[HN Gopher] Dandelion Root Recipes
___________________________________________________________________
Dandelion Root Recipes
Author : itronitron
Score : 152 points
Date : 2023-05-19 11:05 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (practicalselfreliance.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (practicalselfreliance.com)
| ngvrnd wrote:
| Everything is edible; many things only once.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| > Everything is edible; many things only once.
|
| That's... literally, by definition, not true. Edible
| specifically means, per https://www.merriam-
| webster.com/dictionary/edible , "something that is suitable or
| safe to eat". If you could only eat it once, it wasn't edible.
|
| (Also, what's even your point? Dandelions _are_ actually
| edible.)
| zikzak wrote:
| My father grew up fairly poor in the 1930s and they often were
| short on food but he said they always had vegetables. They
| harvested dandelions, ate them, and actually made dandelion wine
| (according to him).
|
| He and his siblings loved vegetables as during certain times of
| the year they were the one thing they had "too much of".
| Everything else was basically rationed but they would get various
| peak harvests where they could eat until they were full.
| beezlebroxxxxxx wrote:
| Dandelion wine is delicious and not that hard to make. You just
| have to make sure you're harvesting dandelions that haven't
| been sprayed with a chemical. The final taste is mild but like
| a light mead and honey-ish.
| jrgoff wrote:
| Do you have a recipe that you prefer? I have seen a bunch of
| different recipes and have made it a few times with different
| ones. While I would agree that it isn't difficult to make, it
| has been pretty labor intensive when I have done it, so one
| of the big trade-offs for my recipe choice has been how much
| dandelion to use and have been curious about the tradeoffs
| there, though not curious enough to do any real
| experimenting.
| rwmj wrote:
| I _didn 't_ make this dandelion mead, but I did follow some
| of his other wine and mead recipes and they were good. You
| need a lot of dandelions by the looks of it!
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-C9uJ90eLc
| rwmj wrote:
| Dandelion flowers tempura is one thing we make quite a bit.
| It's basically free food (since the batter costs next to
| nothing).
| manicennui wrote:
| Dandelions and Civilization: A Forgotten History
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyePMeGE3CI
| Tade0 wrote:
| Weeds with such an impressive root system need a different
| approach than just mowing, but many are unaware of this.
|
| My city's landscaping services are fighting a losing battle with
| a local patch of Asian knotweed. Mowing it down doesn't do much
| because it just grows back and spreads.
| foobarian wrote:
| I had some Japanese knotweed attempt to mess with my yard.
| Luckily even the knotweed is not exempt from laws of physics so
| after keeping it cut down for a while it gave up.
|
| It can be a problem if you can't prevent it from setting up
| foliage. At least it's somewhat edible, and the dry stalks have
| airtight sections that explode if lit - kids love it.
| throwawaaarrgh wrote:
| I made a dandelion petal gin and a whole dandelion tincture last
| week, and both were a big hit at a cocktail party. I also
| sprinkle the petals and greens on my salads for a boost of
| nutrition, flavor and color.
|
| My favorite cocktail with the gin/tincture is a Bees' Knees but
| substituting lime and agave for the lemon and honey. I call it a
| Dandy Lion!
| mcdonje wrote:
| Dandelion root coffee is good enough that I buy it on a regular
| basis. I'm very much into real coffee and I make espresso at
| home, but I like dandelion root coffee in the evening when I
| don't want more caffeine.
|
| It doesn't taste like coffee, but it tastes good, and it's close
| enough in flavor to scratch the itch. Much better than carob or
| chicory. (Although chicory mixed in with coffee a la Cafe du
| Monde is great.)
| itomato wrote:
| You might enjoy Celestial Seasonings Roastaroma "tea"
| hosh wrote:
| You add it to roasted burdock and rye, and it tastes like mild-
| roast coffee, and it gives you a bit of a kick in the morning.
| dghughes wrote:
| I've been pulling dandelions from my yard so maybe I am
| sensitized to any news but lately I've seen a lot of stories on
| them:
|
| Europeans brought them over to the New World they were a common
| food source and used for medicine.
|
| Dandelion comes from Lion's Tooth in French due to the look do
| the fine pointed flower leaves.
|
| They are seen as a nuisance now since lawns were once only for
| the very rich. You had land you needed to grow all your food on
| it.
|
| A local biologist said "no mow May" is nonsense bees should be
| using wildflowers not dandelions. To bees dandelions are like
| junk food the pollen is poor quality.
|
| Dandelions do not need to pollinate seeds are ready to go that's
| why they are so numerous.
|
| All parts of a dandelion edible young leaves taste good but old
| are bitter, such is life.
| solarist wrote:
| Oh they are also called Lowenzahn in German. The name "dent de
| lion" made the penny drop for me.
| [deleted]
| dagejo wrote:
| yet in french we call it 'pissenlit' which means 'pissing the
| bed', supposedly because it has diuretics properties...
