Delectable Dandelions

Dandelions, Taraxacum officinale, are a great gift to humanity as food, medicine, fertilizer, and pollution remediator. European immigrants brought them to America, where their sunny flowers briefly brighten the landscape, are a critical food for bees (and loved by chickens!), and provide one of the best liver-supporting foods available.

Dandelions as food

Every part of the dandelion is edible. Every part of the dandelion is bitter, too; but you can easily circumvent this by blanching once or twice, or picking at the right season, and using the right seasonings. You may know that dandelion greens lead all vegetables in magnesium and beta carotene content, but did you know that dandelion flowers contain more lecithin than soy? Lecithin can help reduce liver inflammation.

Try it, you’ll like it!

Here’s a foolproof way to introduce dandelions to someone and show they need not taste bitter, according to ethnobotanist Peter Gail. Make a pizza sandwich. Spread a piece of toast with a mixture of catsup and horseradish, top with chopped raw or cooked dandelion greens, melt cheese on top. You may use any kind of tomato sauce — pizza, marinara, stewed tomatoes, etc. You may also add a small amount of chopped raw or steamed greens to a regular pizza!

For some reason, and I can attest that it’s true, putting dandelion greens between two pieces of bread masks the bitterness; so a single layer of leaves works fine in place of lettuce on sandwiches.

Dandelions as medicine

The bitter taste of dandelion roots in your mouth sets off a reflex reaction that stimulates bile production. This benefits your digestion. The roots were also traditionally used as a liver tonic and to treat many liver conditions, such as jaundice, gallstones, and cirrhosis.

Dandelion leaves are a renowned diuretic. In other words, they decrease water retention. This helps reduce bloating and edema due to conditions like PMS, high blood pressure, or heart weakness. The beauty of dandelion as a diuretic is that dandelions are abundant in potassium, which commercial diuretics reduce. Dandelions will nourish you while healing you.

Leaves gathered when the plant is flowering can be dried for use as tea, or made into a crude extract by stuffing a glass jar solidly with leaves, covering with 100 proof vodka or 80 proof brandy, and letting sit for six weeks. One teaspoon three times a day is a standard dose.

Don’t want to eat or drink dandelions? Read on.

Dandelions as fertilizer

Dandelions make a terrific addition to your compost. Use dandelions that have not been exposed to herbicides and fertilizers — a minimum of three years on a chemical-free lawn. Make sure that dandelions are back at least 10 feet from roads, 20–30 feet being a better idea. What’s good for you is good for your plants.

To make a fertilizer:

Put a handful of dandelion leaves in a pint of cool water. Bring to a boil, cover, and allow to cool. Strain and funnel into a spray bottle, dilute with four parts water and add a tablespoon of liquid soap (not detergent). Use immediately as a leaf spray.

Or, as you’re working in your garden or on your lawn, happily, mindlessly digging out dandelions, leave the dandelions on the sidewalk for a couple of days until they are dried out.

Then crush, chop, or tear the leaves (not the roots, unless they’re roasted) and add them back to the soil. Dead dandelions make terrific soil enrichers. Dandelions as pollution remediator Dandelions have a long, deep taproot and will take up heavy metals from the soil — lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury, zinc. Let them grow in your boulevard or other contaminated area. When you pull them, dispose of them as you would noxious waste.

Dandelions are one of the best plant allies you can have. Get your friends and neighbors to stop killing them and use them for their many cheering, healthful effects!

-by Judith Sims, an educational media producer and Dandelion is one of her herbal allies.