Dandelion Medicinally

Before I begin, I want to make a quick little disclaimer that of course nothing I say below has been evaluated by the FDA.  The following information should not be used to replace medical advice or treatment and if you are ill you should see your doctor or naturopath or nurse practitioner or herbalist or whoever it is you see.  Sorry I had to go through all that, but sometimes people can be goofy about this stuff!  I use herbs in my daily life but I go to my naturopath or my MD when I’ve got something major wrong with me. 

OK!  Dandelion!  Dandelion’s scientific name is Taraxacum officinale.  Some of its common names are as follows: Chinese: Pu gong ying, Huang-hua ti-ting,  ju-chi ts’au.  English:  Piss-in-bed, lion’s tooth, blow ball, fortune-teller, doonheadclock, tell-time, clock flower, bitterwort, swine snort, Irish daisy, wet-a-bed, priest’s crown, cankerwort, puffball and wild endive.  French:  Dent-de-lion, pissenlit.  German:  Lowenzahn, Kuhblume, Pfaffenrohrlein.  Greek:  Radiki.  Italian: Diente di lieone, Radicchiallar, Tarasasaco, Soffione.  Persian: Trakhasnkun.  Russian:  Oduvanchik, pushki.  Spanish: Chicoria, diente de leon, consuelda.  Turkish:  Kara hindiba otu, yabani, aci Marul. 

Dandelion has been documented in its use as a medicinal herb for over a thousand years, and we can assume that this wonderful herb was also used long before documentation existed.  As you can tell from all the names listed above, dandelion is one of those universal weeds that seems to grow in every place on earth.  Where it was originally native and how it got to us here is unknown.  Some sources suggest that dandelion hitch-hiked to America on the backs of European immigrants, and I read somewhere a long time ago that dandelion was brought to America from Africa by slaves to cultivate as food, then escaped their fields and grew rampant across the country.  I find this unlikely, given the reports that several North American Indian tribes have traditonally used dandelion for food and medicine. 

The roots of Dandelion have been used to improve liver congestion, treat hepatitis, and enhance the bile flow (some sources suggest that you be a little careful with herbs that enhance bile flow if you have severe gall stones or a completely obstructed bile duct, as this can possibly cause a worsening of the problem—it would be like water building up behind a dam, as I imagine it—although other sources specifically suggest dandelion as a treatment for gall stones.  In my opinion, each case is different, so see your ND or herbalist if this is something you want to try).    Dandelion root has been used to stabilize blood sugar, reduce hypoglycemia, and has been suggested to assist in prevention of type 2 diabetes (Susun Weed, Healing Wise).  It can help increase the appetite and relieve chronic consitipation.  Dandelion root is a highly nutritive herb.  According to Susun S. Weed in the book Healing Wise, dandelion root contains high levels of iron, manganese, phosphorus, protein, aluminum, and carotenes (vitamin A).  It also contains average amounts of calcium, chromium, cobalt, magnesium, niacin, potassium, riboflavin, silicon, sodium, tin, zinc, and vitamin C complex (ascorbic acid).  Wow!

Dandelion leaf is one of the best known herbal diuretics.  Diuretics are what remove excess water from your system, through the kidneys and bladder.   One of dandelion’s nick-names is “piss-in-the-bed”…probably because if you drink too much dandelion tea before you go to bed, this is what’ll happen to you!  Most diuretics deplete the body of vital potassium along with the water.  Dandelion leaf, however, is itself one of the best natural sources of potassium, so it is excellently balanced and can be used for any kind of water retention problems.  Along with potassium, dandelion leaves are also high in vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, riboflavin, thiamin and niacin.  There are also trace amounts of manganese, sulphur, magnesium, silica, and vitamin D.  It’s no wonder that dandelion leaves have been eaten for centuries as a delicious bitter spring salad!  (A hint here— if you pick the tender first leaves of spring, they taste fresh and light, not so bitter).

My grandmother told me once that during the depression she and her brother used to wait with bated breath for the first signs of Spring—fresh dandelions coming up through the snow.  They gathered every leaf they could find for their salads, and she said nothing ever tasted so good.  After a winter-long diet of nothing but salt pork and milk, I can imagine they did!

 

Dandelion Wine

Have you ever read the book Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury?  If not, I highly recommend it.  If so, you probably know what I mean.

But this post is not about the book Dandelion Wine.  It’s about the WINE!

Dandelion wine can have many different characteristics, depending on what else you put in it besides dandelions.  As I remember, Ray Bradbury’s wine was mostly dandelions and sunshine, summertime bottled.  The fewest ingredients will make the lightest wine, but sometimes it’s fun to add other things to give your wine a more robust flavor, or a zing or a zap.

I’ve tried several different recipes, with varying success and enjoyment.  I’ll give you two of my favorites here; one with a lot of ingredients and less equipment, and a more involved one with fewer ingredients but more steps.

