Home » Plants & Animals » Weeds & Wild Plants » The Downtrodden Dandelion - Page 2

The Downtrodden Dandelion - Page 2

© Barbara Hall

If you REALLY want the whole schmigeggie on the Dandelion, of course you wind up at Maude Grieve's Modern Herbal that lives at botanical dot com. Some of the details can make your eyes glaze over, but under the 'Description' part is a rather brilliant explanation of how ingeniously this plant is put together. The leaves make an almost impenetrable mat at the base of the plant, but if you watch closely, the rain runs down each leaf and deposits the water into the center of the plant so that the deep tap root is nourished in the most efficient fashion. You have to admire a scrappy creature like this.

OK, so now I've got you out here with a bag, let's look at what parts of the plant we want. All of them. Every single part of this plant is good for something, right down to the bitter, milky sap that comes from the stem and leaves and stains your hands. This sap has been used for the treatment of warts. From the bottom up, the ROOT is actually a commercial crop (yes folks, you can get a good 4-5 TONS of fresh root from an acre of land in the second year - cottage industry anyone?) A tincture (alcohol preparation) of the fresh root is a splendid liver TONIC and a terrific aid to digestion if lack of hydrochloric acid is making things lie in your stomach doing nothing. Dried, it has been roasted and added to or substituted for coffee,

Up we go to the leaves. Here's the part most folks can deal with. Before there are even flower buds, the leaves are tender and only pleasantly bitter and can be eaten raw in salads. Once the buds appear, the leaves begin to become tougher and more bitter, but they can be sauteed and boiled with pasta (during the last three minutes). Pop some in the freezer if you really have a bumper crop and you'll be glad to come upon them some day in the yuck of winter. Want MORE recipes? and STILL more!

And finally we come to the flowers. Golden, cheery, food for over 93 different pollinating insects, hard to actually YELL at when they first bound up in your lawn. These sun-loving blossoms are the basis for the famous Dandelion Wine. They can also be cooked up into glorious pancakes, and when steeped in olive oil for 6 weeks, they make a wonderful breast massage oil as pointed out by Susun Weed in her book HEALING WISE. Actually, Susun does an entire chapter on our friend the Dandelion and will present you with knowlege that will delight and amaze you. Another author who takes his Dandelions seriously is Peter Gail, Ph.D..

The copyright of the article The Downtrodden Dandelion - Page 2 in Weeds & Wild Plants is owned by . Permission to republish The Downtrodden Dandelion - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.