Despite reputation, dandelions are not the bane of all lawns

Dandelions. They’re everywhere this time of year.

It might interest you to know that the bane of the “perfect” lawn and object of so many “weed” killers, is not native to this area, nor evento North America.

Settlers from Europe purposely brought dandelions here with them (probably in the form of seeds) on their long journey from Europe, along with so many other common plants we now call weeds, such as mullein, clover, garlic mustard and plantain.

Personally, despite the fact that it is an invasive species, I love dandelions.

Up close, they’re beautiful. If you don’t believe me, go find the biggest, fattest most perfectly formed, freshly bloomed dandelion and check for yourself.

They’re also a useful plant, which is while early European immigrants brought them here in the first place.

The earliest spring leaves are tender and make a delicious, healthful tossed salad, one you’ll pay dearly for in the few fine restaurants that happen to offer it, which are few and far between. Slightly older leaves get a little too bitter for optimally consuming raw, but are delicious streamed and also a bit of a delicacy too these days, despite the fact that they were once consumed regularly by rich and poor alike.

Dandelion is rich in vitamins A and C. Though vitamins were unknown two or three hundred years ago, the benefits of dandelion were well known.

The roots were often roasted and ground, prepared into a beverage much like coffee and even sometimes used as a coffee substitute. The beverage was considered to be good for one’s digestion. The fresh roots were traditionally made into a tea used for liver, gall bladder, kidney and bladder ailments. Dried leaf tea was used as a folk remedy acting as a laxative.

Eating dandelions greens in early spring and/or ingesting a tonic made from dandelions was considered to “cleansing” to the blood.

Interestingly enough, scientific experiments have shown dandelion can lower blood sugar, act as a weak antibiotic against yeast infections and stimulates the flow of bile (important to gall bladder and liver functions). It also may aid weight loss.

But most importantly, to me, is the wonderful wine one can make with dandelion flowers.

I try to do it every spring, if I can. I haven’t had a lot of time lately, with getting The Easton News off the ground, and I didn’t think it would happen this year, but it must have been meant to be, because in my kitchen is a gallon of future dandelion wine.

It takes a four dry quarts of dandelion flowers, no greens, to make a gallon of wine, which is how I know, that up close and personal, dandelions are beautiful.

You have to “meet” a lot of dandelions to pick four quarts.

It sounds tedious, but once one gets the hang of it, picking just the fluffy yellow flowers, while entirely omitting any part of the greens (which would give the wine a bitter flavor) is very easy. It actually gets addicting, as one friend confirmed as she helped me pick a gallon of flowers recently.

Going out with a bag or a basket, with the mission of just picking dandelions, is a great way to “get away from it all” for a couple of hours. The change of perspective is as enjoyable as the future wine will be to drink.

The wine is fairly easy to make. After steeping the four quarts of dandelions in a gallon of initially boiling water for a week, one adds sliced lemons and oranges, sugar, white raisins and yeast in a crock. Other than stirring the mixture daily, until it’s time to strain an bottle the wine, nature takes care of the rest.

Once my wine is bottled, it will be six months to a year before it will be ready to drink.

Interestingly enough, when next year’s dandelions bloom, so will my wine, and not just in a metaphorical sense, though there is something poetic about a wine coming ripe when its ingredients do as well.

Home wine makers have noted, and I confirm I’ve seen this personally, that when dandelions are blooming outside, bottled dandelion wine from prior years has a tendency to temporarily cloud up at the same time. This effect only lasts as long as the current dandelions are blooming, and the wine clears again after the blooming season outdoors is ended. I’ve never heard of an explanation for this.

Dandelion wine is rather delicious if well made. It’s dry, like a fine white wine, with a flowery note. It ranges in color from a pale yellow to light amber, depending on the recipe and flower stock.

I haven’t found anyone else who makes dandelion wine, though my friends enjoy drinking it, and since I only make a few bottles a year, they know that if we’re cracking open a bottle, it’s a special occasion. A few times while I was picking dandelions, or mention the wine, I’ve had people tell me they had a grandparent that used to make it.

Though dandelions and their uses seem to have all but faded from memory, I’m hoping my small contribution to improving the reputation of this garden “pest” will make you think twice before you reach for the weed killer.

Hey, instead of cursing them and killing them, you could be eating or drinking them.

(Originally published in The Easton News, May 4, 2006)