|
| I'd prefer the name 'dent-de-lion'
| EForEndeavour wrote:
| I've always found the French word for dandelion unreasonably
| amusing. I'm imagining walking in a garden or nature path
| pointing out plants to a child:
|
| What pretty crocuses! And there are some beautiful tulips.
| Here we have some _bed-pissers_. What a lovely rose bush! Oh,
| look out for that patch of _pants-shitters_. Etc.
| TheAceOfHearts wrote:
| It's also possible to make dandelion flower tea, if you have a
| bunch of these plants around maybe it's worth trying it out on
| the weekend. It seems a bit lower effort than digging up the
| whole root.
| galleywest200 wrote:
| Dandelions will make you have to urinate, just a head up. This is
| why the French word for the plant is "pissenlit" or "piss the
| bed".
|
| https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pissenlit
| goda90 wrote:
| I guess it's due to the high potassium levels. It's considered
| a health benefit, though I guess be careful what you drink with
| it and when.
| hosh wrote:
| I mean, so does caffeine.
| dh-g wrote:
| Dandelion fritters and pancakes are also excellent and b/c they
| use the the flower heads / leaves they are easy to forage for.
| slazien wrote:
| For anyone interested in incorporating wild plants into their
| cuisine (including foraging, preparation, storage, recipes,
| etc.), I cannot recommend Samuel Thayer's books highly enough:
| https://www.foragersharvest.com/sams-books.html
|
| At this point, he is an authority in the foraging community, and
| his books are well-written. Got all of them in my bookshelf.
| themanmaran wrote:
| Main takeaway is apparently I've never really pulled up a
| dandelion root. Never expected them to have that giant potato on
| the end!
| koolba wrote:
| If you yank them too fast or the soil is too dry, you'll only
| get the stem. To get the root out you need to do it the day
| after a good rain and use a dedicated tool to get leverage
| beneath the surface.
| freedomben wrote:
| Yep, the roots are remarkably good at staying in the ground.
| In the western (desert climate) US you pretty much have to
| carry a watering can if you want to harvest the roots. It
| takes minutes for the soil to moisturize and loosen up enough
| to get those roots out
| throwawaaarrgh wrote:
| Keep in mind you damage the soil when you dig up wet soil.
| Best to leave room between ones you want to dig up and try
| to disturb as little as possible.
| carapace wrote:
| Years and years ago, before the Internet, I saw a lady
| being interviewed on some gardening show who had been
| gardening organically for a billion years or something.
| At one point she sticks her arm into her garden bed up to
| the shoulder, and casually says something like, "you
| should be fluffy and lose a yard deep"... This was rich
| dark lovely soil with all kinds of plants booming up out
| of it, and she can reach into it w/o digging arm-deep.
| Something to think about, eh?
| carapace wrote:
| s/lose/loose/
| throwawaaarrgh wrote:
| Sure, loam is a great thing to shoot for, but most people
| have a hard time making really good soil. It's much
| harder than just growing an average plant in less ideal
| soil
| bodhi_mind wrote:
| I made a dandelion mead about 6 weeks ago. It's sitting in
| secondary right now and I'll let it age for about a year I think.
| m3kw9 wrote:
| Weed recipe
| BrianB wrote:
| Just remember when foraging for wild edibles (including
| dandelions) to avoid areas that have been treated with
| pesticides, or where dogs may have peed. Avoid golf courses and
| train tracks and old farms.
|
| Dandelions are pretty prolific but I would also be mindful of
| abundance when foraging other plants. If there is only one or a
| few of them around, don't take it. There's a 1-in-20 rule for
| this.
|
| There are a ton of books, YouTube videos, and probably some in
| person classes in your area on this stuff.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| Some part of me made me interested more in dandelions as I saw
| them sprout up in my neighborhood this spring.
|
| I found this video on their history interesting.
|
| Dandelions and Civilization: A Forgotten History:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyePMeGE3CI
|
| In particular, I did not realize that they were brought over by
| settlers. Likely on purpose as a food source/herb then spread
| with western expansion. Another thing I remember is that he says
| there are accounts in China of roots getting much longer. 10+
| feet IIRC, compared to 2 claimed in this article. Although that's
| a bit hard to believe. I guess it is used in traditional Chinese
| medicine.
|
| Of course now they are just seen as a weed. I guess I have mixed
| feelings The yellow flowers themselves dont put me off but seeing
| large patches of them after going to seed dont look good. Unlike
| many here probably, I do like a pristine lawn but even still I
| don't think the flowers themselves are a pure eyesore.
| epiccoleman wrote:
| God invents a beautiful little flower, a bright yellow reminder
| of the star which powers all life on our planet, which happens
| to be edible and tasty. When they go to seed, they turn into
| little puffballs that my kids pick and use to make their secret
| wishes. When my dog runs through the yard, she kicks up little
| clouds of seeds which float gently away on the breeze to spread
| more little flowers.
