Dandelions-Not A Weed! I made Tea! pg 3

[baymule]

Last year some dandelions came up in my garden beds. I let them stay because I remembered how much fun it was when I was a kid to pick the seed puff balls and blow on them. Which of course I did. DH thought I was nuts, which I am. I picked greens over the winter for the chickens and they ate all I gave them. This year, they are bigger and there is more of them, so I got to wondering what could they be used for.

I never would have thought.....

Hoodat, i thought about you and how you are the Dandelion Champion here on TEG. Now I know why. Please give us the benefit of your knowlege about this lowly, scoffed at plant.

It seems that dandelions make a good liver cleanse and can be used for treating and curing cancer. The flowers can be made into wine, jelly or tea. The leaves can be cooked for greens or eaten raw in salads. They are kinda bitter though. The roots can be dried, ground and used like a non caffiene coffee. All parts of this plant can be used for food or medicine.

Dandelion flower fritters
http://www.learningherbs.com/dandelion_recipes.html

Cancer treatment
http://undergroundhealthreporter.com/dandelion-tea-cancer-therapy#axzz2QHYBNFgT

http://digitaljournal.com/article/323433

http://www.bestherbalremedies.org/d...s-six-reasons-why-your-body-will-love-it.html

Dandelion tea
http://www.dandeliontea.org/dandelion-tea/dandelion-tea-recipe

http://firstways.com/2011/03/07/three-things-to-do-with-dandelion/

Dandelion wine
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelion.asp



Dandelion Jelly


serves/makes: 5 jars

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups yellow parts of dandelion blossoms
3 cups boiling water
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin



DIRECTIONS:


Pull the yellow blossoms apart from the green parts. Get lots and lots of blossoms.. While you are collecting them, you can freeze what you already have. Make sure there are no green parts since the green parts have a bitter flavor. I pack the blossoms into a 4 cup measure. More blossoms mean more flavor for the jelly.

Bring the water to a boil and fill the water with dandelion blossom shreds. Simmer over very gentle heat about 10 minutes. Pour the water and blossoms through a strainer. Press the blossoms as dry as possible to extract the maximum amount of water. Add more blossoms to the strained water and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Continue simmering and straining until all the blossoms are used up. Add more water to make up 3 cups. You lose some water because it is caught in the blossoms. Strain the water very well. I use a coffee filter. Combine water with lemon juice, sugar and pectin. Bring to roiling boil and stir until sugar is dissolved. Boil hard for one minute. Skim. Pour into hot jars and seal. I haven't used food coloring but I have seen this jelly lightly tinted and it looks prettier.


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I have been picking the dandelion blossoms in my garden every morning, pulling the petals out and drying them. When I get enough, I will make jelly. I'll let ya'll know how it tastes.

 

[journey11]

I don't have anything to add to your list of uses, Bay, but I will mention that they have a diuretic effect on the kidneys as well. I harvest and dry the roots and use them as a tea to allevate my sinus allergies. I think that effect must have something to do with their detox value. They are particularly powerful for detox if combined with burdock root.

I was tickled pink when I saw real research is being done on the root's effects on cancer cells (wish I had that fascinating article to post here...it was from a credible news source.)

My mom would send us out as children to pick the flowers so she could fritter them, a springtime treat. The leaves taste much milder if you only harvest them during the cool weather months. March here is the best time. Sorta how kale's flavor improves with frost. After they bloom, don't bother digging the roots. All of the plants potency will be spent on blooming. Hurry and get them before they bloom. I occasionally put the leaves on salads, but mostly just use the root.

The surest way to eradicate dandelions from your lawn and garden is to start eating them!

 

[NwMtGardener]

I've made dandelion jelly a couple times the past few years...its divine!! Sort of like honey. I saved my flowers in a ziploc bag in the freezer until i had enough, then thawed and plucked the green bits off. Its seriously the best jelly i ever made!!

My grandma used to make a dandelion greens salad that she poured a hot bacon dressing over...delicious!!

 

[nelson castro]

Dandelions rank as one of the top green vegetables in overall nutritional value. That is why eating would be great as well as beneficial to our health.. Try Dandelion Pizza, it will be the hit of the party with its unique flavor!

 

[Faith.M]

wow I think I am going to have to try that jelly! I can do some canning in spring!! AWESOME!

 

[897tgigvib]

Nelson, have you ever made Dandelion pizza? How is it?

 

[Poppyseed]

My mum used to put them in salads and drinks dandelion tea. It's supposed to be good for reducing cholesterol and water retention and is good for detoxing. These last two are probably because it is a diuretic. When I was growing up in the UK there was an old wives tale that playing with dandelions would make you wet your bed at night, which I now know is because of it eing a diuretic.
Never tried dandelion pizza though, but if yuo can put other greens on pizza, like spinach and rocket this can't be much different.

 

[hoodat]

I harvest dandelions several times a week and bring home a large shopping bag full for my rabbits. They even prefer them over clover. There is a large patch of the Italian dandelions on a hillside within walking distance of my house. They must have escaped from someones garden. The seeds from them have now spread to my garden. I try not to remove them except for cutting the tops, which grow right back. When I cut them I do it right below the ground so I get the top of the root. That causes them to sprout multiple heads instead of just one. They grow so low to the ground that they don't really interfere in the garden and most veggies grow happily right among them.
In the hot part of Summer they get bitter but you can bring them to a boil and then pour off the first water and reboil them to get the bittrness out. Don't throw the first water away. Pour it on the ground around veggies you want to encourage. It acts like a tonic for them.
We ate them a lot when I was growing up. Usually we poured vinegar from pickled hot peppers on the boiled greens. When we said hot sauce that spicy vinegar is what we referred to. You can blanch them under a bucket for a week or so if they are too bitter for salad. They lose some of their nutrition when they turn yellowish green under the bucket but are still better for you than many greens you use in salad.
They are closely related to chicory (endive), which has many of the same health benefits.
Another benefit of them in your garden is that both bees and the tiny parasitic wasps which kill aphids visit them. Your worms also like to be around the roots.

 

[baymule]

YAY!! Hoodat showed up! I knew you would have more words of wisdom for us. Pour the first boil water on the garden? A tonic for the plants? I didn't know that, it's worth growing them just for that reason. Do you ever eat or make anything from the flowers or roots?

You would be so proud of me, I have a wild tangle of dandelions in several places in the garden! I think about you being the champion of dandelions when I look at them!

 

[digitS']

And now that Hoodat & Bay' have provided all the reasonable uses for dandelions . .

. here is one more (& I have to say that I'm sorry that it is 4 years old ):

Think you might need a cup of recession-proof coffee? (click)

(Hoodat will know better how to do that than I do but he might have to use the dandelion relative chicory to do it .)

Steve