Dandelion Wine 1  Ready to taste in about 3 months

This is a fairly simple recipe in that you just throw everything in the pot, boil it, and voila!  You’re ready to start fermenting.  It also calls for the primary fermentation in the bottle, so there’s a bit less fuss and bother with vapor locks and other equipment, which makes it a good recipe for beginners.  The citrus fruits give it a zzing, the honey and ginger give it warmth, and the turbinado sugar, with its weight of molassas, brings a rich dark color unusual in dandelion wines.  Quite delicious! 

Equipment:  2 big pots (or 1 big pot and 1 clean bucket); large strainer; coffee filter or muslin cloth to fit strainer; muslin cloth and rubber bands to fit bottle tops; 5 or 6 clean wine bottles or 12 to 14 clean beer bottles or  whatever bottle you want to use; clean corks and a corker (if using wine bottles); clean caps and a capper (if using beer bottles) or tight-fitting screw-lids if using other kinds of bottles.

Ingredients:  1 pkg active dry yeast (bread yeast will do), 1/4 cup warm water, 1/2 gallon fresh dandelion blossoms (de-stemmed), 1 gallon water, 1 cup orange juice, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, 10 whole cloves, 1 teaspoon powdered ginger, 3 tablespoons orange zest, 2 tablespoons lemon zest, 5 cups turbinado sugar and 1 cup honey.

For the best harvest, pick your dandelions around noon on a sunny day.  Be sure the area where you are picking has not been sprayed or otherwise treated with herbicides or pesticides.  Remove as much of the stem and green part of the dandelion as possible, and start your wine as soon after picking as possible.

Dissolve the yeast in warm water.  Set aside.  Put all the other ingredients into a large pot.  Bring to a boil, turn down heat and allow to simmer for 1 hour.  Strain through a coffee filter into another large pot or clean bucket.  Allow to cool until it’s a bit warmer than room temperature.  Stir in the yeast.  Cover pot or bucket with cheesecloth or a cotton towel and let sit overnight.  Pour into clean, sterilized bottles (to sterilize bottles, just boil them for about 10 minutes in a large pot or canning kettle).  I use brown or green beer bottles.  Ray Bradbury used old ketchup bottles.  You can use any kind you like, so long as you can cork or seal them well.  For now, cover each bottle top with a square of muslin cloth (or cut up a dish towel into squares) and hold it on with a rubber band around the bottle top.  Allow uncorked bottles to sit quietly in a cool dark place for 3 weeks.  Then cork or top your bottles.  I use a beer bottle capper and caps that I got from the brewing supply store.  If you’re using wine bottles, they sell corkers there too, as well as corks.  Make sure you label your bottles with the date, then let them stand in a cool dark place for at least 3 months.  When you pour it out, be aware that there may be some sediment on the bottom of the bottle.  This will not harm you, but it can cloud the wine, so pour carefully to avoid getting it in your glass.

Dandelion Wine 2 Ready to taste in about 6 months

This wine is lovely and golden, can be slightly sparkly, and is a bit more complex to make than the first recipe.  If you’ve never brewed before, I recommend you make this one with someone who has, or at least have a chat with the folks down at the brew supply store so you know what all the words mean before you get started.  Have fun!

Ingredients:  3 quarts freshly picked dandelion flowers, cleaned and de-stemmed; I gallon water; 2 lemons; 1 orange; 3 lb fructose or granulated corn sugar; 1 lb golden raisins; 1 pkg champagne wine yeast (available at brewing supply stores).

Equipment:  Large bowl; large pot; plastic wrap; plastic bucket; fine mesh strainer; glass or plastic wine or beer fermenting container (I used 2 1-gallon glass bottles, with rubber corks (with holes in the center) to fit the tops); bubble-locks that fit in your rubber corks (available at any brew-supply store); clear hose for decanting (you can get this at a brew-supply store or at a pet store–they’re often used in fish tanks); 12-14 beer bottles, or 6 to 8 wine bottles and of course lids or corks to match and a capper or corker (see previous recipe).

Place the dandelions in the large bowl.  Bring the water to a boil and pour over the flowers.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to sit for 48 hours (no more than that), stirring occasionally.  Pour into large pot and bring to a boil.  Add sugar.  Carefully peel only the colored part of the citrus fruit and add to the pot.  Get as little of the white pith as possible.  Boil one hour, then pour into  the bucket.  Add the juice and pulp of the fruit.  Let sit until just above room temperature, then add the champagne yeast.  Cover with bucket lid or with plastic wrap and allow to sit in a warm place for 3 days.  Strain into fermentation container.  Add the raisins and put the cork with the bubble-lock in the top of the container.  When the wine clears (3 to 5 days), decant it back into your clean bucket, then clean out the sludge from your fermenting container, rinse it with boiling water and decant the wine once again back into there minus the raisins (or else you can just use a second fermenting container so you don’t have to go back and forth).  Top it up with fresh cool water and replace the cork and bubble-lock.  Leave alone until fermentation stops entirely (bubbles are no longer appearing in bubble-lock).  Decant carefully into clean sanitized bottles making sure to avoid sediment on the bottom of the fermentation container.  Cork or lid your bottles, then label them and let them age at least 6 months before tasting. 