|
| And humans are like, "fuck that, I just want grass. God forbid
| any little flowers should pop up on _my_ lawn. "
|
| (disclaimer: I don't mean to shit all over your lawncare - I
| just find the impulse kind of funny. It's fine that you like a
| pristine lawn, to each their own).
| thsksbd wrote:
| Im also quite fond of the dandelion for the reasons
| mentioned, but it's about tidiness.
|
| Tidiness reflects the care and love of the person responsible
| to his or her surroundings (that is, his environment). Its
| hard work to weed your lawn, to prune your roses, to edge
| your sidewalk! Keeping the lawn you painstakingly weeded weed
| free is a study of grass' lifecycle.
|
| That being said we now have the worst of both worlds. We're
| lazy and irresponsible but want to pretend we're not to our
| neighbors, so we hire a bloke to spray poison everywhere. We
| have lawns where there is no water instead of coming up with
| a neat yard with more suitable vegetation.
|
| When I was growing up I was so annoyed at my dad who made me
| pull weeds out by hand with him. Why couldn't we use Round Up
| like every one else? Now I see the wisdom of his monk-like
| personality.
| WillAdams wrote:
| My daughter was quite put out when her teacher awarded
| extra credit for the students who brought in long
| dandelions --- they were the first weed which I'd managed
| to eradicate from our yard (by digging them up by the
| roots).
|
| Next was the plantains, buckhorn, and uncommon.
|
| The big thing is, eliminating such weeds means that the
| grass needs to be cut less often, since it's the growth
| rate of the grass which determines this, which is an
| important consideration since I use a reel lawnmower.
| hosh wrote:
| You have to mow the grass like that because the soil
| conditions got worse.
|
| Dandelions, for example, thrive in calcium-poor soil
| conditions. Their deep taproots mine the calcium from
| below the grass's root zones and surfaces it up to the
| leaves. If you don't harvest the dandelion yourself and
| "chop and drop them" over the course of several seasons,
| the soil will have sufficient calcium for other plants to
| outcompete the dandelion.
|
| In other words, dandelions are pioneer plants, and has a
| role within ecological succession. They are great for
| soil building.
|
| You could, of course, just add oyster shells into areas
| of large numbers of dandelions. But you would not get the
| benefit of a dandelion breaking up compacted soil.
|
| I too use a reel lawnmower. But I'm slowly turning my
| front yard into a perennial garden, which is a great
| hedge against inflation.
| hosh wrote:
| It is a social sensibility evolved from an earlier practice
| where keeping a useless lawn not used for grazing was a
| sign of wealth.
|
| Now everyone is doing it, and it turned into something
| expected instead of a sign of wealth long after the truly
| wealthy moved on to other signals of wealth. People even
| somehow associate it with an aesthetic. A common
| justification I have heard are, "I want kids to be able to
| have some place to play".
|
| It's amazing to me how cultural ideas set and ossify.
|
| NoLawns is going mainstream though. There are alternate
| ground covers (white dutch clover, or even thyme), and
| people are posting beautiful, tidy, but ecologically
| resilient and diverse non-lawn landscaping on r/nowlawns.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| > It is a social sensibility evolved from an earlier
| practice where keeping a useless lawn not used for
| grazing was a sign of wealth.
|
| I'm familiar with the history but this is too reductive.
| I don't care about those things as evidenced by many
| other ways I chose (not) to maintain my image with my
| neighbors. But uniform, healthy, green grass looks nice.
| To me and many others. I don't even put in that much
| effort and I dont hate clover, dandelions, etc. I also
| appreciate the no lawn movement because it reduces
| maintenance.
| hosh wrote:
| A lot of aesthetic senses are more personal preferences,
| and can change. I, too, used to think that about uniform,
| healthy, green grass and had the same attitude about
| minimal effort at maintaining a lawn. But it isn't really
| set in stone and people's values and aesthetic sense can
| change. I think many people would be surprised by how
| much of their own personal preferences are informed and
| conditioned by culture.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| > Tidiness reflects the care and love of the person
| responsible to his or her surroundings
|
| This is a very very specific way of demonstrating care and
| responsibility to environment. It's extremely informed by
| culture and history and the ecological specifics.
|
| Maybe you didn't intend it but the implication that choices
| other than tidiness are not loving and responsible is very
| gross.
| [deleted]
| nonethewiser wrote:
| > (disclaimer: I don't mean to shit all over your lawncare -
| I just find the impulse kind of funny. It's fine that you
| like a pristine lawn, to each their own).
|
| Nah, no offense taken. And I would like to clarify what I
| mean. I think large swaths of perfectly uniform and healthy
| grass looks very nice. I even think it's commendable when
| people put in the time and energy (and gather the knowledge)
| to maintain their lawn to this high standard. I would say I'm
| about 1/2 to 2/3rds to that extreme. I can live with some
| dandelions, clover, a few bare spots, etc. I find you need to
| increase effort exponentially to maintain a lawn to a high
| standard. So I commiserate with the "no-lawn" movement from a
| "remove things that need maintenance" perspective.
