When life gives you dandelions make dandelion wine.



dandelions growing in the Poconos

I can't say enough  about the wonders of dandelions.  For a foraging crop they are plentiful and last most of the spring and summer while many crops can be used as food for only a short while. They are rich in vitamins particularly vitamin A and can be found all across the United States.  They are actually native to Europe so they can also be found there. There are approximately two hundred varieties.  Most of the plant can be used from the root as a coffee substitute to the leaves for a salad green to the tiny individual flowers on the flower head or to the complete flower head for dandelion wine.  I haven't met a Pennsylvania Dutchman that isn't fond of dandelion greens with hot bacon dressing.  I have taken to tearing up the flower head into the individual flowers (you might have thought that it was one flower with many yellow petals) and sprinkling them on top of my salad. This makes it easier for me to practice "eating a rainbow" everyday

 





three happy pollinators

My pleasure and my nourishment are not the most important task of these humble plants. They provide pollen for many insects including the honeybee. Unfortunately it is harder to find honeybees buzzing around them than there were when I was a child.  Here in the Poconos I found three different pollinators on one flower head. At least on my hike in the mountains there had not been herbicides or pesticides sprayed so these pollinators could find some food. 

I know that some of you define these flowers as weeds and want to rid your lawns of them. Think carefully about what you do to accomplish that. Look at the trouble California is having when people insist on planting lawns that look like golf courses instead of native or naturally growing plants. The upkeep of those lawns is providing one of the stresses on their decreasing water supply. Our pollinators need untreated flowers to feed on so they stay healthy and can then pollinate our fruit and vegetable crops. If you insist on ridding your lawn you can try sprinkling the area that has the dandelion with corn gluten. This dries out the seeds so they can not germinate. You could pour vinegar on the flower, the bees won't like that but at least you would not be harming the water table or infecting your neighbor's space if the wind blows while your landscaper sprays herbicides. You could pour hot water on the plant every few days until it dies or you could do what my mother once had her children do, dig them out. Try to get all of the root so it does not come back. Or, my favorite, start looking at them as beautiful flowers.

Kevin, my husband, is a nature lover and he always shared his pleasure with our three children. He often said that dandelions were his favorite flower. When our daughter Emily was young she took note of this and started collecting dandelion seeds, those puffballs that you make a wish on and then try to blow them all off the stem. She put them in an envelope and wrapped them up for him for a Christmas present. That was the best present given and received that Christmas and it will always be remembered.