Dandelions: If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em

Although I can't yet endorse from personal experience about their gastronomic and condition attributes, I've been impressed with what I've read.

Perhaps these bright lily-livered lawn invaders should be treated as delightful crops rather than cussed adversaries. You be the judge. The botanical bible of eastern Colorado's plants, "Colorado Flora" close to Weber and Wittman, says dandelions are alien invaders.

The bourgeois head comes from the French: Dent de Lion or "Lion's Tooth." Presumably, the jagged leaves of the tree inspired the name.

Resident writer Kathryn Cox in her "Pocket Guide to Deserted Edible and Healing Plants" (Motherlove herbal company, 1996), claims that dandelion blade tea is a good diuretic, the floret oil is good for stiff muscles and skin sores, and the tea can be splashed on skin to help remove wrinkles and time spots.

She also assertion the roots can be prepared to help liver and stomach state and stem extract can pleasant up warts. The dandelion sounds like a truly underappreciated "Wunder Weed."

Dine on dandelions Many dandelion prescription testify that all parts of the bush may be devoured. Sing Williams in Backwoods Home Magazine (www.backwoodshome.com articles williamsc44.html) declare greens "must be gathered before the flower blooms to be delicious.

The best bout to convene them is conscientious when the bloom bud appears, earlier the stalk grows."

She recommends washing the greens in water, hot them for five minutes, then seasoning with butter and salt. Cox proposes adding flower petals to flours and batters. Flowers can again be transformed into tea, wine, beer and syrup.

Cox says to eat roots arid and roast them in a slow oven until brown (about four hours), powder and simmer 10 split second "for a drink some liken to coffee with no caffeine." Boiled roots may be served as a vegetable. And dandelions are ace for you.

The Northwest Coalition representing Alternatives to Pesticides quotes USDA stats that say a serving of uncooked dandelion off contains 280 percent of an adult's daily beta carotene needs, more than half his or her vitamin C requirements, and is also fat in vitamin A. I'm not sure what you misplace in the cooking process.)

Contemplate www.pesticide.org dandelions.html for more information. For those who would rather sip their weeds, dandelion wine formula abound. Jack Keller at the Winemaking Home Page (www.winemaking.jackkeller.net dandelio.asp) lists three recipes.

He claims in concordance progress with a recipe that calls for 2 quarts of dandelion flowers, 3 pounds of granulated sugar, 4 oranges, 1 gallon of water and yeast increased by yeast nutrient. The recipe requires some patience:

60 days for fermentation and bottling and six months to a year for aging. He says the secret to acceptable wine is peeling the citrus outgrowth completely. The white pith in all citrus skins will breakup any wine," Keller claims.

Dandelion biology Dandelions look prize effortless flowers, but they represent a flower colony nested on a head of green bracts. Each "petal" represents a showy flag for ray flowers on the outer margins of the colony and simpler flowers with sexual parts crowding the center of the head. Insects love these fast-food, multi-flower landing platforms.

From http://northfortynews.com/news/200805gl_17dandelions.htm