in praise of the dandelion

Here is a photo of the aspect of a stem of chicory.
and earlier in the year a stem of chicory is covered in leaves i have  a photo of that too.
and the third photo is of one of the basal leaves.

and some photos of the basal leaves of chicory, these can be used in salads.  The plant of htis photos  stem's have been eaten by the deer which is quite an honor, the deer don't seem to eat the grass in the garden or anything else, a few tree leaves occasionally.  You can see the cut off stems if you look carefully.
Also a second photo of more basal leaves.
and a photo of a few plants together with no flowers on them, befor they atarted to flower.
        I have put in a lot of photos of rthis plant but as plants change throughout the year the easiest way to give a better portrait of them is to take lots of photos of them at different moment in their life cycle. ALso it is  aplant that an be ieiten in variousee ways so maybe an important plant for permaculture and as it first grows a group of basal leaves it may be a plant that has quite some root as a dandylion does and so good for improvign soil at quite some depth and it does not seem to need bear ground to grow on as mullien does it grows in the middle of a lot of grass in my garden, it neither seems to mess up the grass, to take its place nor to be messed up buy it. the mullien in my garen grows in the next door patch that gets heavily mowed in ealry summer bu y my husband i though he had got rid of the mullen but they are still there. 
      Another reason to believe chicory has quite some root to it is that it flowers all through the dry mounths though its leaves disappear. rose macaskie.

I have a lot of video footage of dandelion stuff.  And i want more!

I would like to get footage of people blowing on dandelion seed heads.  Some possible things they can say just before blowing:

"I do not fear dandelions"
"I want more dandelions"
"I love blowing on dandelion puff balls"
"the world needs more dandelions"
"dandelions heal the earth"

Footage of sitting in a chair talking about dandelions is great.  Even if you aren't a dandelion expert, but found a good bit of information and you want to be in one of my videos, that's good too!

HUGE dandelions are fun!  I could use more video of huge dandelions.

Maybe you can show video of dandelions in a fruit tree guild and point out how the dandelion is a nutrient accumulator?

How about little girls with dandelions in their hair (what do they call the little ring of flowers that you wear like a crown?).  Or giving their mom a dandelion boquet. 

For more info on video stuff see this thread

thanks!

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has a Daughter named Dandelion. This is the last verse of a song written when she was a baby. A YouTube video of the song features two little girls blowing dandelion seeds and frolicking on a stage. For some reason the video reminded me of a 1964 ad for Lyndon Johnson's election which featured a girl plucking daisy petals followed by a nuclear attack.

Little girls, and boys come out to play
Bring your dandelions to blow away
Dandelion don't tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion, blow away dandelion

Eden Gal from True Nature Farm in Boulder, Utah starts off by telling us about how dandelions will soften soil.

Alexia Allen pf Hawthorn Farm in Woodinville, Washington shows a polyculture with a lot of garlic and some huge dandelions. She finds a dandelion leaf that is more than half her height. And eat it. She talks about which leaves are less bitter and how her taste for bitter has developed as she has gotten older.

Toby Hemenway, the author of the popular permaculture book "Gaia's Garden" explains how the dislike of dandelion is due to the desire of an unnatural single species of grass for a lawn. He talks about how the dandelion will show up in compacted soil, and solve that compaction problem. And he covers how dandelions will share the nutrients they find down deep with their neighboring polyculture plants.

Jamie from Vashon Island, Washington shows how sometimes when you try to blow on a dandelion puff ball, the little parachutes (seeds) aren't ready to leave yet.

Matt, from Feral Farm, talks about the permaculture concept of being a dynamic accumulator because of it's tap root. He then talks about how grass is a big focus/battle for his techniques and the dandelion helps to displace the grass.

Kristi from Carnation, Washington eats a dandelion blossom. She expresses that it isn't just edible, but also quite palatible.

Gunella from Carnation, Washington is eating the blossoms and explains that she doesn't like the stems.

Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski, of Hot Springs, Montana, talks about how eating dandelion is good for your liver. Later in this video he explains how he sold a bunch of dandelions for $900!

Kyle Kolini from Duvall, Washington tells us that the scientific name for dandelion is "Taraxacum officinale" which means "the official remedy for disorders". Apparently dandelion was brought to north america as a medicine and as a food.

Samantha Lewis thinks that if we can get more dandelions in our lawns that would be awesome. She explains how the dandelion taproot will punch through hardpan soil and bring minerals up from the deep and then shares those minerals with neighboring plants. She advocates eating the leaves, the root and the blossom. She thinks putting the leaf, root and flower into a tea makes an excellent tea. She explains that the dandelion coffee is actually roasted dandelion root tea. Then she points out that it doesn't taste like coffee, "it tastes like kinda burnt roots."

Samantha says the name for the dandelion comes from the leaves being deeply notched like the teeth of the lion. One identifier for dandelion is that there is no stem.

Samantha pointed out that some gravel in the video is machine packed, but the dandelion was still able to get through.

