is seen above is what the seaweed looks like when it's establising itself on a rock face.

And this is what it looks like after it has had time to grow a bit.

And this is what it looks like when it has had a winter to grow without any of us removing it from our swimming area.

This type of seaweed is Ascophyllum nodosum, or is otherwise known as Norwegian Kelp. It is high in nutrients and minerals. The first thing I did was drop my bucket (well after taking pictures in any case), grab a few handfuls of seaweed and rub my itchy hands on it. Abracadabra, my itching stopped, and I was a happy girl again.

Other things I have learned about Norwegian Kelp - it stimulates cell growth, tones and hydrates the skin, and can apparently be used in soups, broths and chowders. While I have not tried that, I can say if you catch fish, pack it in this seaweed and then toss it on the fire, it will be the best meal you've had in a long time.

A close up of the seaweed - here are the small gas bubbles that help the seaweed float to the surface when the tide comes it. The closer to the sunlight they can come, the more photosynthasing that can occur.

While I'm busy with my gathering, I suddenly hear a noise behind me - it's my daughter who's suddenly gained an interest in snails and small crabs that the tide leaves behind when it goes out.

Here's a quick shot of the treasures she has found.

This shot shows the difference between an inexperience wall builder who has never pushed anything other than a pen and textbooks for 10 years (that would be me) compared to an experience farmworker. And that was the point I was alluding to earlier.

On the way up, I hang all my seaweed on a super old (50+ years?) apple tree that has long since stopped producing apples. It will be cut down and replaced in a year or so, but in the meantime it can be useful to me.

And my daughter follows me up because she's told that if she's going to look for more snails and crabs, she needs to put on a life vest.

Into our half finished kitchen to boil some water to make the nettles more customer friendly.

We still carry our water in by the bucketfull because it costs a small fortune to be allowed to be connected to the local irrigation system. And we would rather have a fourth porch instead.

And the water goes onto our old-fashioned oven that we inherited from my husband's grandmother.

While the water's slowly boiling, I carefully transfer the nettles into a siv.

Finally the water is boiled and I can pour it onto the nettles. Quite a nice vegitable smell rises up in the steam, similar to spinach but not as strong. Although I think I will add some mint essential oils when I use it in soap.

And while I wait for the water to do it's trick, I admire the view.

And ask my daughter what she's found.

She tells me she's found a mussel, lots of snails and a ton of bitty-small fish swimming just out of her reach.

And now it's time to separate the nettles from the other grass that it was harvested with. A job that is easily done without any painful consequences with my bare hands.

And here we have lots of nettles that is now ready to be added to my soaps.

It would also be interesting to note that I have read that fireweed loses its stinging abilities when dried, which is something I am also going to try. But since I intend to use this immediately, I couldn't wait the 5-10 days drying takes. But I will get back on that one and blog about my experience with that.

Dedicated to ARTMIND, or... An example of sewing from one who cannot sew, but really doesn't think it should stop her anyway.

I have a great friend, Artmind, on Etsy who works with clay and makes the most amazing, modern sculptures. She has just written a blog piece about finally purchasing a sewing maching and was describing how she needs to learn how to use it. Despite this, she has been able to make the most adorable stuffed doll.


I for one have never let my lack of knowledge of how to use power tools actually stop me from using them. And I've got the marks and scars to prove it.


Having said this, I would like to show what my sewing endavours produced yesterday.


Here is my sewing machine, a 1950's Bernia that my husband purchased for me a couple of years ago. As alluded to, I had never actually used a sewing machine before, and the instructions were written in Swedish and Finnish, not Norwegian. And it was 1950's Swedish and Finnish... which did not make things much easier. Luckily the manual had excellent pictures.



I don't actually make clothes, although I would really like to one day. And when I say make clothes, I mean actually make them. I can see myself finding all sorts of pieces of fabric and sewing them together and then figuring out afterwards if I should climb into the garment, or put it over my shoulders.


