It's finally beginning to look like spring around here. As I walked the fields, I could see the dandelions popping up everywhere. The bees that are already visiting, tells me that the earth is waking up from its winter sleep. This is always an exciting time of year for me. I generally leave half of the dandelions I see, as this is the first food to help our honeybees get going in the spring. The other half, I harvest and make many delicious things with them. Some are just because they are tasty and some are for the many health benefits that the dandelion has to offer.
Some of the health benefits of dandelions include providing antioxidants, lowering blood pressure, regulating blood sugar, easing allergy symptoms, can be used as a diuretic and also to help manage weight.
Every part of a dandelion can be used for diet and medicinal purposes including the leaves, stems, flowers and roots.
Dandelions contain beta-carotene, which is an antioxidant that helps protect cells from damage. They also contain bioactive compounds that may help lower a person’s cholesterol. There is some evidence to suggest that dandelions also contain compounds that may help with regulating blood sugar, lowering blood pressure and as a diuretic. These are just a few of the many benefits of these little yellow flowers.
You can brew a tea of dandelion roots, eat a salad of dandelion leaves, or make a dandelion salve to name a few, but there are many ways to utilize the benefits of dandelions.
When the dandelions start popping up there are two things that I make first, dandelion jelly and dandelion salve. The jelly is delicious and literally tastes like spring and the salve has antiaging and moisturizing benefits and researchers say that it may help protect against harmful UV rays. I have a new venture with the dandelions this year, Dandelion wine! This will be a first for me so I will report back with updates on that. I will include the recipe for the jelly. I hope you enjoy and Happy Spring!
-Judy Parker, IPHM
Dandelion Jelly - makes 3 half pints
Ingredients
4 cups dandelion petals, or 2 cups packed petals
2 cups sugar
Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 box Powdered Pectin, about 1 ounce
Boiling Water
Instructions
Harvest about 4 cups of dandelion flower heads. Remove just the yellow petals, discarding the green portions. You should have roughly 2 cups of petals.
Steep the petals in hot water for about 1 hour.
After steeping, strain the petals through a cheesecloth or a sieve. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of liquid.
Pour the dandelion tea into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add lemon juice and pectin and bring the mixture to a rolling boil over high heat stirring occasionally then add your sugar. Return to a hard boil. Once at a hard boil, time for 1 1/2 minutes and then remove from heat.
Pour the jelly into prepared jars, seal and allow the jelly to cool and set for at least 12 hours or until set up. This could take up to a full day. Store in the refrigerator.