|
| I also think people have lots of unknown biases when it comes
| to lawns. In particular geography. I live somewhere pretty
| green. I'm on well water. For all intents and purposes water
| is a free, unlimited resource for me. I think many people
| here are from west coast or even just cities so they come to
| this discussion with the assumption that water is scarce.
| klyrs wrote:
| > Another thing I remember is that he says there are accounts
| in China of roots getting much longer. 10+ feet IIRC, compared
| to 2 claimed in this article. Although that's a bit hard to
| believe.
|
| Have you ever seen the lengths people go to for pumpkin
| competitions? I fully believe that people committed to the
| cause could grow 10' dandelion roots. Tons of fertilizer,
| optimized "sun" exposure, repeat for generations and propagate
| the seeds from the record-setters.
| voisin wrote:
| > but seeing large patches of them after going to seed dont
| look good
|
| This seems like the primary metric we as a society use for
| assessing plants as weed or desirable. I wonder if it is the
| right metric or whether we should start with the environmental
| impact (and what metrics would make this assessment, like
| impact to pollinators, etc).
| nonethewiser wrote:
| Yeah weeds are just plants that most people tend to not want
| but tend to thrive.
| pueblito wrote:
| "The cinnamon can be eaten, and so it gets cut down; the
| lacquer tree can be used, and so it gets hacked apart. All
| men know the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of
| the useless!" -- ZhuangzI
| Alex3917 wrote:
| Most lawn weeds were brought here as food. One obvious
| exception is buttercups, which are poisonous.
| bearmode wrote:
| Dandelion & Burdock is still a popular soft drink in the UK as
| well.
| neom wrote:
| Dandelion & Burdock is SO SO damn good, I always wondered why
| it didn't spread to the rest of the world, it was my fav soda
| growing up. Weird because Americans and Canadians really like
| Root Beer but not Dandelion & Burdock.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| > Weird because Americans and Canadians really like Root Beer
| but not Dandelion & Burdock.
|
| Dunno how D & B's made, but American root beer isn't made
| with the "real" ingredients anymore. They're banned because
| if you give a megadose to mice, sometimes they get cancer.
| One of those "maybe actually bad, but maybe not really and
| just overzealous regulation" things.
|
| I mean, also I'm sure it's cheaper to make fake-flavored root
| beer, but there'd at least be some craft ones making it the
| real way. But no, it's banned.
| smolder wrote:
| It's likely not as cheap to mass produce compared to other
| soft drinks.
| YurgenJurgensen wrote:
| This can be answered in two words: 'Coca' and 'Cola'. There
| probably isn't room for multiple successful botanical sodas.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I've never even heard of Dandelion & Burdock, but am quite
| familiar with Root Beer/sarsaparilla. Since you mentioned
| them together, are there similarities to the taste?
| neom wrote:
| Similar but I'd say Dandelion & Burdock is better than Root
| Beer (as a RB lover).
| 4878241143 wrote:
| I would not describe it as popular these days
| throwawaaarrgh wrote:
| Both grow like crazy in the crappy soil around my house, but
| burdock is insanely tough to dig up and outcompetes everything
| else, so I get rid of it
| rwmj wrote:
| Burdock makes the best chips [fries]:
| https://japan.recipetineats.com/burdock-chips-gobo-chips/
| Borrible wrote:
| Dandelions. I hate them, ugly and naughty. If you do not pay
| attention, they grow over your head. I rot them out, boil them
| alive into a soup, along with the goutweed, nettles, parsley and
| chives. Now and then I also mix this ineradicable brood into a
| pesto. And eat it. Never show weakness to weeds.
| vrglvrglvrgl wrote:
| [dead]
| pwpw wrote:
| Khorta[0] is a common dish in Greece. I recommend giving it a try
| with dandelion. My great-grandmother used to stop alongside the
| country road with a little sickle and cut various greens for
| cooking down later.
|
| [0] https://greekcitytimes.com/2021/11/05/greek-leafy-greens-
| goo...
| nerpderp82 wrote:
| The most interesting thing I discovered about Dandelion roots is
| that earth worms appear to nurse off them. Whenever I dig up a
| big Dandelion root, I also find a large earth worm. Earth worms
| also like cows milk.
| omnibrain wrote:
| For some reason our kindergarten teachers (in germany) told us
| that the plant is poisonous. That taught me very early to
| question authority figures like teachers, because the same day
| when I came home from kindergarten I found my grandfather sitting
| on his yard bench eating dandelion leaves.
|
| Thinking about, they might have told us it is poisonous to keep
| us from playing with them, because the sap colours skin and
| clothes brown with hard to remove stains.