Owen Hablutzel, director of PRI USA and a holistic management certified educator, asks why farmers and ranchers buy lime to put on the soil, when dandelions will bring calcium to the surface for free.

The mighty, the glorious, the amazing Sepp Holzer (author of "Rebel Farmer", "Sepp Holzer's Permaculture" and "Desert or Paradise", plus the star of several documentaries about permaculture) scatters some dandelion seeds for the sake of having more lettuce near the kitchen.

Jacqueline Freeman of Friendly Haven Rise Farm and spiritbee.com in Battleground, Washington, talks about how dandelions provide some of the earliest bee food.

Helen Atthowe of veganicpermaculture.com in Stevensville, Montana expresses how eating the first dandelions in the spring not only helps cleanse your system, but helps to fight a lot of human ailments including cancer. She mentions vitamin A, vitamin C, iron and other micro nutrients, B vitamins including B6.

Kelda Miller, a permaculture instructor in Tacoma, Washington, gives tips on how to reduce the bitter flavor. Both by removing the central leaf vein, and by chopping the leaf finely and adding olive oil.

Norris Thomlinson from Portland, Oregon talks about the flavor from the different parts of the dandelion. He says the stems can be used to make dandelion spaghetti. He finds that the roots taste really good when cooked.

Samantha comes back and shares that the seeds come off of the head at 70% humidity. This is so the seeds will come off just before the rain comes.

I lost all my dandelions to geese. I am now in the process of bringing back the dandelions. I just have to control the grazing levels so they can recover after geese graze.
Geese eat dandelions first!!!

Edible tap root accumulator that isn't thorny on bare feet. What a deal.

Don't forget to pluck fresh dandelion blossoms, dredge them in egg/milk, lightly flour coat and season them and fry them for a side dish! I think they're much healthier than fried potatoes!

I've been seeding dandelion and wild chicory both like crazy in my meadow/food forest hybrid (I call it my food savanah) for soil improvement. Good strong root systems! The chicory is the more showy of the two, sending up head-high spikes full of beautiful cornflower blue flowers that draw tons of bees, and later goldfinches to eat the seeds.

I've never tried digging the roots of either, though I know that they have traditional uses. Can't say that I am very interested in harvesting roots, but I do cut the leaves in spring for wonderful salad greens and sauteed greens. Really tasty in early spring, but quickly get more and more bitter as the hotter weather comes on. In my opinion, the wild chicory is definitely superior from a culinary standpoint, with leaves that are much less hairy and "stemmy" than the dandelions.

I'm not sure if it's already been said, but I did read (somewhere) that the humble dandelion is one of the reasons mankind still exists. Back when we were all hunter-gatherers, during the winter we would eat food we had stored, and in the summer search for / produce more. In the early spring there was the "Hunger Gap" (or "Hungry Gap" if you're English), during which the stored food and the food-to-be-picked were not quite enough to provide all the nutrients and vitamins (notably vitamin C) that we required. Apparently, many people were suffering from scurvy by the end of a long winter, and the dandelion (and its vitamin C content) helped restore their health and get them through the lean months.

Also can be used to bitter beer instead of hops which I plan on doing

Wow, I DO like this sort of thing! I have a new appreciation for these plants now, though I never really got into the taste of just the leaves. Great video!

Macerate roots or Blossoms in vodka (couple days for blossoms, week or two for roots) for a simple bitters. These added to whiskey sours, gin fizzes, and other citrus based cocktails are dee-lightful. Health tonic/cocktail anyone?

OK experts if the true dandelion is the one with out stem, What is the annual one with a stem called? Are they part of the lettuce family?
I have one that I have been encouraging because It grows rapidly up to six feet tall and some leaves as long as my arm. Leaves have little bitterness and make a spectacular base for a salad. Would like to offer them to our food co-op so a good name would be appreciated.

@Hans - Very interesting. Doesn't sound like any dandelion I've ever seen. I'm sure some good photos of the mystery specimen would be helpful...

Many thanks for this video Paul, very informative and entertaining. Not sure if you guys know a recipe for "dandelion honey", just in case you don't, here is the link: http://www.food.com/recipe/dandelion-honey-303476

It's so nice to read a thread in praise of this great plant. There is a patch of backyard here that was brown cracked and plain dead last fall. This spring there is an army of dandelions working through it.


The best part is when I happily exclaimed this to my friend who previously lived in this house, he replied "Yeah those things are bad here. Every year I had to kill those and try to get grass to stay alive.".

Great video Paul! I really enjoyed that. Thanks.

It's been so nice now that the Dandelions are out in full force. There is a sea of yellow around our house, and I had to share a couple pictures of the bees enjoying their spring feast.






Lets see some more! Who else has the same wonderful flowers right now?

I saw my banty chicks today eagerly eating the dandelion seeds off of as many plants as they could find. It never occurred to me that the seeds would be a valuable food source, but then again it's been a long time since I've had banties!

