Here is a link to a post I wrote up about nettle some time ago. For some extensive and excellent monographs, search online or in books. I decided to use my time to share my experiences with the herbs and grow quality herbs in the You Pick Medicinal Herbs Garden.
Feel free to add information that you find in your studies and experiences and we'll all learn together.
CULINARY USES
According to Dina Falconi in her book, Foraging and Feasting, A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook, p. 43
Young shoot (under 18" tall) including leaf & tender stem: cooked in soup, stew, sauté, creamed, omelet, frittata, quiche, gratin, casserole, beverage
Plant taller than 18" but before flower: cooked in beverages, dried and powdered...
See: raw as tonic food, in very small amounts
Qualities - Leaf: intense, meaty, deep green flavor; blood-building; vitamin and mineral rich, especially high in calcium, magnesium and iron; fiery, circulatory health tonic.
Flower: Therapeutic preparations for allergies
Seed: Immune system and adrenal tonic