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Nettle II

In the National Museum of Denmark, there's a 2,800 year old piece of Bronze Age cloth made from nettle fiber. Nettle fabric has been used a lot more recently: in the early 20th century, when Britain controlled India's supply of cotton, Germany and Austria got busy developing nettle as their own source of fabric. During World War I, German uniforms were made of it. Nettle can produce fabric dye, too. In the 1990s, German botanists re-discovered earlier research into high-fiber nettles, and today, various European clothing manufacturers specialize in nettle fabric clothing. Unlike cotton, the perennial nettle plant grows without pesticides.

(podcast: The Plant Detective, 8/2/14)

Beth Anne Austein has been spinning tunes on the air (The Folk Show, Dancing With Tradition, Freeforms), as well as recording, editing and mixing audio for Montana Public Radio and Montana PBS, since the Clinton Administration. She’s jockeyed faders or "fixed it in post” for The Plant Detective; Listeners Bookstall; Fieldnotes; Musicians Spotlight; The Write Question; Storycorps; Selected Shorts; Bill Raoul’s music series; orchestral and chamber concerts; lecture series; news interviews; and outside producers’ programs about topics ranging from philosophy to ticks.
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