| hanoz wrote:
| That would never have flown in our (UK) class, where we grew up
| drinking Dandelion and Burdock pop
|
| It was however playground lore that touching them and licking
| your fingers would make you wet the bed. Indeed the French name
| for them is literally that, _pissenlit_ , which they must have
| had good reason to choose over the perfectly fine English name
| for them, _dent de lion_.
| sfjailbird wrote:
| Dandelion is widely used as a diuretic.
| garettmd wrote:
| At least in the US, people routinely spray dandelions with weed
| killer. So an argument could be made in favor of telling kids -
| especially in a classroom setting - where you'd rather err on
| the side of keeping kids from picking dandelions from any yard
| they pass by, and eating them.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| Yeah we tell our kids about edible plants like dandelions,
| but caution them to basically never actually eat any they
| find.
|
| Really, just saying "they're poisonous" would be quicker and
| the outcome wouldn't be all that different. They _do_ have to
| be treated as poisonous, kinda, in urban and suburban
| settings.
| A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
| Sadly, this is accurate. I am comfortable picking those up in
| my yard, but I would hesitate to pick those anywhere else.
| WillAdams wrote:
| There was a time in my life when I was all-but homeless,
| and pretty much penniless, despite having two jobs --- the
| only reason I didn't get exposed to Round-up on at least
| one occasion was because I was careful to blanch the
| dandelions I was planning on eating by placing a heavy
| stone on them for a day or two or three --- this goes a
| long way to make them less bitter in taste.
| A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
| I am glad you have made it. As sad as the story is, it is
| also fascinating to me. Would you be willing to go into
| more detail ( among other things, why would heavy stone
| work in this case )?
| rwmj wrote:
| Maybe they were confusing them with buttercups (rununculus)
| which are poisonous.
| omnibrain wrote:
| That would be funny, because on other occasion I remember
| collecting huge bouquets of "Hahnenfuss" (we called them
| "Butterblume") on walks with the kindergarten group. :)
| pwndByDeath wrote:
| They might have sprayed them, making the poisonous
| schwartzworld wrote:
| A lot of people are just misinformed.
| freedomben wrote:
| I had a similar experience with the anti-drug propaganda as a
| student. In the US there is (was?) an anti-drug program called
| DARE that as students in the 80s and 90s we were routinely
| subjected to. It was basically anti-drug propaganda. They went
| over all sorts of downsides/side effects of drugs (which are
| _EVIL_ ) including marijuana. The most terrifying "side effect"
| to most of us boys was the shrinking of your penis (yes
| seriously this was taught).
|
| Once I learned the reality around "drugs" it was a startling
| lesson to me that you need to question authority figures, even
| though this at times can infuriate them. Now with teenagers of
| my own, hearing some of the things their teachers teach them as
| "fact" can be depressing, especially when it's tech-related and
| it's clear that the teacher has absolutely no idea what they're
| talking about.
| djfobbz wrote:
| Speaking of questioning authority figures, a more recent
| saying comes to mind: The next time that somebody tells you,
| "the government wouldn't do that," oh yes they would!
| RajT88 wrote:
| I too remember the DARE program. Prior to DARE, I didn't know
| much about drugs, and after I knew all the major kinds people
| did, the kinds of effects they had, how to use them, and
| where to go buy them.
|
| Oh yeah, they also gave a bunch of those horror stories about
| them, some of which I am sure were true, but many obviously
| weren't.
| mandmandam wrote:
| DARE did in fact usually increase drug use.
|
| This was shown by multiple studies [0], but the program ran
| many more years.
|
| It could be a coincidence that everyone involved in the
| program profited immensely from it.
|
| The guy who started DARE, Daryl Gates, was roundly blamed
| for LAPD's racist culture; so much so that he 'retired'
| after the Rodney King riots.
|
| Here's a fun quote of his: "... blacks might be more likely
| to die from chokeholds because their arteries do not open
| as fast as they do in 'normal people'."
|
| 0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Abuse_Resistance_Edu
| catio...
| RajT88 wrote:
| =0
| yamtaddle wrote:
| "Winners don't do drugs".
|
| LOL OK. But actually most of them do.
| siftrics wrote:
| > even though this at times can infuriate them
|
| Why should you care whether or not they're infuriated? That's
| a very subservient perspective you have.
| freedomben wrote:
| when they have the ability/authority to "punish" you, you
| care. You may decide that you care more about your
| independent spirit than you do their happiness level, but
| you _do_ care. As someone who stood by their unpopular
| opinion on principle even though the punishment (a very low
| grade) blemished an otherwise sterling GPA, I don 't think
| it's possible not to care.
|
| When it's a state who can throw you into a cage and lock
| the door for extende periods of time, you're going to care.
| If you don't, I would seriously question your sanity (or
| honesty).
| tspike wrote:
| Dandelions are an incredible gift from nature. What other plant
| is completely edible, self propagates with no intervention,
| brings up nutrients from deep in the soil for other plants,
| blooms beautiful flowers year round and provides endless
| entertainment for children?
