The other day I was researching how to effectively kill dandelions when I found this anti-kill article on how great they are. After I laughed and mentioned to my dog the person was crazy, I read it. It was all about how you can eat the leaves (dandelion greens), knew that. The root can be brewed for tea, knew that. And that the flowers can be turned into a light honey tasting like jam. Well hot damn, I didn’t know that!
I have many dandelions around. In fact I kind of agreed to the hubby I would take a break picking them and work on other things I lied. So I went to the side of the road yesterday after needing a break from gardening/edging the gardens in our yard and picked some dandelions flowers. Well, not some. A ton. An entire bucket full, I know I needed 8-10 cups. A hint for all – go for the big ones, don’t go for the little ones if you can help it. Apparently they are sweeter – not sure about that. But when you are taking the yellow part off the bud it’s easier to get the big ones apart and you get more bang for your buck to speak.
After assembling my ingredients I realized I didn’t have liquid pectin, but powered pectin as my recipe required.
That’s okay, I found one that used powered and carried on. The more time consuming part is separating the dandelion heads. They tell you to cut the bottom of the bud off, that didn’t seem that effective to me. I was a kid that used to spend every day possible outside. I’m used to destroying flowers. Take the bud and kind of roll it in between your thumb and pointer finger putting pressure on it. Then the yellow part will just pull right out. They also mentioned to run them under cold water – don’t. It makes them wet and hard to deal with.
So now the fun could begin. Take about five cups of water and the yellow flowers you’ve set aside and put them in a pot. Bring to a boil and let boil for a bit then simmer for a couple minutes.
After you remove it from the heat you need to use a cheesecloth or strainer to get the ‘tea’ away from the buds. Oh uh – I don’t have a strainer. I do have some coffee filters somewhere though! So I had to start hunting. And where did I find them?
Then I strained the juice and disposed of the leftover boiled flowers.
Now for the rest of it. A package of powered pectin, three cups of the tea, four and a half cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
Put it in a pot and bring it to a boil, let it boil for about five minutes and then remove from heat and pour into jars.
Now to put it into the jars! Final product –
Well – guess what everyone is getting a jar of for christmas!! 🙂
Let me know if you’re trying this and how it turns out!
Happenstance 