Comments on: Harvesting the yard

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 16 May 2006 03:29:11 +0000

In my family, Spring meant a number of naturely rituals. Among them, the favs were tossing the stones back into the driveway, looking for the wild asparagus that grew near the railroad tracks and uprooting dandelions for salad or frying.

HATED the taste as a tiny fellow. But, as I grew, my Sicilian hardwiring toward Bitter must have kicked in. My tremendous Grandma Fieata made the best of the bitter that she could but we’d all have moments of squinching up. Kinda similar to throwing down shots of whiskey. Why, why do we do those things that make our faces accordian?

The key was to get the dandelions very early, way before they flower. That timing seemed to move them off the DefCon 5 bitter scale, maybe down to 4 or 3.

The other thing is the name: “dent de lion,” “lion’s tooth,” which makes me very happy. Maybe that accounts for the repellent, earthy notes. Not that I’ve spent very much time in a lion’s mouth. Just a guess.

By: Janeen

Janeen — Mon, 15 May 2006 23:54:49 +0000

He won’t be able to resist a salad like that. Will he?

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 15 May 2006 21:56:14 +0000

The leaf I tried was bitter and had repellent earthy notes. Perhaps, if it was hidden in some real salad, you could get away with serving it, if you didn’t want your guests coming back soon.

As I told Kimberly, maybe in a famine I would eat it.

By: Norman

Norman — Mon, 15 May 2006 19:58:58 +0000

Some people [ my Dad, the chemist, once] made “dandelion wine” of them. One bottle exploded. No idea how the others tasted.

By: srp

srp — Sun, 14 May 2006 03:28:33 +0000

I agree. I think yours look more tasty than ours. Doing the digging this spring, I have found that to my surprise, there are many varieties of dandelion. This is a sad thing for the consumate yardman though. I will be interested in seeing how he takes to it.

BTW we finally had a price decrease on the asparagus. I saw some for $1.99 today. And I saved the “fairytale” pumpkin seed last fall, planted sixteen seeds to try them out and ALL came up. Now to keep the rabbits out. These pumpkins are mostly meat, very little cavity and one large one made enough cooked pumpkin for seven pies. WE may need some new recipes if they actually bear fruit.

By: lindy

lindy — Sun, 14 May 2006 00:07:56 +0000

Your home grown dandelions look considerably more civilized than the ones around here, which are giant and hairy, despite poisonous sprayings by the minions of The Landlord.
I’ll still be shopping for mine at the market, I’m afraid. I’ll be interested to see whether your salad is a hit with Paul. I haven’t tried any in an uncooked format yet, myself.
They are kind of cool-looking aren’t they? I’ve seen an intricate William Morris pattern with a theme of dandelions, which is pretty in a victorian sort of way.