After looking at all the dandelions around the neighborhood, I was wondering what dandelions could be used for. I am amazed at what I found in food, crafts, and for medicinal purposes and, of course, everyone has heard of dandelion wine!!

Here are some pictures of the little beauties... they are so fantastically yellow, aren’t they?






My neighbor, Elaine, was my co-conspirator this afternoon in collecting dandelions for (CAN YOU GUESS?)  DANDELION WINE!!! I’m so excited about this.
We went out and collected a few quarts of dandelion flowers. It’s a LOT of dandelion collecting, let me tell you. Bend over pick one or two flower heads and stand up and then walk 2 feet and then bend over and pick one or two flower heads... etc. It’s a slow process, collecting dandelions, but we were in the sun and Elaine helped me out. Here’s a picture of Elaine... You can see the plastic bag of dandelions...



So we took them in the house and rinsed them in cold water (big mistake. It should have been lukewarm water. The cold water closed up the blossoms. Live and learn.)



Then the recipe calls for boiling the blossoms, sugar, 4 quarts of water, and the lemon juice, including some of the zest.



It’s not looking too great right now. But surprisingly, it smells good, kinda citrusy.



I boiled this for an hour and let it cool down for about 3 hours and when it was lukewarm I added a piece of bread and covered it up with a towel. One of the recipes I was reading said you could add a slice of bread instead of yeast and since I don’t have any yeast I’m going with the bread.

Now we have to wait: In the meantime I’m going to list some recipes in case any of you want to make your OWN dandelion wine. It was really easy to get it going. The hardest part (so far) was picking the dandelions.

Dandelion Wine Recipes
These are all very similar recipes.

Mother Earth News has a simple recipe.

Twin Eagles has another simple recipe.

Winemaking Jack Keller has 3 recipes for making Dandelion wine.

Medicinal Uses for Dandelions:

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WORD OF CAUTION: Some people are allergic to dandelions. If you are allergic to rag weed or marigolds, you may be allergic to dandelions. In which case, steer clear or proceed  CAUTIOUSLY!!
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Dandelions Taraxacum officinale are an herb and are packed with Vitamin A (Beta carotene), calcium, and protein.  People use the greens, the flower and the root. The root is used as a coffee substitute. Dandelion greens are used in salads and smoothies, and the flower is used to make wine and tea among other things. It’s a natural substance, not genetically engineered. (Don’t get my sister, Carol, going on this topic).

Dandelion tea



According to WebMD  dandelion is used for “loss of appetite, upset stomach, intestinal gas,gallstones, joint pain, muscle aches,  exzema, and bruises. Dandelion is also used to increase urine production and as a laxative to increase bowel movements. It is also used as a skin toner....”.  WebMd also lists uses, side effects, interactions, and dosing. It’s worth looking at. (no monetary compensation).

Dandelion in food and drinks:

Dandelions can be eaten from top to bottom, the flower, the greens and even the root. Here are some recipes for eating and drinking DANDELIONS!!

Dandelion fritters are a specialty of Kimberley Gallagher of Learning Herbs. She has a delightful recipe for making these yellow flowers into little flower fritters. How fun is this? I love it and you will, too.

10 Reasons to Use Dandelion Greens in a Green Smoothie by Tracy Russell. Tracy talks about the incredible health benefits of dandelion greens and she has several fruit and dandelion green smoothie recipes also.

The Daily Spud wrote a post called “If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em”. In this article she fries dandelion flowers  and has a recipe for dandelion tea.

The Crafty Little Gnome wrote a post called How to Make Dandelion Root Tea and she shows in pictures how to harvest the roots also.

Dandelion Pesto sounds interesting, doesn’t it? David Levowitz has a great recipe for this.

Dandelion Jelly, why not?




OTHER USES FOR DANDELIONS:
How about dandelion soap? Is this too cool or what? Red Ted Art has a tutorial on how to make dandelion soap! I just made some Citrus Soaps last week which were so much fun to make and came out great so now I’m going to definitely make dandelion soap!! YAY! Must go out tomorrow and pick some more dandelions....

Dandelion Oil used for skin cream.



I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new. I sure did! Thanks for viewing.

Will keep you updated with news about the dandelion wine, too.

Best wishes,

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