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We have dandelions!!


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We are so excited!! This will be our first dandelion harvest and cannot wait to make fritters and tea!!:D

 

Does anyone have any tried and true dandelion recipes?

 

Please don' laugh at me, but when do you harvest them? Whle they are still blooming? Or with the white stuff? I find this so interesting and would like to try something new.

 

Danielle

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Please don' laugh at me, but when do you harvest them? Whle they are still blooming? Or with the white stuff?

:lurk5: Good question...I'm wondering too!

Also, is it safe to eat dandelions from your own yard if you don't use chemicals on your grass. (we barely use a lawn mower on our grass...I love our privacy fence :lol:)

We are also curious about dandelion wine!

Edited by happi duck
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Oh, I am glad someone else gets excited about dandelions! I have two plants growing in my garden that I bought for $5 each- at different times- they are not native in Australia and dont grow so well here. Mine are thriving though, although they havent flowered yet.

My intention is to just add the greens to green smoothies now and then, and to juice the leaves in my green juices. However, I think now I will check the bitterness factor first!

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Just wanted to make my yard available to all who would like to increase their supply of dandelions. Heck, you can even take them for free! I'm sure we have enough to supply all Australia and still have enough for our own family. So come on over!

 

Here too....

I just wish I 'd read this post before I sent my son out to mow yesterday. I'm sure we'll have enough to feed an army by Monday!

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Harvest the greens before the flowers bloom. The older the greens are, the more bitter they are.

 

And you ain't tasted bitter til you've tasted older dandelion greens!:D

:iagree:For salad greens, you need to eat them before blooming. For wine, pick the flowers. But don't pick them all, as you need some to go to seed to make sure you get a wonderful harvest the next year.

 

Dandelion Greens with Hot Bacon Dressing (I'm not typing out mine, but this one looks pretty close.)

 

Dandelion Wine (Not sure where my dh gets his recipe, but here's a starting place.)

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I'm so glad to hear there are other people who love dandelions! We've never eaten them, but I think they're the prettiest weed around. And to think that people spend time and money trying to kill them. :lol:

 

I agree that they need to be relatively new leaves - the newer the better. Also, go lightly on them in a salad or whatnot as they are really high in sodium. Nice flowers to add to a salad are nasturtium blooms. I know they won't be blooming yet, but it's a good time to plant some. They also look really pretty floating in iced tea. :)

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We had a ton of fun today with the dandelions! We made dandelion fritters-with the flowered part--MMMMMMMMM! We also made some tea

--then with the dandelions we used for making the tea, we ate with a little butter and salt!

I heard from someone on another site that we should pull the roots and dry them. The roots make good coffee--we tried --we had a heckuva time--those roots dont budge!!:glare:

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You Dandelion lovers missed the BIG Dandelion Festival in a small little blip on the map near us. Borculo, MI had its 25th anual Dandelion Festival today. My girls rode their horses in the parade. The parade marshal rides in a green and yellow manure spreader to lead the parade.

 

Gotta love country life.

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You know what grows good dandelions? Free range chickens. ;) They love them and now they grow everywhere. :)

 

We only like the young greens. The older ones are far too bitter for us, but they are amazing and healthy chicken feed.

Edited by LibraryLover
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We have dandelions all over the place here (which, ironically, is actually not the reason for my choice of username ;)). I've been thinking that we should try harvesting and using them (never have, although my mom apparently ate a lot of dandelion green salads growing up). So thanks for all the great ideas! :)

 

I didn't think about the fact that chickens can spread the dandelions (we have chickens too, and we let them go "free range" on most nice days - so maybe that's part of the reason they're so abundant on our property)...

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4 c. dandelion flowers snapped off at the top of stem

□ 1 c. biscuit mix

□ 1 c. milk

□ 1 tbsp. sugar or honey (optional)

□ 1/2 inch oil in skillet

 

 

Mix together the biscuit mix and milk. Dip dandelion flowers in mix one at a time and douse well with batter. Heat oil in skillet to 335 degrees F. or until it sizzles when a bit of batter is dropped into it. Drop flowers into hot oil head first. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Remove and drain.

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We have dandelions all over the place here (which, ironically, is actually not the reason for my choice of username ;)). I've been thinking that we should try harvesting and using them (never have, although my mom apparently ate a lot of dandelion green salads growing up). So thanks for all the great ideas! :)

 

I didn't think about the fact that chickens can spread the dandelions (we have chickens too, and we let them go "free range" on most nice days - so maybe that's part of the reason they're so abundant on our property)...

 

 

Oh gosh. You should have seen out bumper crop of butternut squash this past fall...which grew entriely out of the chicken compost. :tongue_smilie:

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