Avena Botanicals Nettle leaf is nourishing and strengthening. It is gathered from our Biodynamic gardens in spring and immediately creates a vibrantly green tincture. Supports kidney function.*
Nettle leaf is one of the most nutritious plants on earth; categorized as a nourishing food and nutritive herb. Nettle leaf is high in minerals and micronutrients like iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and various amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). Harvested in spring, Nettle is delicious and supportive all year round, nourishing and revitalizing the whole body and becoming a steadfast ally during the changing seasons.
Nettle enhances a feeling of overall well-being and vitality. Its deep green leaves support the immune system, the lymphatic system, and the kidneys. The leaves help to maintain healthy energy and stamina by supporting the adrenal system and metabolic functions of the body. Nettle supports healthy tissues and cells, offers our souls resilience, and helps build loving boundaries for the whole body.
Garden Notes: Every spring at Avena, Stinging Nettle emerges from the soil. With great anticipation, our gardeners, wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants and protective gloves, carefully cut pounds and pounds of fresh young Nettle. These deeply green leafy tops are hand-harvested under dappled light and immediately tinctured fresh.
Taste / Energetics: salty, slightly sweet, mineral, nourishing, strengthening, purifying.
Actions: nutritive, kidney tonic, depurative, alterative, hepatic.
When to reach for it: When you're craving "greens". For year-round nutritive support. In early spring and early autumn. When you desire to nourish the blood and strengthen the body. During convalescence. To support healthy pregnancy, menstruation, menopause, and aging. As part of a mineral-rich protocol. For highly sensitive people seeking stronger boundaries.
Botanical Name: Urtica dioica
Part Used: Leaf
Ingredients: Certified Biodynamic and Organic Stinging Nettle spring leaf, Certified Organic Pure Grain Alcohol, Springwater, Certified Organic Vegetable Glycerin
Suggested Use: Add 10-20 drops (.5-1ml) to 1 ounce of water 1-3 times/day or as directed by your healthcare practitioner.
Avena Botanicals values simplicity and the traditional ways of hand-crafting herbal products. They use simple tabletop tools instead of large, mechanized machines and they do not mass-manufacture.
This holistic and spiritually alive system of organic agriculture enlivens the soil, water, and plants along with the soul, spirit, and consciousness of humans. Biodynamic preparations and practices create herbal products that can benefit body, mind, and spirit and connect individuals to the source of their sustenance.
Since their inception in 1985, they have used no synthetic ingreidents, additives, or solvents of any kind in their herbal products or farming practices. Their on-site production facility only uses 100% biodegradable cleaning supplies.
Avena's products are produced on-site in their custom-built facility. You can take an herb walk through their gardens in the summer, while seeing smellIing baskets of herbs and flowers going into the facility, it doesn't get any more local than this.
Creating gentle, organic, high-quality herbal products that promote good health is their goal. They produce their products in small batches to ensure that their freshness and efficacy meet their high standards.
Avena's gardens are open to the public for a few select events each year. They are a peaceful sanctuary for people (and pollinators) to enjoy, learn in, and experience the gifts of nature. They host a handful of herb walks, classes, and retreats each summer, often accompanied by refreshing botanical sun tea.
These values remain constant in their thoughts, words, and actions. They care deeply about the health and well-being of the people and plants they serve and take extra care as they harvest the herbs and create products.
Despite the modern world's technological advances, many people around our planet remain unhappy and disconnected from nature. Avena's peaceful gardens, retreats, and hand-crafted herbal products assist people seeking to live in harmony with nature and with the spirit that connects all living beings.
They aim to create a working environment that embodies balance, health, and wellness. They ring a bell at noon for any staff who chooses to stop and meditate for 5-10 minutes. Their weekly staff meetings are held outdoors in summer and in a room overlooking the garden in winter. As a staff, they share yummy potlucks, birthday cakes, inspiring books, and garden walks.
Avena Botanicals is the first Demeter Certified Biodynamic farm in Maine. Biodynamic agriculture is a holistic and spiritually alive system of organic and ecological practices and philosophies based on the teachings of Dr. Rudolf Steiner. One of the core beliefs and practices of Biodynamic agriculture is to help heal the Earth.
Their hand-gathered herbs come into Avena's drying rooms and are immediately weighed and laid onto large screens. Most of these herbs are grown in Avena's three-acre gardens. They also collect a few herbs from nearby islands and meadows.
Over five hundred pounds of fresh, hand-gathered herbs come into Avena's apothecary annually and are thoughtfully prepared into herbal tinctures, elixirs, glycerites, and oils. Over 70% of these herbs come directly from Avena's Demeter Certified Biodynamic gardens. Their herbs are fresh, aromatic, sweet, bitter, pungent, and beautiful.
Avena's gardens have been purposefully planted with protective hedgerows and flowering plants that offer nectar and pollen to dozens of pollinators. Shimmering ruby-throated hummingbirds and various butterflies, honey bees and native bees fill their gardens with an array of colors, sounds, and personalities. The presence of pollinators fills hearts with joy and gratitude.
FDA Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
