This weekend I tasted dandelions for the first time, until then I had been worried about pesticides and herbicides on the plants in the city, but this weekend, I was out in the middle of nowhere, and so I figured I was alright. I tried a bit of a leaf, and I ate a few heads. The leaf was alright, although it was pretty dry, and very bland. The heads were much better, although they were a little dry. What I did was pull the yellow petals out of the green flower base (I know, not technical terms, but I think most people know what I am talking about), leaving me with a bunch of yellow petals with cottony ends. I held cotton ends and just ate the yellow petals, and they were a little bland, but they were, actually, suprisingly, a little bit sweet. I also don’t think that the heads are a diueretic, unlike the leaves and the roots (anyone pleas correct me if I am wrong), which both good and bad, meaning you can eat as many as you want, but they have no medicinal affect. The leaves on the other hand are purportedly very good for the kidneys and the urinary system when made into a tea; to quote “wildman” Steve Brill, “Dandelions are also good for the bladder spleen, pancreas, stomach and intestines. … Anyone who is a victim of excessive fat, white flour, and concentrated sweeteners could benefit from a daily cup of dandelion tea.”
May 29, 2007...9:07 pm
Dandelions
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3 Comments
June 1, 2007 at 3:22 am
Hey Matt, cool blog. Anyways, I’ve had dandelion tea before, they’re fairly common in China, and I can tell you they taste great, especially if you decide to cool it and then drink it on a hot summer day.
June 1, 2007 at 3:55 am
welcome to the dandelion eaters club!
the flowers are my favorite. check out urban scout’s fritter recipe using dandelion flower heads. i like to mix them in with my scrambled eggs or make an omelet with dandelion flowers and violet leaves.
June 18, 2007 at 8:15 am
Harold Buhner – very interesting man who wrote a few books on plants (their lost language etc) – suggests to put the leaf/ flower on the tongue and let it lie there for a while whilst contemplating the plant as a whole. Feeling the texture of the leaf – and they are surprisingly different for many plants, even when to the touch they appear similar – then one goes on to concentrate on any particular taste coming off them and then start nibbling at it bit by bit – again observing consistency and taste sensations. It is very surprising the experiences you get with this. It’s often very subtle of course but the more you do it … Once you have eaten a few of teh same plant you can listen also into your body to see whereabouts the plant seems to do its work and how it makes you feel. It’s all a mixture of Goethean Science and Physiomedicalists approach – but fascinating. It opens up a whole new world …
Friends usually laugh at me because whereever I go on a walk, I start picking things and chomp on this and that. It is fascinating how even the same plant species can taste different when picked in different areas….