GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: dandelion

  • Dandelion Greens & Bacon Salad Recipe : GF Video

    Dandelion Greens & Bacon Salad Recipe : GF Video

    What do you with dandelion greens? You make a salad of course. Watch our video to find out how to identify and forage for dandelion in your yard, and make a great salad. If you are looking for edible plants in your yard, make sure the yard hasn’t been treated with herbicides or other things that are bad for you to ingest. Check out our other foraging videos here.

    How To Find and Prepare Dandelion Greens

    Wild Greens are abundant if you live in an area with grassy weedy places. They grow, we eat them. Things like mustard grow wild, wild onions, dandelion, purslane, burdock, all sorts. What I like about dandelion is it is ubiquitous and abundant, and it grows all summer. It is said that the dandelion greens are more bitter after the dandelion flower have bloomed, but my personal experience has been mixed. It is true the older the leaf, the more bitter it will be.

    I do suggest buying at least one foraging plant identification book, I’m a big fan of Leda Meredith’s Foraging Books, she also has regional foraging books out as well. A second book you might consider is Joy Of Foraging.

    Dandelion Greens

    Follow this simple dandelion greens recipe, and all will be great. It uses items you probably have in your fridge.

    Dandelion Salad Recipe  makes 2 salads

    1 bunch of dandelion, about a large handful, tap root and flower stems removed, washed and dried.

    2 strips of thick cut bacon

    balsamic vinegar

    2 eggs, poached for 3 minutes

    1 avocado

    Cook the bacon to crisp

    While the bacon is cooking arrange the dandelion in two salad bowls or plates.

    Cut the avocado in half, core and add to the bowls

    Add the poached egg on top of the greens,

    Cut the bacon into small pieces, spread over the salad

    Pour about a half teaspoon of the bacon grease from the pan over each bowl.

    Serve as soon as possible.

    Now on to foraging for Lambsquarters!

    Wild and Urban Foraging for Lambsquarters : GF Video

     

  • Dandelion Greens : Info, Recipes, Videos

    Pulling some dandelions in our of our raised vegetable garden beds this weekend, I was able to pull some of the dandelion greens out whole, with their taproot. wow. The raised beds have great garden soil in them, and they weed easily; with little work the long taproot came out with the dandelion plant. Dandelions can be persistent if one does not get out the taproot, they will grow back if you just snap off the greens; which can be a good thing if you are growing dandelion for food, no need to reseed, just snap off the top.

    dandelion-greens-info-recipes-videos

    These dandelion greens were in the wrong place in our garden, so I pulled them for salad. They were in what was our tomato bed last year, peeking out from the side of the black plastic I use as a mulch and thermal blanket to keep weeds down, heat up the soil in the early spring, and conserve moisture in the soil.

    Dandelion Greens are super healthy for you, they are high in Vitamin A, C, & K. They taste great in salads, soups, and whatever else you would toss a hardy green leafy vegetable into. The greens can be bitter, and sometimes people blanch them to get rid of some of that bitterness.

    All parts of the dandelion plant are edible, most people think of dandelion greens, and dandelion wine, but what about the taproot?

    The dandelion taproot can be used to make a coffee alternative, much like burdock root is used to do the same. The taproot is also used to make a British drink called Dandelion and Burdock, and is used in making root beet. Perhaps this is where the ‘root’ part of root beer comes from.

    I’ve got burdock growing the the yard near the woodshed, this year I’ll look into making this english drink.

    We’ve made a few videos about dandelion greens and how to cook with dandelion with these recipes:

    Harvesting Dandelions Greens & Salad Recipe

      Dandelion Greens with Bacon

    Here is a good book on foraging to get you started;


    Order From An Indie Bookstore Here

    Buy From Amazon Here

  • Is Dandelion edible? Dandelion Salad Recipe : GF Video

    Is Dandelion edible? Dandelion Salad Recipe : GF Video

    You can eat what most people call a weed. Dandelion.

    Here is another foraging video we did on how to harvest and cook dandelion.

    Wikipedia has some good info on dandelion, though I don’t agree you have to always cook it down before eating. There are plenty of us who like it raw. If you like mustard greens, you’ll like dandelion.

    You can grow it in your garden, it will last longer into the summer than most any other green. I think the horticultural version is milder, and I prefer the wild version. I was walking around the barn this weekend looking for dandelion, there is still a bunch of it around depsite the record heat wave. Dandelion starts growing early in the spring, flowers and quickly goes to seed. Dandelion then pops up again in the fall, so keep an eye out for it all through the growing season. You can even grow it in a cold frame or hoop house. Click these to see our how to build a hoop house and cold frame videos

    Don’t harvest it from roadside areas or where your dogs like to hang out. 10-4?

    if you want to learn more about foraging, here is a how-to book to get you started. I like this book, and learned a bunch about acorns, which you can make a flour with. who knew?


    Order From An Indie Bookstore Here

    Buy From Amazon Here