It's all the rage out here in BC to pick those lovely yellow blossoms and make them useful! Did you know that besides being a supporter of liver function and cleansing, dandelion helps your brain? It was brought to Canada for it's nutritional support to build your blood, etc so there must be something we can do with it in 2012!
Do a quick search online for recipes and you'll find some good ones, I just don't know if I should post them all on here. Aww, changed my mind, here is a link to a blog and then you can go from there.
click here
and try
HERE as well.
We picked nice big yellow dandelions, shook out bugs, then I sat and watched a movie while I used scissors to cut the yellow flower off the green parts. You can also pull it with your fingers, they get very green and sticky though.
Some say to leave no green, but it was late and I didn't bother taking ALL the green parts off. I also did not measure anything, sorry, I was just not feeling like it. I poured my yellow dandelions into a pot and then covered with store bought water. It was just like making mud pies!
I brought it to a boil, boiled and stirred for 1 minute, turned the element off, stirred and then let sit, covered, over night. Then strain out the flowers. My liquid was dark, not a nice yellow like it some peoples pictures.
I added honey, as we are trying to stay away from sugars as much as we can because of some other health problems. I added 1 1/2 cups of honey. It was NOT thickening, even after hours of simmering. We still ate in on the pancakes and it was sweet, not real flavorful when put together with a pancake. I did NOT use lemon, as I had wanted to taste it free of any other flavors first.
We got these 4 jars full. Then I decided... hey, I'm going to put 3 of the jars back on the stove and boil them. Added 1/2 cup of brown sugar and boiled them. Then I had 2 jars and it was more like a syrup. I can see myself adding a scant teaspoon of it to my tea.
My experience ~ I'll have to try again and may have to use brown sugar. It was so sweet with honey and didn't thicken, unless I need to BOIL it instead of simmering. Makes me wonder if any nutrition is left in it though when it's heated so much. ACK... it tastes good and has got to be better than store bought syrups.
