Dandelion

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[edit] Dandelion food preparation

Dandelions

All parts of the dandelion are edible:

Leaves: the newest, unlobed leaves taste best (raw in salad or cooked like spinach)
- Older leaves are an acquired bitter taste: start with one leaf in a salad and gradually increase over 3 month because the modern (sweet dominated) palate has to relearn to enjoy the ancestral bitter herbs

Roots: 2 year old roots are thick and eaten raw like a carrot or baked/roasted for the more sensitive palate
Roots drying: first chop up really fine otherwise dries so tough as to break coffee grinder : use as coffee substitute
Flowers: eaten raw or cooked in batter or made into wine
Stem: milky latex on skin to soothe insect bites or irritations like nettle stings
- edible: initial bitter jolt gives way to a nicer aftertaste.

high population of dandelions indicates acidic soil, especially if in combination with other pH indicators such as:
- common mullein
- buttercups
- wild strawberries

Objective: to find out if dandelion seeds are reliable as sprouting seeds (making free and abundant superfood all year)
Method:
- Collect mature seeds just before they blow off in the wind
- Put in freezer for 5 days or more (to make them think winter has arrived)
- Using standard sprouting methods, check how long it takes for half the seeds to sprout
Literature: 50% of Dandelion seeds sprout in the second week after 5 days in freezer^[1]
experiment 1: 5 days in freezer, after 2 weeks of daily water bath in jar / cheesecloth: none sprouted
- note: I had left the parachutes attached; and I did not let the seeds dry for 2 days prior to freezing