Eat your dandelion out!

The dandelions in my yard have all but taken over, I've never seen such a thing! Thousands of them blooming every morning, and the fields around the area are even more covered, which makes me think, why don't we use such an abundant plant rather than trying everything in our power to kill it? Like my neighbor who was spraying weed killer this weekend! :(

Katie has done wonders to promote the utility of the wild flower, but I'm here on the food front-

Turns out the greens of a dandelion plant are one of the most nutritious things you can find growing anywhere. They are best eaten while young, before the flowers themselves bloom, because they get pretty bitter after that. You can pick them later and cook the bitterness out, but then you are also cooking out the nutrients. If you're going to eat them make sure you pick them from a clean out-of-the way patch of land, free of pesticides and animal waste- as in, don't pick them from the corner of my yard where my pups hang out, or my neighbor sprays! Get right down and find the newest, greenest sprouts (the crown) for a fresh salad- with a sweet vegetable like carrots- or saute them with onions and garlic for a nice plate of greens, which is what I did.

It's a little late to be eating the greens around here, but I gave it a shot and they were pretty good! They cooked down considerably though, so keep that in mind while picking.

You can boil them, steam them or fry them, it's up to you. Just remember that the longer they are cooked, the more nutrients they lose! If you want to eat fresh mature greens you can wait until after the first frost, it cuts the bitterness down.

The blossom of the dandelion is the prettiest part of course, if you can avoid the sneezing that sometimes go along with the seeded head! I've heard you can batter and fry them, steam them with other veggies or just eat them raw in a salad like the greens, but I think they are pretty bitter. I opted to make honey preserved dandelion blossoms to spread on a piece of homemade bread and enjoy with a nice hot cup of tea.

I started with some fresh blossoms and a pot of local honey.

Because they have such a large bloom, I removed the green part and only used the yellow petals.

I mixed one half cup of honey with one cup of blossoms in a jar of their own, then covered it and stirred it once more 24 hours later.

After three days it was ready to taste! You can keep it in the cabinet indefinitely, and eat it any time :) I'm not a big fan of honey, it's too sweet most of the time, but adding the blossoms cut the sweetness and gave it a really fresh flavor that I was pretty pleased with!

All in all, it turns out that we could survive with no food, so long as we had dandelions... And if Luckie pup didn't eat them all first!

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