But that's a blog post for another time.


This is what I ususally use my sewing machine for - to repair my son's clothes.

My son, despite the fact he's getting old enough to not ruin his clothes, still wears holes through his pants which require repair every few weeks or so. I could get mad at him. I could scold him and tell him not to have fun and to grow up, but I figure that before I know it he'll be out of the house on his own and I really don't want to be left behind with a bunch of perfect pants hanging in the closet.

In any case, my son does not actually mind having patches on his jeans. I find this amazing because he is the only boy at school that has this. I do not know if there is any other mother in my neighborhood who can sew, or perhaps most are just not willing to bother with it. Regardless, I certainly am not willing to purchase new pants every second week.

Having been through this procedure a few times already, my son suddenly said that he wanted to pick the color of thread. This was okay by me. So yesterday he decided on red and blue.

Now the thing about not knowing how to sew is that I really don't know what to do when it comes to specific problems. Like how to sew patches on jeans that have very, very, incredibly narrow legs. I got the one leg sewed quite fine, but for the second leg the patch shifted despite the fact I had it pinned down. So suddenly there was way too much material on the fourth side of the patch to be sewn.

I had already spent over half an hour sewing and while I love my son dearly, I'm not about to start ripping out thread for jeans he's going to outgrow in another month or so.

And as I see it, every mistake I make is a potential piece of artwork in the making.

So with my ingenious intellect (or my ability to slide over to the side of laziness) I cut the patch in half, folded the material over itself and then sewed up the edges nice and clean.

My son thought it was the coolest thing he had ever seen and can't wait to wear these pants to school on Monday. He wanted to know how I 'got the patch to do that'. 'Ah, my son,' I said, 'A mother can't give away all her secrets.

The Latest Soaps -

I don't seem to be having as much time to spend blogging as I ususally do. The bright side is that this is mostly due to the fact I am getting a lot of steady sales. Not only do I have to package and send my products, I must also keep making great soaps that sell as well as thinking about very cool soaps to make for the summer season.


In the meantime, here is a pictoral list of what has appeared in my store during the last couple of weeks:

The above is a new batch of Tulip Petal with Exotic Floral Boquet Essential Oil. This time I used yellow tulip petals that have hints of pink, purple and green. Very lovely.

My Jasmine Oatmeal soap appears to be one of my best sellers, and I have now made a few batches of these. This particular batch is now selling through Etsy. I have two other batches waiting upstairs in my attic. They should be done in a few weeks.

This is perhaps the soap I am most proud about - a Chocolate Mint Soap that is made with Orangically grown mint. The differencein scent is astounding and since I have used organically grown herbs, I will never, ever, ever in my long, long life ever go back to even buying the best quality herbs from other places. When I made this soap, my kitchen and living room were smelling of mint for long into the day.

Here is my latest batch of Poppy Seed with Orange Zest. Also a steady seller.

Above is my third batch of Rose Petal with Pure Vanilla. One of my friends likes this soap so much because it reminds her of her childhood ice-cream.

This is my latest version of Mocha Shower Soap. This have to be one of my favorite soaps. I love how the coffee grounds in the soap scrub against my skin after a hard workout.

Here is a new soap that I am trying out, and which I use myself. This is an oatmeal soap that has the Essential oil of Patchouli. Just before Christmas I received a great book on herbs, soaps and skin care. And on one of the pages was a small paragraph, perhaps only 5-6 sentences long, explaining what Patchouli was. The sentence that read, 'a very popular scent from the 1970's' made me roll my eyes and think, 'well, I'll never find that!' Low and behold on my next trip into town to get supplies, in the store where I buy my essential oils, there were two bottles. I could not believe my eyes and bought both of them immediately. It is a very nice, heavy scent. And further research has informed me that Patchouli oil is effective at working against acne and exceme, as well as chapped skin.

