Tea From a Dandy, For a Dandy
I’ve had myself a little vacation over at my mothers house in the country for the last few days. Today I helped her with her garden. While digging “weeds” I found it a great time to make some dandelion root tea and so I did. I figured I would share with you all how to do it.
First, I hear you asking, “Why the hell would I want to drink dandelion root tea?” Well my friends, you like to drink alcohol right? Well dandelion tea stimulates bile flow in the liver encouraging it to flush out all that poison that felt so good in your body last night, but you definately don’t want sticking around. So help a liver out yo, and drink some dandelion tea. Oh, and I guess it also has vitamins in it or some shit.
First gather the roots and wash them off.
Next chop them up.
Next, chop them up some more and put them on a cookie sheet.
Next put them in the oven at 250º.
Watch them shrink and grow brown.
I roasted this batch for about an hour and a half, but I could have roasted them for another 20-30 minutes probably.
Next grind the crispy root pieces down. I used a small mortar and pestal that my mother has.
In the end I had this much:
If you want to make a lot of dandelion tea, you’ll need a lot of roots. Next time I think it may work better to do a larger batch all at once.
I then made myself a cup.
It tasted better than any other store-bought dandelion tea I have ever had. In fact, I feel a little buzzed right now. Mm, delicious.
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Great Stuff Scout!
Am going to try out your dandelion recipe myself 🙂
Be good,
Christine
Is this some photographic trickery, or has that dandy French haircut of yours been replaced?!
Also, the tea sounds great; thanks for sharing the process.
new haircut, new man
Alas, I cut my golden brown locks of Mullet (pronouced, Mull-Lay, it’s french!)
I went for the classic “faux hawk.” I feel like im 19 all over again.
I think there are specific times that you want to harvest the dandelion root in early spring or late fall, when most of the plant energy is in the root. I really appreciate books like Michael Moore’s Medicinal Herbs of the Pacific West because they tell you the best time to harvest.
best,
cricket
Greetings Urban Scout Peter 🙂
For weeks now, dandelions have been growing profusely, ready for the picking/digging, however… was not successful in getting as much root out as you.
Well, was curious as to how it tastes, so I purchased a very small amount of some organically grown Taxaracum officinale. Yes indeed! Found the tea to be sweet and absolutely delicious!
Yo! Am going to have one happy liver tonight 🙂
Thank you so much for imparting… might you share how you get the entire root out? Am good with a morter and pestel and there still are a lot of dandelions a waiting me 🙂
Cheers!
Christine
I was entirely unaware that dandelions have such large roots, let alone the fact that they are edible and chock-full of nutrients. So, the roots, leaves, and flowers are all edible. Sweet (or bitter, to precise). I look forward to digging up some weeds; I can only hope an entire section of lawn does not have to find itself in ruins to accommodate my obtaining the roots.
This has me wondering if there existed a time when our bodies were able to digest more varieties of “poisonous” vegetation than we are able to today. Why, for example, are so many other species of animal (even dogs) able to eat grass, while we are not? All plants being edible would make life so much easier!
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Christine:
What I did to acquire the whole root is gather the leaves around the plant and clench it my fist. And then I take a pocket or steak knife and cut a deep circle around the plant. Now the plant is loose enough to pull out of the ground. Once you’ve pulled it out you just have to brush away all the dirt caked on around the root, and there it is.
Thank you William, there are so many beautiful dandelions out at the moment, more than ever before, therefore, best would be to try once again, using your techniques as suggested.
My liver needs it!
Just make sure there haven’t been herbicides and pesticides sprayed on the yard where you harvest..
Good thinking Mike Rock !
Interesting that you made mention of that, as where I live, the city has approved aerial spraying of the residential area as well as the local RBG ‘Urban Forest’ with Btk Foray 48B this coming week. 🙁 Fuck them!
All things considered, everything went quite well. Longest root, in its entirety measured over 12 inches! Some were mere stubs accidentally snipped off, probably because of the angle of my knife coupled with the clay soil.
After a couple of hours of digging, my doggie, who was having his own fun, and I went home to continue my mission, me wearing by chance a ‘hoody’ the dandelions were tucked inside my pouch, along with a serrated (an error) kitchen knife.
Roots were rinsed, chopped into little pieces and baked in the oven as per Scout’s instructions. I had some time, felt hmmm unsure, walked to the local Health Food Store, and purchased a minimal amount of organic dandelion root Taraxacum officinales for comparisons sake.
Guess which tea sample won? Hmmm, my sample tasted horrible, but the organically raised dandelion root tea was superb! Oh well!
Love the recipe! Am hoping to teach a group of diabetic and HCP how to make this to do their liver some good. Might try to put together a salad with dandelion, milk thistle & tumeric dressing. What do you think??
I need to try this when I leave school. I tried something similar only with fresh white pine needles. It tasted interesting. Had vitamins A and C in it.
Heyyyyyyy Scout!
Dandelions have returned!
I found, I washed, I chopped, I baked, I watched them shrink and turn brown, I’m nearly finished with the mortar and pestal … and then, I will make me a splendid cuppa dandelion tea!
Thanks once again, for the great demo!