![]() The more sun the plant receives, the more deeply notched the leaf edges will be. The protective green bracts fold up around the flowers at night or on cloudy, cool, or rainy days. If you get out your magnifying glass and look closely, you’ll see that each petal is made from five fused petals. It will blossom the next year producing many flowers in rapid succession. See Fried Dandelion Blossoms recipe.ĭuring the first year of growth, the plant produces only leaves while growing a large sustaining root. Dip the flower heads in a light batter and deep fry.Older leaves can be boiled, with a bit of salt pork or bacon, like collards, stir-fried with garlic and onions, or cut up and added to risotto or pasta.The plants can even be blanched like endive by covering them with a large flower pot or a basket to exclude sunlight.The young leaves are tasty in salad if you pick them before the flowers appear to avoid too much bitterness.Since dandelions are closely related to those bitter epicurean greens endive, chicory, escarole, and radicchio, you could harvest the free, rampant growing dandelion greens and put them to good use. When life gives us lemons we are told to make lemonade, but what should we do with too many dandelions? Make dandelion wine, of course, or dandelion jelly! Both will be sweet reminders of spring to enjoy next winter. Similar to their cousin chicory, the roots can be roasted until they are dark brown inside and out, ground into a powder, and used as a coffee substitute.The roots are slightly laxative and a tea made from ground fresh or dried roots is reported to improve digestion. The leaves are a powerful diuretic, but since they do not flush potassium from the body, they are actually safer than pharmaceutical diuretics. Their Latin name- Taraxacum officinale-means a remedy for disorders. The dandelion was a standard medicinal plant used by herbalists for generations.Young dandelions leaves are completely edible and more nutritious than spinach! They have 25 times the vitamin A of tomato juice, and are a good source of calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, lecithin, and vitamins C, B, and E.However, for many early settlers, this plant made a life-saving spring tonic. Seeds were brought here by the Puritans to plant in their herb gardens and the plants soon escaped, making their way across the country. The milky sap, given the name “devil’s milkpail”, was used to cure warts and pimples. John’s Eve-June 24-were believed to repel witches. In medieval times, dandelions gathered on St.The Chinese call it “nail in the earth” for its long taproot which draws nutrients and moisture from deep in the ground.The Vikings brought dandelion seed with them to Iceland and Greenland where the plant still thrives today.Anglo-Saxons corrupted this name into dandylion. The Normans called this plant dent de lion-tooth of the lion-for its jagged leaves.Edible Weeds: A List of 20 Edible Weeds in the Garden
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