I fed an entire half bunch of rotting organic dandelion greens to the worms this week. I did not feel good about it, but at least they did not go in the trash. The only reason I didn’t feed them the entire bunch is that I split my CSA deliveries with my neighbor, so I only had half a bunch to figure out what to do with. I have no idea if she ate her half or not.
Woman preparing dandelion flowers for ???
I have learned to be pretty adventurous with greens over the seven or so years that I’ve been a subscriber to the Be Wise Ranch CSA, but dandelion greens still make me balk. They’re so bitter; I can’t imagine what people do with them to make them palatable. I actually had great plans to make a dandelion green salad with hard boiled eggs, sweet onions and hot bacon dressing — nothing like smothering something in bacon to make it go down easier — but I didn’t get to it until they had started to get slimy and gross, so to the worms they went.
I am sure I will get comments from well-meaning people telling me how great dandelion greens are and how if I just dress them with a light vinaigrette I’m sure I will learn to love them, but I won’t believe them. Perhaps they will be people like the ones I found in this flickr album called Dandelions in the Park, who appear to be harvesting dandelion flowers and roots for consumption. There is no indication of how they are preparing them, or if they did anything with the greens.
Looking through the photos makes me feel vaguely threatened and on the defensive. I wondered why that was. Perhaps it is because purposefully seeking out dandelions for consumption, treating them as some kind of delicacy, challenges my label of them as a weed and a nuisance. I think I’m pretty open-minded, but perhaps I am not as open-minded as I thought. That is the bigger challenge. Without even knowing these people, I find myself making up reasons why I would not want to eat dandelions. “I am not a Dandelion-Eater!” I say. I occasionally get the greens in my delivery, but I eat them only under duress. Letting them rot was probably kind of passive-agressive, actually. “They can make me bring dandelions home, but by God they can’t make me eat them!”
I’m trying to be flexible, though, and am game for your suggestions on what to do with the next batch that comes in. But for now I will add it to my practice of noticing when I like things and when I don’t. Sometimes that’s the best you can do.
Here’s the tally for the worms this week:
- 5 banana peels
- 1 Be Green compostable cardboard meat tray from Whole Foods (rinsed) – not sure if the worms will eat this or not
- 4 coffee filters with grounds
- 3/4 cucumber peel
- 1/2 bunch dandelion greens, rotting
- 1 dilapidated Handi-Wipe
- 1/2 c. cooked mixed vegetables, moldy
- 1 paper towel
- 3/4 bunch strawberry tops
- 3 sweet potato peelings
- 1 tea bag
Total weight: a whopping 3.5 pounds. The banana peels are heavy, as are the peels from 3 whole sweet potatoes
P.S. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. I was going to say that I probably have some worm mothers in my bin, but I think redwworms are actually hermaphrodites, so they are both mother and father. We’ll save the topic of the worms’ sex lives for another posting, however. ( I know you can’t wait!)
Photo of woman picking green bits from dandelion flowers courtesy isforinsects via flickr. Some rights reserved
As I’m sure you already know, eating dandy greens is said to be great for detoxifying the liver, as are other bitter greens. I have found that if I mix some greens in with a salad that has plenty of non-bitter greens (such as spring mix) that helps disguise them.
I have also seen bags of dandelion tea in the health food store. It looks like small bits of possibly freeze-dried dandelion greens. I actually bought some, and the resulting “tea” is not bitter. Maybe you could dry out the greens and make them into a brew! (But I know you probably won’t go to that much trouble over a “weed and a nuisance!”) ;)
You’re right, I am probably not going to go to the trouble of drying them out to make tea. But I will take your suggestion to sneak them into regular salad greens a little at a time. I am curious to see how the hot bacon dressing treatment goes. I may negate any health benefits of the greens by smothering them in bacon, but hey, it’s got to be better than eating the bacon alone, right??
Such pretty llttie heart-shaped flowers! I’ve never seen those before. And I’m impressed and a bit jealous of your dandelion fluff photo. I’ve been trying to capture some fluff flying through the air, but haven’t gotten what I want yet. And we have no shortage of dandelions here. I think we have more dandelion fluff than grass!
Louise,
Congratulations for at least considering dandelions to eat. You probably don’t remember this, but when we lived in Vestal I tried to make dandelion wine once, but it just ended up tasting grass-like to out it went. I think there might be something ethnic to liking dandelion greens, as they seemed to be popular in the Scranton, where there were a lot of people of Italian heritage. then too, back east, dandelions are about the first green thing to emerge, so that may have added to the interest in having some fresh greens to eat that you could pick from your own lawn. Maybe somebody’s Italian grandmother will send you a story or recipe for dandelion greens.
I do remember the story about dandelion wine — I can’t imagine what it would taste like even if it *did* turn out right. I suppose there’s something in what you say about it being the first green thing to come up. We’re so spoiled with our good weather and abundant farmers markets to boot that I didn’t even think of that. Thanks for giving me a new reference frame :)
My students & I eat daneolidns every time I teach this novel. They are plentiful here in Illinois I would have gladly sent you some! The greens are good when they are young, but they get very bitter tasting after the flower has bloomed. And once the plant starts to seed, I would not eat it at all. Theresa is absolutely correct very nutritious. It is sad that we treat this plant like such a nuisance when it is more nourishing than most the things we eat! My husband allows me to keep a patch behind the garage; the rest of the yard he treats for weeds.
Hey, Alyss. *grin*I would normally agree with you, but these grnees were so young–the flowers not yet set for the first time–they were almost sweet. No more bitter than end-of-season lettuce might be.(As you can probably tell, we had them in a salad last night. They were great! But there’s plenty more, and I think I’ll cook the next batch up with some garlic–maybe even toss some into our soup today.)Thank goodness spring is finally here!