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One foreign farmer tells about the daily stuff that has been given to you. His mother started picking flowers and feeding them to the whole family as soon as their heads began to break through the grass in the backyard.
She grew up during the Great Depression on a dairy farm in Vermont and told many stories about fodder plants that supplemented the poor diet without letting her die of hunger. Dandelions, being the first spring greens, occupy a high position in its list of the most important foods.
Related article: Useful Properties of Dandelion!
The history of the emergence of the
Dandelion belongs to the Astrov family. From the Eurasian continent, the plant has spread throughout the world. People from all over the world use parts of dandelion as a nutritional supplement and a powerful medicine.
One of the popular nicknames came from the French word “pissenlit”( urinate in bed), thanks to the use of dandelion in traditional medicine as an effective potassium-rich diuretic.
Collection of dandelions
The idea is to eat the green part of dandelion. Collect them in a young stage, underground crowns should be well cleaned. To collect, select a place that has not been exposed to agricultural chemicals and has not been visited by pets.
Cut small, thorny leaves near the ground as soon as they begin to deviate. They should be collected before the flowers open( the unopened buds are very tasty).If tightened with this process, the leaves will become too bitter for use in food.
To pull out the plant, it is better to use a special “fork” for weeding. It is stuck about 7 cm into the ground under a dandelion socket and breaks the junction of the crown with the root. After that, the dandelion is pulled out of the ground, and the dirt and last year’s leaves are removed.
Cleaning dandelions
Pay close attention to removing sand and dirt from all crevices of the crown. Let the plants soak in a deep saucepan, changing the water several times. Then cut the crowns, taking care not to damage the leaves, and clean them out. Now you can hold the final rinse and start cooking.
Cooking
The smallest green leaves are well added to fresh salads. You can also cook them with a pair of onions. To do this, chopped onions with a few cloves of garlic are fried in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil. Then add greens, a little water and evaporate until the leaves are soft.
Dandelions can be used as one of the ingredients of a tonic soup, which also consists of young nettle, parsley, spinach, cabbage and chard. All herbs are cooked in well seasoned chicken broth.
In addition, strong tea from dandelion flowers, used as a hair rinse, adds shine and emphasizes the light color of the curls.
From dandelions you can even make wine
Dandelions in the garden
As perennial plants, dandelions have rather deep roots and absorb useful minerals from the soil, making them inaccessible to small roots with short roots. Therefore, do not let dandelions grow strongly and completely tear them out where vegetables grow.
Bright yellow flowers on the lawn attract pollinators to your garden and are an early source of nectar for many butterflies.
Ensure that you can accurately distinguish dandelions from other plants before collecting them. If you have never eaten them before, we recommend that you first prepare and try a small portion, and only then harvest in large quantities. Never collect dandelions from areas treated with pesticides or other chemicals, for example, from a lawn.
