The scientific name for a weed I am seeing a lot around the farm this spring is urtica dioica, which sounds like something a doctor might tell you if your urinary tract infection has taken a turn for the worse. I much prefer the common name: nettles. The two t’s in the middle of the word look like the tiny spines on the stem of the plant itself. This is where the hollow hairs called trichomes reside. They act like hypodermic needles, injecting chemicals like histamines into flesh to produce a stinging sensation on contact.

My maternal grandmother Mildred once told me about her first enco...