Dandelion Wars
Spring has sprung and the dandelions are in full bloom. At our house, my husband and I have the same argument every year about the same thing—DANDELIONS! Where he sees an obnoxious weed that needs to be eradicated, I see a beautiful bounty of nature’s medicine FOR FREE. So as usual, I want to pick every one I see, and my husband wants to mow them all down so the neighbors don’t think he is a slacker. The biggest problem is timing. I can never get them all picked before he loses patience and mows the yard (usually while I am at work).
Dandelions really are an amazing plant and all parts are useful. I use the flowers to infuse oil. Then I use that oil to make salves or soap. It is wonderful. We use it for any kind of scrapes or mild rashes and it works great.
Dandelions are also a good food source full of vitamins. I have many animals that love to eat the fresh spring leaves. I feed them to my turtle, my guinea pigs, my chickens, my ducks, and even my husband! I put them in his salad and he likes them once he got over the idea of “eating weeds”. The animals don’t get them more than once a week since they contain lots of oxalic acid and some animals have trouble with too much of that.
There are lots of uses and recipes for them. Of coarse there is Dandelion Wine (my father used to make that), Dandelion root tea, Roasted Dandelion roots, Dandelion greens, and even Dandelion Jelly.