My kids' bearded dragon and rabbits like dandelion flowers better than any other vegetable. The yellow pigment comes out in the beardie as a really nice yellow hue to his skin.

I wonder if there is anybody selling 40 varieties of dandelion seed.

Just found this thread. I have had a handful of rabbits for some time now and when I dont graze them I feed them a diet of like 50% dandelions. The problem is the solution, or in this case it isnt really even a problem. They are a great forage food, super easy to pick and rabbits like them better than almost every other weed I gather for them. When I let them loose in the garden they go for dandelions and clover first.

Plus bees like them too so there is another form of livestock you can feed with dandelions.

Paul I don't know if there are 40 genotypes but there seems to be many phenotypes. They adapt to many habitat conditions by different growth habits. I have seen the same root produce very different growth and foliage appearance with changing conditions.

And then there is wild lettuce that is often mistaken for dandelion because it may have similar leaves. I have selected seed from them to get the salad I want.

Maybe the author of this article knows about different varieties of dandelions? Maybe he could be invited to Permies to answer questions? At the very least, the article was informative on how to prepare dandelions to reduce bitterness.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/kallas82.html

Can't have too much praise for the dandelion....another artist taking up the cause
more of her dandelion art work here Life Cycle of a Dandelion in Art – Wendy James

Scott Turner wrote: Macerate roots or Blossoms in vodka (couple days for blossoms, week or two for roots) for a simple bitters. These added to whiskey sours, gin fizzes, and other citrus based cocktails are dee-lightful. Health tonic/cocktail anyone?

Wow, that is really cool - so cool I thought I would try to bring even more attention to it. Thanks for the info!

Our friends at Green Path Herb School, created some dandelion thank you cards. At first, I thought they might be lovely thank you cards, with dandelion art of some kind.

No!

These are to thank your neighbors (or community members or municipalities) for letting the dandelions grow cards!

Uh, brilliant!!

This is a link to the .pdf document they created: http://greenpathherbschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/dandelion-thank-you.pdf

I printed their cards to an image file just so it can be better seen here. I love the phrasing that was crafted here.

Ran across this meme and it made me think of this thread!

A new video about dandelions came out today, "Dandelions and Civilization" by The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Rememberd.



So many, many fun facts in this one. For one, I did not know dandelions reproduce asexually!

I really wanted to make these on May Day, but couldn't quite fit it in.

These are subtly flavored with just the blossoms in my plain scone recipe, made with oat flour and vegan ingredients. Next time I'll add some orange or lemon zest to enhance the flavor.

finally found this thread! I knew it was here somewhere but couldn't remember the exact title

Dandelions are abundant here this year and the flowers seem even larger than usual?

This 'bunch' is at our front steps.  I'm not sure I've ever seen such a large cluster of them in one place.

...and the other tiny blueish bloom is creeping Charlie...one of my favorite ground covers.

I am very happy every time I read when someone starts to pay attention to the beauty of plants, how they start to think of them as "something more" than plants that only grow. I have been interested in astrology for some time and I have realized that everything in our world is connected to us. Plants help us - let's help them. Let us show them respect when we cut them

Baker Creek and some other sources have pink and white dandelion seeds available. From the reviews, they are as easy to grow and have similar taste to the yellow ones. Imagine a lawn full of colorful dandelion flowers! People see it and they will want dandelions in their yards too.

Dandelions are flowering here too, as of the past 48 hours or so. They are a very welcome plant for beekeepers, as they are one of the first abundant nectar and pollen sources for spring.

Michael Cox wrote:Dandelions are flowering here too, as of the past 48 hours or so. They are a very welcome plant for beekeepers, as they are one of the first abundant nectar and pollen sources for spring.

Interesting, here as much as we like dandelions, they are considered very poor bee forage, due to incomplete amino acids profile in the pollen. Bee families that forage exclusively on dandelions grow slower in numbers. During the period of their flowering the most valuable pollen still comes from willows.

True, they are not a "complete" food, but they are abundant and have a long flowering period. They supplement the other flowers.

My brother in law wrote a great story about dandelions in his short story book "Milo and I".
I'm just trying dandelion flower syrup for the first time.  The recipe I have uses cold water and leaving overnight, but since our water is "hill water" I've boiled it first.  The blossoms are good this year, but today was perhaps a little cloudy, and the flowers not that open.  Hopefully it won't matter....

Off topic- See my prototype zero waste bag for the sugar?  Food safe PU fabric like for lunch bag lining. Worked really well to bring the sugar home.  I'm hoping to get some more made for the shop.

I've become a little bored with annuals and have started exploring the perennials in my little partial acre. I've noticed before that dandelion leaves are great used as herbs on a pizza- the little bit of bitterness somehow brings it together.

I set some dandelion leaves to dry the other day and they don't taste bad, a little bland but with some pleasant bitter bite. I still think of them as somewhat of an herb rather than full-course vegetable, would love to be proved wrong on that. I also dried some horseradish leaves and wow! -nice strong taste there, I like it even better!