Weed and Feed

What do you get when you complain about a weedy lawn? A dandelion whine!!

As many gardeners in north central Alberta already know, many annual and perennial flowers such as pansies, nasturtiums and marigolds are not only good looking in the garden but pretty tasty on the dinner plate as well. What may come as surprise, is that certain weed species that plague your lawn and flower beds also make a delicious repast.

Despite being the scourge of lawn loving homeowners, the prosaic dandelion has a number of culinary uses and is often used as a medicinal herb. Remarkable as it may seem, dandelions are high in vitamin A, vitamin C and actually contain more iron and calcium than spinach.

Even more shocking is the fact are grown commercially as a leaf vegetable and sold in specialty food stores as dandelion greens. The leaves are close in character to mustard greens and can be eaten raw as a main ingredient in salads or cooked in soups or stews. Since dandelion foliage develop a bitter taste as they get older, usually only the tender young shoots and unopened buds are eaten raw, while older leaves are cooked.

Although everybody has heard about using dandelion flowers to make dandelion wine, the flowers are also used in Belgium to make a type of beer called saison ale, while in some parts of northeastern United States the yellow blossom is the main ingredient in dandelion flower jam. Dandelion roots are ground roasted and served as decaffeinated coffee substitute. Intended to be consumed prior to meals, the dandelion root beverage is believed “stimulate digestive functions and act as a liver tonic”