Or you could liquidize - Dandelion coffee

I have found the perfect way to eradicate dandelion from the lawn.  In the past I used a special tool that was sold in Garden centers, but all it did was to guaranty that the root would break and the dandelion would happily continue to grow.  Then I tried that plant hormone stuff, but if that is to work it has to stay dry for a few days and that requires a minor miracle in Iceland in summer, so not much luck there.  But then I figured out that a big shovel or spade is best.

But I don't really dislike dandelion.  It's a wonderful plant, full of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D and vitamin B complex, as well as zinc, iron and potassium.  It supposedly can regulate blood sugar levels , is a liver tonic and a diuretic.  Last year I made the dandelion honey from the flowers and recently I tried the dandelion pesto made of the leaves (which contain calcium, magnesium and vitamin K) which was very nice.  But this recipe is probably my favorite.  It's dandelion coffee!  Yes, I was sceptical too.  But it's really surprisingly good and remarkably like coffee, except it doest irritate the stomach and is supposedly good for you.  The taste is nutty and mild, at least with cream added to it.

You need a few roots.  Wash them thoroughly and dry them.   I had some roots that were already dried, so all I had to do was to break them into pieces and roast them.  This I did in the oven for 30 minutes at 200°C / 300°F.  If you need to dry the roots as well as roast them, then you should chop them up into similar sized pieces and put them on a baking tray.  Then they will roast equally.  You don't want to burn the roots, a nice mid to dark brown is what you're aiming for.  Apparently, the more the roots are roasted, the less bitter they taste.  I haven't noticed any bitter taste in mine, although some of them were fairly light in colour.

The washed and chopped roots are put on a baking tray evenly spaced and put into an oven at 120°C / 250°F for 2 hours with the oven door open so that the moisture escapes.  Turn occasionally and keep and eye on the roots for the last half hour to make sure it doesn't burn.  If the colour it too light then raise the heat to 200°C / 300°F and roast until the roots are a nice brown colour.

Let the roots cool before you grind them in a coffee grinder.  Those who do not have one, can use a mortel and pestle to pound the roasted roots, or simply wrap them in a clean dishtowel and whack with a hammer.

I use the coffee just like instant coffee, one teaspoon in a cup and I add coffee-cream.  Some people let the coffee steep for up to 30 minutes and then strain and reheat.  It's just a matter of taste.  Try this, it really is quite good.  Although I have to admit that my husband doesn't like it at all.  But then again, he's in the hospital and I'm not.  So, I just have to say, how many people can say: Oh, I've given up coffee, but can I offer you a cup of Dandelion coffee.  How cool is that.

Eating your enemy - The sweetest revenge

I have been a member of the Horticultural Society for some years now.  Gardening is one of my passions, although I haven't really blogged about that a lot.  I used to be interested only in ornamental gardening:  Perennials, bulbs and shrubs.  Vegetables - not so much.  Didn't really eat them and and therefore I wasn't interested in growing them.  But that was back in the days when I had a cigarette in one hand and a can of Coke in the other.  Always.  Some people thought I had been born that way.  But, for some reason, I started to eat vegetables, quit smoking, took up Pilates and stopped drinking Coke.  Many times.  Damn that stuff is addictive!  But I haven't had a Coke in over a month now and I'm very proud of myself.

But back to gardening.  I did a public talk about Rhubarb last summer and recently repeated it for the Horticultural Society, which was fun.  The lecture addressed the whole of the plant, the leaves, the stalks and the root and what to do with it.  Some of that turned into blog posts last summer.  When I was asked for some short articles for a newspaper insert, I thought I would do the same for the bitter enemy of many gardeners, the dandelion, Taraxacum officinale.  Isn't the thought of digging up your enemy and then eating it, just the sweetest of all?

The plant is a medicinal plant and has many benefits.  It is an excellent source of vitamins A, B complex, C, and D, as well as minerals such as iron, potassium, and zinc.  The root has traditionally been used to treat liver problems, the greens are diuretic and the flowers have antioxidant properties.  All parts are edible, the leaves often used in salads, the root as a coffee substitute and the flowers for wine, textile dye or dandelion honey.

Dandelion leaves have the mildest taste before they flower. After flowering their taste is more bitter.  I used greens from a plant that hadn't flowered for this recipe, that is the perfect taste for a pesto.  This recipe is rather small, but can easily be multiplied for a bigger quantity because it can be a bit small for large equipment.  I used the leaves of one large dandelion that I just dug up from my garden.

Dandelion pesto

60 grams / 2 oz dandelion greens
1/4 cup Olive oil
1 clove of Garlic
1 tbsp lightly roasted Almonds (could also be hazelnuts or pine nuts)
1/2 tsp salt
10 grams / 0.4 oz Parmesan cheese

The process is easy.  Put the dandelion greens and olive oil into a food processor/blender and whiz together.  Add the garlic, almonds and Parmesan cheese.  Blend until it is smooth.  Add salt to taste and use more olive oil if needed to get the desired consistency.  Put in a jar and pour olive oil on top so it covers the pesto.  Use the same way as you would regular pesto.

Liquid gold - Dandelion honey

Those dandelions are everywhere and I've had a nagging thought that last year I wanted to make something from them, but was too late to collect the flowers.  And couldn't remember what it was.  That happens to me a lot and it's got nothing to do with age.  It's just the way I am.  Feeling rather frustrated that I hadn't written anything down, I kept scouting for the best places to pick the flowers and pray for some sun so that I could pick them fully open.  The weather this spring has been really dismal, but things are looking up.  We saw double digits yesterday - 13C.  This is what I've been reduced to. By now I'm grateful if the temperature climbs above 10C (that's about 50F) and ecstatic if the sun peeps from behind a cloud.

