But, outside my tiny vegetable patch, I love them. Their leaves are excellent salad and tasty in soups, and they clean your liver when drunk as infusion. Dandelion roots I am to thank for dissolving my gallstones. For real. They should be gathered either in early spring or late autumn, cleaned, chopped and dried. For two weeks you drink a big pot of dandelion root tea the first thing in the morning—preferably with dandelion leaves, calendula, yarrow, peppermint and nettle—and don't eat for an hour or two afterwards. Dandelion root increases the amount of gall and slowly helps you to rid yourself of the stones.
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| And they taste even worse than they look. |
Dandelion flowers, again, have this awesome, honey-like taste. They can be used in salads, but as they are usually full of those tiny black insects, they lose their shape and prettiness before you manage to get rid of the bugs. That doesn't matter, though, when you brew sima, a Finnish spring mead, as you can give the bugs hours to leave the flowers (if you stir the flowers once in a while, they evacuate themselves faster). Recommended to do outside, though.
Dandelion mead
2,5 l dandelions
5 l water
1 dl molasses
4 1/2 dl sugar
1 lemon
1/4 tsp yeast
In bottles
1/2 tsp sugar
4-5 raisins
Gather dandelion flowers when it's sunny (otherwise they tend to be half closed). After removing the bugs, bring flowers and water to boil and let simmer for 15 minutes. Add molasses, sugar and rinsed and sliced lemon. Let it cool until handwarm and add the yeast. Ferment for approximately 24 hours (that is, just leave it to be). Sieve and bottle: add a dash of sugar and a few raisins on the bottom of the bottle and then pour the liquid over them. Put the bottles in a fridge. Your mead is ready when the raisins rise to the surface.