Second to last, I have a couple bars of Chocolate Chip Mint soap left from an exhibition that I sold at a few weeks ago. I just love the way this soap looks, and had to show it off a bit. :)

And finally I have a new batch of Juniper Berry and Jasmine. This soap has a slightly heavier scent than my previous batch, without being overpowering.

Do check out my store often..... I have big plans in store for the coming weeks and months. It's going to be an exciting summer!

Etsy Artist Interview - Nancy Van den Bloom

It has been a while since I've written in my blog. Things have gotten busy in my life (this includes lots of Etsy sales - over 60 in a 3 day period), but now that things are calming down again, it's time to get back to business.


I have been wanting to share this interview with my readers for a while. This Etsy European is an artist that lives in the Netherlands. Before I read her answers to my interview questions, the thing that was most striking to me about her work is her broad brush strokes, her use of color, and her wide range of theme. Since reading her interview, I am very much taken by how her creativity seemed to always lie in the background of her life, although one can say that she's always been in touch with her creative side. In reading about how she came to develope a new relationship with her internal creative self, I get the sense of feeling that her creative self somehow was able to rush forward and envelope her, almost swallow her whole with great energy and exuberance. It seems to me in any case that this rushing forward, in almost a sense of abandonment can be seen in her work, the brush strokes and the colors I first fell in love with.

I have chose a variety of her paintings to show her range of ability, but one must check out her Etsy shop as well as her own website to get a true feel for her talent.


With no further ado, here is the interview.

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Name: Nancy van den Boom
Age: 50
Married/Children: I live with Cor and my two children, daughter Roos (15 years old) and Son Bas (22 years old) and 3 three cats.
Occupations: painter/artist and accountmanager internal facilities for the beautiful city of Haarlem.

Important Links: Nancy Van den Bloom Etsy Shop, Nancy Van den Bloom Homepage, and Nancy Van den Bloom Blog

Where did you grow up and what did you like best about it?

I grew up in the village of Heemskerk in the Netherlands, a place close to the dunes and the NorthSea with sandy beaches. A wonderful place to grow up. Lots of space to play outside, ride horses, dwelling and experience nature, weather and all the nice things of being outside which I love so much. The house where I lived with my parents and brother was half a mile from the castle “Assumburg” , which was a youthhostel . This castle and its function made my youth very special. Lots of foreign visitors, people to talk with and even work in the weekends, when I was 15.

I prepared breakfast, cleaned the bedrooms and it was a very nice opportunity to explore the castle and almost feel at home in this special, romantic place.
I also had the possibility of ride the horse of the farmer next to the youth-hostel and I had a great time there. I still remember it all so well and I cherish the memories of it all. I had a very happy childhood.

Where do you live and what is the best part of living there?

Now I live in an even smaller village not far from the castle I described. The village is called Uitgeest. It is near a lake with lots of recreation, flat land with cattle, dunes nearby and luckily, also the NorthSea. I like it a lot to live in this village, I am familiar with the surroundings and enjoy the rural touch of it. And the cities Haarlem, Alkmaar and Amsterdam are very close (about 30 minutes drive), so when we look for something else than rural elements for a day, it’s easy to do. We can visit these towns with all the wonderful elements like art, culture, shops, movies, people and restaurants and then go back to the “peace” of our village. Here we can smell the grass!

Is there a particular secret about where you live that only the locals know?

I don’t think the people in my village are very good at keeping a secret longer than 1 hour! They love to discuss all, and very much in the open. Perhaps it would be a nice secret that there’s a treasure on the bottom of the lake (a non-discovered painting of Vincent van Gogh in a big trunk, I would love to dive it up!).

What term would you use to describe your creative talent: artist/craftsman(woman)/creator/other. Why is it you see yourself in this way?

I see my talent as an intuitive creator. I just put up a canvas and grasp those brushes! I kind of intuitively check the connection between me and the subject that I choose. If it feels ok, I start painting and if I don’t feel a connection, I let it go and start looking for something else. In this way I keep on working in the flow.

How did you begin with this creative process and how does it add to your life?