Then it came to me.  Dandelion honey!  I read about it somewhere (didn't write it down) and I knew that I had to try that.  It just sounded so jummy to me.  The only trouble was that I imagined that it would require so many flowers that it would take forever to collect them.  But when I was collecting the flowers to make a dye from them the other day I knew that it takes no time at all.  And it's pleasurable, too.

I had to look for a recipe again, since I hadn't written anything down.  Always write things down.  I know this.  But I still don't!  Thankfully, I found this really good recipe with step by step photos on a German blog: Heilkraeuter.  The recipe is very easy, but it takes some time to make mostly because it needs to simmer for a long while.

Dandelion honey

3 handfuls of Dandelion flowers
1 liter water / That's just over a quart
1 kilo sugar / 35 oz sugar
Juice and rind of 1 lemon (the original recipe give 1/2, but I like lemons so I used it all)

Wash the flowers quickly and gently in cold water.  Pour the water over the flowers and let it stand for about 2 hours (or longer, it's no biggie).  Bring to boil and then turn of the heat and let cool slowly overnight.
Sieve the flowers from the water and discard (or even better, put on the compost heap).  In a saucepan, pour the sugar into the flower water and bring to the boil.  Lower the heat to a simmer and simmer until it reaches a syrup stage (110 C / 230 F).  This took me 3 hours, but the time may vary depending on the temperature.  Pour into sterilized jars.
Use the syrup as you would use honey.

I made another batch that I heated a little less, maybe slightly over 100C / 210F, to make a more runny honey.  The first one can be used as a spread on bread, the second is better for my yoghurt.

It tastes remarkably like honey, sweet and flowery with a hint of lemon.  And it's vegan.

This German recipe uses the flowers whole, with the green sepals.  I have seen some recipes that say you should only use the yellow petals and therefore you need to spend a lot of time pulling away all the green stuff, because it is bitter.  This isn't true.  I tasted it and I have also tasted both batches that I made and they are very far from bitter.  The sepals taste nothing like the leaves.  So I wouldn't recommend that anyone wastes time on that.  But have a go at making the honey, it's really good.
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Dandelion dye

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are such a welcome sight when they appear.  That wonderful sunny yellow is one of the first signs of summer up here in the north.  This year we are having the coldest spring for a long time.  But the dandelions don't mind.  They cheerfully flower absolutely everywhere.  Of course many people dislike this weed, but I don't.  It's very easy to get rid of should one want to.  Just dig it out.  Although it is a very useful plant so it's good to have around.  But perhaps not in the lawn.

Some people eat it in salads, the leaves that is.  I've never done that, probably because it's best to pick them young and in May when they start to flower it can be pretty cold and therefore I am not in the mood to go on foraging trips.

The dandelion is a medicinal plant.  There is a clue in the name.  If a plant is called Something officinale it is a plant that is known for it's medicinal properties.  Dandelion leaves are nutritious and a good diuretic. The root of the plant is considered a good detoxifier and a tonic for the liver.  But that isn't what I was going to say at all.  What this is all about is dying.

It had to happen sooner or later.  With my interest in the medicinal properties of plants and in using them to colour and scent soaps and oils as well as to pretty up my garden, I had develop an interest in dyeing with plants sooner or later.  I have been collecting supplies for that for quite some time.  I have lots of foreign dyestuff like Logwood, Madder, Alkanet, Annatto, Indigo and the vibrantly pink Cochineal - Dactylopius coccus.  I have been reading about it for over a year and have some fantastic books about dying with plants.  And I have read them all, again and again.  And then I finally did it.  I couldn't resist those lovely yellow flowers and picked quite a few flowers that were fully open in a rare moment of sunshine in this cold spring weather.

Dying isn't at all complicated.  Most of the time you need about equal amounts of plant material to yarn (or whatever you want to dye).  You put the plants into a pot with some water and simmer or boil it for about an hour and then strain it.  This will work for most plants.  Then you pour the dye solution into a pot and fill it up with water and put the yarn (or whatever) into the pot.  This is then simmered for an hour or so and often you let it cool in the pot.  Then you rinse and dry.  And that is it.  Apart from the mordanting and modifying.  Mordants are important.  Without them the dye will not attach itself to the fibers.  The most common mordants are metal salts, like aluminium, iron and copper and they do affect the colour.  As will changing the PH balance.  So there is a lot to play with.  And it can get complicated, but mostly it's easy and fun.

I used Icelandic wool called Lopi, which is hardly spun and pulls apart really easily.  It also felts really easily, so I didn't exactly make things too easy for me.  I used this wool because I thought it would be fun to use local plants to dye and then knit me an Icelandic sweater using many different colours.  I haven't had a sweater since my last one fell apart, but they are nice to own and most people have them to use in summer.  Because it's cold in summer.  Lopi is what is used in the sweaters, so I had to use that.  But it was quite a challenge to dye it because of the felting.  But I managed to wind it into two small balls.

The colour was a very light yellow, not a touch of the brassy colour of the flowers, but a surprisingly light, greeny yellow, quite delicate and pretty.  So now I have started this journey.  I haven't given up soap but if I am to ever finish that sweater I have a busy time ahead of me gathering flowers.
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