|
| The number of intractable societal problems that would suddenly
| become non-issues if the average household engaged in basic
| permaculture boggles the mind. It's hard to think of a more apt
| metaphor for our ills than the fact that we actively apply
| cancer-causing poison to kill them as a matter of course.
| zwieback wrote:
| I call BS, dandelions crowd out all the good stuff I want,
| flowers, vegetables, etc. I don't mind them in my meadow.
| _a_a_a_ wrote:
| Please stop with the "nature's bounty" rubbish, it's just soft
| thinking. Since you ask let's try carrots, beetroot, fat hen,
| strawberries (yes, leaves and stems are edible too), samphire
| etc. If you want to broaden out a bit, various fungi and
| seaweed.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| > Since you ask let's try carrots, beetroot, fat hen,
| strawberries (yes, leaves and stems are edible too), samphire
| etc. If you want to broaden out a bit, various fungi and
| seaweed.
|
| ...yes? All of those sound like good things to try; are you
| attempting to disagree?
| _a_a_a_ wrote:
| I'm objecting to anthropomorphisising (sp?) nature.
| Dandelion roots being edible to humans is just how it is,
| and it might very well not have been if we had or lacked
| certain enzymes. Nature isn't here for us, to make our
| lives easy. Or for that matter, hard. It just is.
| pneumic wrote:
| In addition to the good qualities you listed, they are also
| good indicators of compacted soil (plants with thick taproots
| tend to spring up in compacted soil).
|
| They are technically invasive where I am (northeast US) but I
| have never seen them take over an area so much as to choke out
| native species. I would argue that they have become
| naturalized.
| goda90 wrote:
| As far as I can tell, in the US they are only considered
| invasive in Oregon and Alaska. Invasive is a separate
| definition from non-native. An invasive(native or non-native)
| has to be a threat to the established ecosystem, which
| dandelions generally aren't.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| I'm pretty sure if the average household engaged in basic
| permaculture we would all start to starve like Sri Lanka.
|
| https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/7/15/23218969/sri-la...
|
| I'm an avid gardener and I love the environment but we have to
| realize the real numbers for how we feed ourselves. It would
| take about one acre of land to feed yourself on wheat in a
| year.
|
| >An estimated value of 720 pounds of wheat is said to be
| consumed by a family of four yearly. 60 pounds of wheat can be
| got from a bushel. Since a bushel of wheat can be grown on 0.25
| acre of land, you'll need 0.75 acres of land per person. You'll
| need approximately 3 acres of land for growing wheat and grain
| yearly for a family of four.
|
| https://permaculturism.com/how-much-land-does-it-take-to-fee...
| goda90 wrote:
| I think you're misunderstanding what a household engaging in
| basic permaculture means. It doesn't mean that they have to
| grow all their own food. It doesn't mean all farms have to
| switch to permaculture overnight.
| tnorthcutt wrote:
| The commenter you're responding to didn't suggest changing
| anything about our current food supply, other than to _add_
| residential permaculture.
| maestroia wrote:
| I think the calculations are off here. The USDA lists average
| wheat yield across all types to be between 44 and 49 bu/acre
| from 2020/21-2023/24. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-
| products/wheat-data/
|
| Plus,the University of Nebraska mentions this regarding
| winter wheat:
|
| _A review of seedling rates vs. yield potential is helpful.
| On average, there are 22 seeds per head and 5 heads per
| plant, or 110 seeds per plant. With an average seed size of
| 15,000 seeds per pound or 900,000 seeds per bushel, a pound
| of average-sized seed with 80% germination and emergence has
| a yield potential of approximately 1.5 bushels per acre.
| Seeding 40 lb of seed with a weight of 15,000 seed per pound
| has a yield potential of 60 bushels per acre._
| https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2019/determining-seeding-rate-
| wint...
| ysavir wrote:
| Is wheat the most impactful-per-area crop? Would other crops
| yield sufficient quantities in smaller areas compared to
| wheat?
|
| As others mentioned, the original idea is to supplement, and
| not replace. If every household strove to grow at least some
| of its food, we could probably reduce our need to transport,
| store, and distribute edibles by a non-insignificant amount.
| And the GP's point especially revolves around the lack of
| effort involved. While some crops require a lot of
| preparation and attention, in the case of "weeds" like
| dandelion, the effort can be no greater than walking outside
| and pulling them from the ground.
| soperj wrote:
| I believe rice is.
| YurgenJurgensen wrote:
| I'm going to question the 'beautiful flowers' part of that.
| From an aesthetic point of view Dandelion flowers don't have a
| lot going for them. They're aggressively yellow and tend to
| visually dominate over other plants (and they're extremely
| efficient at propagating, so if you don't actively control
| them, they'll quickly become the majority flower) while they're
| blooming, and the blooms don't even last very long, sometimes
| less than 24 hours, and a dandelion head that's shed its seeds
| looks kind-of ugly.