I used to draw a lot as a child and my father was quite an example for me. And I remember he played a lot with light in his work and I loved it. When I was a teenager I didn’t draw so much any more, other interests…Both of my parents are very creative, my mother did wonderful watercolors, she discovered this also quite late in her life, but was always creating, like making cloths for her and me and my dolls. So for a long time (from my 14th till my 44th) no painting or drawing….

In 2004 I had a negative, frustrating feeling about my work and I asked myself lots of questions about changing my career. I looked for help and got advice from an internal advisor, who works with people that got stuck in their work, like me at that time. She had clever strategies to get people in contact with what they really love, their passions. For example, I had to write a fake diary about my dreamed life when I would be in the right place doing what I love. I remember visualizing myself as an author at the time. I had no problem at all visualizing this! It was a great feeling. Another task was to make a painting of myself. I painted (with acrylic, no experience but for school) a tree, with strong roots, some broken branches, lots of light. I liked it a lot to paint I noticed. I thought, wow what’s this? She was surprised with what I presented her. I started another painting, a selfportrait of me, at 8. I remember thinking this is really me and I loved the vibrancy of this early painting. I loved to paint and quite fast I tried oil paint and that’s when I ultimately fell in love with painting. This medium was really mine and I painted very much in a short time. I painted so much I forgot about the problems at work so the advisor had done a wonderful job letting me discover my passion. From that moment on I developed my skills quite quickly since I painted every day, like crazy almost and wanted to learn. I had no education and found it all out by myself, on my own. In 2 years I got lots of commissions, even big ones (portrait of 5 people for a magazine) and I must admit, this was going all very, perhaps, too fast. The pressure got high and I forgot to enjoy almost.

Where you creative before this time? If so, what other creative arts do/did you dabble in?

I did a part-time education directing movies and made quite “non-professional” but quite ambitious movies, together with Cor, who’s a great cameraman/photographer. Together we made a 40-minutes fiction-movie (I made script, did direction) with which we became the champions of the non-professional league in the Netherlands and the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxumburg). We also made a shortfilm on making coffee. Sounds dull and like daily routine, but in this shortfilm making coffee is full of suspense, and we managed to make this ordinary subject quite special by giving it a glamorous and suspense-look. When the cup of coffee is prepared in the end of the film, it looks like a great achievement. This was fun of course.
I loved making films, it’s a great process from scratch to showing an audience, but it’s a very intense, energy-swallowing exercise with lots of people (just like the work I do), locations and technique. Painting is something I do by myself, no negotiations, just color, composition, my own ideas, I love working like this. It’s very good to keep balance for me.

Is there something in particular that you find inspiring?

There is so much that inspires me! But in particular…it isn’t going to be a very suprising answer I fear: nature, light and shadows, colors.

When you have a quiet moment to indulge yourself and there’s no one around to bother you, what is it you like to do best?

Hot bathtub, lots of foam, smell of perfume, candlelight with enough light to read a wonderful book, and ideas in my head for a new painting!

What type of music are you listening to at the moment? What does this music do for you?

I like lots of music. Soul like Al Green, Temptations, Aretha Franklin, and some jazz too, like Ella Fitzgerald. The mood, the swing, the warmth of heart is what I love about this music. And I can sing along many of the songs, since I hear them such a long time already. It always brings me in a good mood, if needed…

Where is the place that you have visited in the past, that you have particular fond memories of? Why?

It is a place in the Netherlands I visited last year, B&B De Ziel in Diepenheim. I was surprised by my own country. A green region so close, so inviting and wonderful. I spent 4 wonderful days there with Cor, the two of us. That was really special because we enjoyed the simple things in life so much: a good hotel, good bikes to ride on, the sun in our faces.

Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview that you feel our readers should know?

Being able to create is of the important things to be really happy for me. I wish all people to live out their creativity, for themselves but also for all those who can enjoy what we create. Therefore I am so glad I discovered ETSY!