Love The Dandelions: Please Don't Use Commercial Weed Killers

Please please please do not use commercial week killers like Roundup on your lawns, parks, playground, restaurant patios, etc.

Here are just a couple peer reviewed, scientifically researched, articles discussing the horrible dangers of this product. Not only is it's active ingredient, Glyphosate, a known carcinogen and neurotoxin, the so-called inactive ingredients have been found to exacerbate the toxicity of the Glyphosate.

• From Scientific American: Weed-Whacking Herbicide Proves Deadly to Human Cells

• From Ohio Sate University: Researchers Study Roundup as Possible Cause of Harmful Algal Blooms

Plus, dandelions and other weeds are beautiful, food for birds like finches and people, and incredible medicine. They are good for body, mind, and spirit, and don't let billions of dollars in advertising convince you otherwise.

Let's follow Ontaio, Canada's lead and BAN the use of weed killers on dandelions! (In 2009 they banned the cosmetic use of commercial weed killers on yards, parks, and playgrounds.)

Love the dandelions. They are an amazing source of beauty, nourishment, and medicine.

East and West, Dandelion is Best

Love and Dandelion Wishes,

Melissa

Recipe: Dandelion Tea Cake

Dandelions! Dandelion flowers aren't as bitter as the green leaves, and they are easier to harvest and use than the root. I like to put dandelion flower petals (I remove the green collar, see below) in all kinds of batter: pancake, scone, cookie, you name it! 

Last year my daughter and I made this delicious Dandelion Tea Cake: it's a sweet bread, like zucchini bread but with dandelion flowers. We made ours gluten-free and dairy-free...and it was delicious! 

Perfect served with honey and tea.

The first step is to gather lots of dandelion flowers.
Next, remove and compost the green collar, saving the yellow flower petals, until you have 1 1/2 cups.

Then, gather your ingredients and put it all together.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups buckwheat flour (I ground buckwheat grouts in a coffee grinder)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups dandelion petals
• 1 mashed banana with drizzle olive oil (I used in place of 1/4 c veg oil)
• 1/2 c maple syrup
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/3 cup cashew milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 400 F
2.  mix dry and wet ingredients separately (dandelion petals with dry ingredients) then mix together
3. Pour into oiled loaf pan. bake 25 minutes on 400 F
4. turn down to 350 F and bake 20 more minutes.

Let's Make Dandelion Tea Cake

Originally called "Dandelion Bread," I changed the name of the recipe to Dandelion Tea Cake, because this is much more cake-like than bread-like (think Zucchini Bread.)

The original recipe is from the Food Storage and Survival Blog.

I altered it a bit to make it gluten-free, dairy-free and practically oil-free.

First you'll need to gather a lot of dandelion flowers, which shouldn't be too hard this time of year! Then pinch off the green underpart and toss the yellow petals into a bowl. It's ok if there is a bit of green here and there, but the greens are bitter, so the more you can remove the better.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups buckwheat flour (I ground buckwheat grouts in a coffee grinder)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups dandelion petals
• 1 mashed banana with drizzle olive oil (I used in place of 1/4 c veg oil)
• 1/2 c maple syrup
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/3 cup cashew milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit.
2. Mix dry ingredients, including dandelion petals, into bowl.
3. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl, then combine with dry ingredients.
4. Pour into oiled loaf pan.
5. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes, then turn down heat to 350 and bake 20 more minutes.

Delicious served warm with tea. I boiled the extra dandelion flowers (greens and all) into a tea, to which I added a little honey.

I ate it plain, but it is also good topped with honey or butter.

Tea Time!!!

Happy Foraging!

~ Melissa Sokulski

Food Under Foot

Making Dandelion Wine

It's that time of year again! Dandelion flowers popping over playgrounds, yards, and hillsides! Find your favorite patch that is far from car traffic, spraying and fertilizing and pick those blossoms. If you want to make wine from them, here is another "vintage" post from the old blog, giving step-by-step instructions of how we did it.

The wine itself turned out very sweet, but also delicious! It will be ready to drink on the Winter Solstice - yum!

We are in the process of making dandelion wine! Or should I say...the wine is made, it just needs to ferment some more before we cork it and let it rest until winter solstice.

I read quite a few recipes for how to make dandelion wine, and solicited your favorites. I combined them together to do what I did.

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon dandelion flower heads (I kept the green "collars" on, I read to do it both ways (pulling the yellow petals off of the green necks and just using the petals...I used the whole thing.)
• 1 gallon water (I was going to use more but it turned out both my largest pot and largest crock could only hold a gallon, so that's what I used.)
• 3 lbs sugar (organic sugar cane is what I used.)
• 1 packet yeast (photo below)
• 2 organic oranges, with rinds peeled and saved, the orange sliced (photos below)
• 1 organic lemon, with rinds peeled and saved, lemon sliced (photo below)
• handful of organic raisins
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 Tbsp whole cloves

Directions:

Boil a gallon of water and pour over the dandelion blossoms. Cover loosely and let tea steep for 2 days.

Strain tea (reserving liquid of course! You can compost the flowers at this point) and return to the stove. Add 3 lbs of sugar, lemon and orange rinds, cinnamon and cloves. Bring to boil and simmer for about an hour.

Pour from pot into crock and add the sliced oranges, lemons and raisins.

Once it has cooled to body temperature, sprinkle a packet of yeast on top.

Cover with a cloth and let sit 3 days to a week (I did 3 days). When you put your ear close to it you can hear it fizzing (crackling.)

 Strain (reserving liquid!!!!). I first strained it through a colander to get the big stuff out, then strained it through two jelly bags.

Let sit another day, covered with the cloth (will let extra "stuff" settle to the bottom.)

Pour into bottles, leaving some room at the top. Cover bottles with balloon which will indicated (by inflating) that quite a bit of fermentation is still taking place. Poke a pin hole in each balloon so that it doesn't get too full and pop or fly off the bottle.

Once the balloons stop inflating, you can cork the bottles and store in a cool dark place for at least six months.

Cheers! Enjoy!!!

~ Melissa