|
| I generally have a very light-touch approach to gardening, but
| even I draw the line at dandelions. The correct method of
| dealing with them is a trowel though, not weedkiller.
| AuryGlenz wrote:
| I don't control our dandelions. I'm in a rural area with a
| large yard. I did try for a year or two and then realized I
| don't actually dislike them and it's not like I have
| neighbors that can see my yard.
|
| Believe you me though, there's absolutely no way you could
| trowel your way out of my yard's situation. Even
| (selectively) spraying wasn't enough.
| ed312 wrote:
| As a recent lawn owner/steward of a small strip of ground,
| this is my approach as well. My view is if you want a more or
| less monoculture of grass, you should have to physically work
| for it (no fuel-powered tools either). In this sense, I treat
| the grass portion of my yard as a garden and do end up
| spending some time every week troweling out a few dandelions
| and other unwanted plants. I _do_ make sure I compost all the
| "weeds" I pull. Overall this seems environmentally friendly,
| and I do get a good chuckle every time someone asks me which
| herbicide I spray.
| YurgenJurgensen wrote:
| This is true even if you're not going for monoculture. The
| daisies and clover can live in my lawn as much as they
| want, since their flowers are much less salient.
| RajT88 wrote:
| Indeed, Dandelions are beautiful when blooming, but less so
| before the blooms where they appear as alien hydras with many
| heads and flailing tentacles.
|
| The flower stalks grow unbelievably fast too. I have been
| trying to rein in dandelions on my lawn this year, and
| thought I could control them by just snipping off the flower
| heads. Soon, I realized this would take an hour of labor a
| day that I didn't have to spend on lawn maintenance.
| ihaveajob wrote:
| Also, the seeds spread FAR, so no matter what you do,
| they'll come back, for better or worse.
| ed25519FUUU wrote:
| The invention of broadleaf herbicides like 2,4-d (herbicides
| that kill broadleaf "weeds" but not grass) has been disastrous.
|
| Now it's expected you regularly spray chemicals on your lawn.
| Sometimes your neighbor can even use county, state, and city
| laws to compel you to do it.
| emptyfile wrote:
| People spray herbicides around their lawn in America? Around
| their place of living? Bizarre.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| Yes because dandelions make your lawn look like shit.
| salad-tycoon wrote:
| In America, we demand the finest green laws that money and
| better living through chemistry can provide. A persons lawn
| is indicative of their status in society and how high
| functioning they are. Perfect flush and lush green is
| sought after, many big YouTube channels only discuss how to
| achieve a better lawn than the jerks down the street. Bonus
| points for symmetrical patterns mowed into the lawn.
|
| So it's a status symbol. Lots of people do deleterious
| things to achieve status. I don't think it's "weird" but
| rather maybe a bit dumb
|
| Do you eat non organic cereals of basically any kind? Those
| are loaded with it too.
| nerpderp82 wrote:
| Biocides!
| msrenee wrote:
| Even better, we dump pesticides all over our yards to kill
| mosquitos, grubs, and beetles. There's signs all over town
| here advertising spraying for mosquitos with who knows
| what. There's trucks driving around advertising spraying
| for everything with more than four legs and even a number
| of less desirable things with four legs. And then we wonder
| why our pollinators are all dying off. Agricultural
| pesticides are bad enough. Covering every last inch of
| green near our houses with pesticides and herbicides is
| another nail in the coffin.
| soperj wrote:
| Not in the USA, people around me are doing "No Mow May"
| to leave flowers and long grass for pollinators.
| msrenee wrote:
| I've seen ads for "No mow May" here in the US. I can't
| imagine there will be much buy-in, but it would be nice
| to see a change in opinion against lawn culture. I
| personally would rather keep the lawn relatively short
| (still taller than most "respectable" homeowners prefer)
| while allowing the violets and clover to have their place
| in the mix. The dandelions wouldn't bother me if they
| didn't get so out of hand so quickly, especially this
| year. I don't want a dandelion monoculture any more than
| I want a fescue monoculture. The dog traffic in the back
| yard is hard on the grass and that just gives the
| dandelions even more of an edge. Now I'm wondering if I
| should start seeding clover and other groundcover that's
| more traffic-tolerant. I just think the dandelions will
| outcompete even the clover. If anyone has ideas for
| groundcover that will pop up even earlier, I'm all ears.
|
| I'd very much like to put a border down for a 10'
| diameter circle out of my front lawn and dump wildflower
| seeds in there. They e got mixed that kind of come up as
| each flower's preferred season comes around. I figure if
| there's a border, that makes it a garden and not weeds
| even if my neighbors weren't super chill.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| Not in _your_ USA. There are multiple USAs it seems. I
| did No Mow May last year (on just a small part of the
| yard) and the guy across the street started shouting at
| me until June (at which point he just started shouting
| about other things)
| nsxwolf wrote:
| In many towns it is illegal to just let your lawn grow
| wild.
