I know i’m stating the obvious when I say having access to the internet complicates things. The amount of plants and flowers I could order and grow is limitless! It brings peace back into my soul, when I start to just look around me at what has been provided on my doorstep, by a Divine hand.
Today it’s Dandlions…
I’ve become amazed and in awe of the plants that I’ve largely taken for granted in my local area. So much has been hidden from my understanding! Or maybe I just haven’t had open eyes and ears to see and listen and understand.
So when I looked along a stretch of grass outside my house and saw rows and rows of dandilioins, I decided that now was the time and went-a-pickin’. Being a beekeeper, I do feel guilt over every single flower I pick, yet surveying the vastness of these yellow lionheaded dandilions, I felt there were plenty to go around. I was also aware the dandilion flowers only last for a few weeks, before returning to seed, where we can all enjoy blowing them into the wind and asking ‘what time is it?’.
Once picked, I decided to dry them in the dehydrator. I could have sun dried them, but wanted to justify having a dehydrator, after having it stuck on a high shelf all winter, so put them on trays in the dehydrator. They took a few hours on 70C and then went into steralised glass jars.
Dandilions can be eaten from the root to the flower. The roots can be dried and made into tea, or else cooked like a vegetable. The roots are particularly nutrient dense, due to the fact they grow so deep down in the soil, searching and drawing in a large amount of minerals from the soil. Try digging up a dandilion and you will get my drift! The leaves taste pretty bitter, but if you are brave you can eat these in salads or again dry and use as a tea. Lastly the flowers can also be dried and brewed, producing a nutrient dense and refreshing tea.
I really liked this diagram below. It gives a very visual understanding of how nutrient rich these plants are!