Happy wine-making everyone!

 

Dandelion Beer!

Dandelion Wine will be coming up soon, but until then, try this recipe for Dandelion beer!  The great advantage of Dandy beer over wine is that it will be ready 10 days from when you make it.  Wine will take at least 3 to 6 months.  So—go ahead and make your wine if you want to, but while you’re waiting for it to ripen, try this lovely little beer recipe.

Ingredients: 1lb turbinado sugar, 1 oz cream of tartar, 1/2 oz fresh ginger rhizome, 1/2 lb dandelion roots and leaves, 5 quarts water and 1 Tbsp yeast (you can used bread yeast or beer yeast).

Equipment:  Large cooking pot,  large plastic or glass fermentation container (can be a bucket), large mesh strainer, 2 muslin cloths or cotton dish cloths, 15 clean beer bottles, bottle caps and a capper (I re-used flip-top (not twist-off) beer bottles that I boiled for 10 minutes to sterilize, and I got my caps and capper at the homebrew supply store in Great Falls).

Put sugar and cream of tartar into clean fermentation container.  Put yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water and set aside.  Wash and chop dandelions, and grate the ginger.  Put dandelions and ginger in cooking pot with water and boil 10 minutes.  Put one cloth in the strainer, and pour mixture through it into the fermentation container.  Stir well until sugar is dissolved.  When cooled to room temp, add the yeast.  Cover with a clean cloth and let sit in a warmish dark place for 3 days.  Siphon into sterile bottles and cap.  Store bottles on their sides for 7 days.  Open and enjoy!

I originally got this recipe from Susun Weed’s book, Healing Wise.  I made a few small changes to it, but perhaps not enough to make it all my own so I do want to make sure to credit Susun Weed.

 

 

Snow falling on Dandelions

Well it’s Montana in April, what can you expect but below-zero temps and snow?  In the brief hiatus between this snow and the last one, I saw a yellow face peeping through the crusty white–it appeared to be laughing.  People say that Dandelions are tough and hardy, and it’s true (you kind of have to be tough and hardy if you’re a weed).  But when I think of those two words, they don’t somehow describe the cheeriness of dandelions to me.  I picture “tough and hardy” as weatherbeaten and scraggly, clinging to life with harsh determination and no regard to grace or beauty.  Some might argue with me that dandelions have no grace and beauty.  For those, I suggest the following:

Pick a fresh dandelion flower.  First, close your eyes and hold it just under your nose.  Take a deep breath.  Do you smell it?  So lovely!  The sweet fresh scent, the epitome of Spring!  Now hold it as close to your eyes as you can without going blurry (if you’re far-sighted, put your reading glasses on).  Look at that!  Just LOOK at that– the amazing burst of color, and all those tiny tiny intricate petals, all curved just so around and around, a perfect graceful spiral of bright honey-warm sunshine.  Ah, Dandelion!

Here’s another way to view Dandelion:  Find a field where dandelions are allowed to grow in their natural state, ie without poisons, sprays or mowing.  You’ll see them scattered in patches and clumps across the landscape, bending gently in the breeze, growing tall and proud with large firm flowers and brigh green, upstanding leaves.  Stand back and take in the field as a whole.  Squint your eyes and see how Dandelion adds to the beauty of the whole, brightening and sweetening, setting off the green of the grass and telling you that it is most definitely SPRING!

As for the cheerful face that laughingly peeped at me through the snow yesterday afternoon, which is now once again burried under whiteness…I know her time will come again.  Because in fact, in spite of her beauty and grace, Dandelion is indeed strong and hardy.

More on Dandelion’s usefulness in the next post.

 

Dan-diddly-lions!

How I love dandelions!  And it’s getting to be that dandelion time of year!  I’ve been eagerly watching my lawn but have not yet seen one pop up its lovely yellow head…I fear that my landlady poisoned them all last Fall.  She prefers grass.

Well, yes, that is definitely an issue with dandelions.  If you grow them in your lawn, they will take it over, then die back in late summer leaving those unsightly bald patches.   Unfortunate.

However, I adore the sprightly, bright, jolly energy of Dandelion, and if it were up to me, I would have a lawn full of them (along with chamomile, chickweed and clover).  Alas!  I rent.  Though truthfully, even if I didn’t rent I doubt my grass-loving neighbors would appreciate a lawnful of weeds in their vicinity.  We all know Dandelion’s propensity for spreading the love, puffing out those winged seeds on every summer breeze and sharing in every lawn.

In any case, this week the blog is dedicated to Dandelion–her history, stories, loves and losses, recipes and concoctions, brews (dandelion wine!) and cheery dandelion pictures too.  Stay tuned!  All this coming soon to a computer near you.