| soperj wrote:
| As in, I'm not in the USA, not as in, this doesn't happen
| in the USA.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| Oh, sorry, I got a completely different meaning there.
| I'm increasingly thinking it would be good to be "Not in
| USA". Cheers!
| msrenee wrote:
| That's how I interpreted it too. Dang text. My neighbors
| don't give me any trouble about my yard thankfully. I
| just try to minimize the number of dandelion seeds I
| share with them. Collected a bunch of flowers for a
| friend the other day who wanted to make some jelly with
| them. I haven't put any chemicals down in the back yard
| since we moved in and she was talking about how she
| didn't know what was safe to harvest. Went ahead and got
| her set up, lol. Keeps the puffballs down and she's got
| her jelly ingredients. Win-win.
| philips wrote:
| Yeah it is a huge issue. Oregon last year stopped enabling
| HOAs to force homeowners to spray herbicide or insecticide on
| their properties. HB2409 2021
| https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_94.763
| ravenstine wrote:
| Though I agree that dandelions are awesome, your description of
| them also describes sow thistles perfectly. Not only are sow
| thistles often mistaken for dandelions (at least in their
| earlier growth stage), but they are woefully underrated as
| edible wild plants.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonchus
|
| In fact, I appreciate sow thistle even more than dandelion.
| People assume they must be bitter or even poisonous because
| they have white sap and can look kind of ugly in their late
| stage of growth, but if you pick them when they're tender they
| aren't bitter at all. If a person wasn't aware they were eating
| a common weed, they might assume they were eating a gourmet
| green from the produce section. I've used it to substitute
| spinach for creamed spinach, and though it doesn't taste like
| spinach, it was very tasty. But I usually just pick and eat the
| greens raw!
|
| Specifically, I am referring to the "sow thistle" that is of
| the genus Sonchus. It is not a true thistle, and I think that
| there's other plants called "sow thistle" that aren't this one.
|
| I've never tried using the roots and don't know whether they
| have properties similar to dandelion. Dandelions may have a leg
| up in terms of the root, but I'm not sure. Sow thistle is
| otherwise highly nutritious.
|
| As someone who's been foraging for over a decade, I find it
| crazy how most foragers completely overlook this plant despite
| how it's both common and tasty in contrast to many of the more
| sought-after plants.
|
| Here is a good article on identifying sow thistle which also
| includes a recipe:
|
| https://www.eattheweeds.com/sonchus-sow-thistle-in-a-pigs-ey...
|
| EDIT: And here's a video by the same author of that article:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWQ4nGraAdI
| tspike wrote:
| Wow thanks, I had no idea
| ngvrnd wrote:
| day lillies, I think, are also completely edible.
| RobotToaster wrote:
| >What other plant is completely edible
|
| While it is edible, it should be noted the leaves are a good
| diuretic, which may be an _undesirable_ effect for some.
| dcanelhas wrote:
| N.b. the 350 degrees in the recipe is fahrenheit. ([?]177degC).
| cubefox wrote:
| That's interesting, since Dandelions are wild plants. Basically
| every vegetable or fruit we eat today (carrots would be pretty
| close I guess) are cultivated. Usually they hardly resemble their
| wild ancestor.
|
| I'm surprised Dandelions didn't get cultivated to have much
| larger roots.
| hosh wrote:
| A hundred years ago, gardeners cultivated dandelions in their
| garden bed: https://williamrubel.com/2015/04/23/the-history-of-
| the-garde...
|
| Basil is a cultivated herb that often breaks out of containment
| and goes wild. Sometimes, people will redomesticate those
| because the ones that survive the local conditions are well-
| adapted to the climate.
| cubefox wrote:
| That's interesting, but it's not clear whether there is any
| cultivated dandelion species that is substantially different
| from the wild dandelion.
| hosh wrote:
| You might not have to deliberately breed it in any
| particular way since wild dandelions are already yields
| something useful for humans.
| cubefox wrote:
| Yeah but if they'd been bred they would be much more
| useful. Compare wild carrots to domesticated carrots:
|
| https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/wild-
| carro...
| tapland wrote:
| Asparagus too!
| cubefox wrote:
| Apparently wild asparagus and cultivated asparagus are
| different, although there seem to be also escapees of the
| cultivated form.
| hosh wrote:
| I have a bunch of wild lettuce growing here. They look like
| dandelions, though they are not, with significantly smaller
| leaves than cultivated lettuce, a fetid odor, and a
| slightly bitter taste. But edible raw.
|
| Purslane is another good example. The domesticated ones
| have larger leaves, but the wild ones are good eating if
| you know it hasn't been sprayed.
| meristohm wrote:
| Had some dandelion leaves in salad yesterday. I have added the
| roots to a batch of fermented cabbage (etc- at times it's more
| like kimchi, especially if I add fish sauce and peppers, other
| times sauerkraut).
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-05-19 23:02 UTC)