Eating Dandelions: Harvesting, Cleaning, and Cooking (2024)

My mother dosed her family with generous amounts of dandelion greens as soon as she discovered their bright leavespoking up through the thatch of the backlawn.

One of nine children growing up during the Depression on a Vermont dairy farm, Mom regaled us with many stories ofthe wild-food foraging that supplemented the self-reliant family diet. Dandelions, the first fresh greens of spring,ranked high on her list of important foraged foods.

I inherited my mother’s dandelion fork, a simple wooden-handled tool with a steel shaft and a short, sharp fork at one end. Thoughsadly I misplaced the fork and bought a new one (much inferior), I continue her tradition.

HarvestingDandelions

The trick to enjoying dandelion greens? Harvest them young with their underground crowns attached and clean them well. Choose a spotthat hasn’t been sprayed or fertilized with agricultural chemicals or frequented bypets.

Harvest the spiky greens and their pale belowground crowns (which taste like artichoke hearts) as soon as you detect the tiny spikedleaves poking forth. Harvest the greens until the blossoms open (the unopened buds are yummy), after which the leaves become toobitter for mostpalates.

Angle your “weeding fork” down about an inch into the soil below the rosette of 3- to 6-inch greens, and sever the crown where it joinsthe root. Then pull the entire rosette from the ground. Shake it free of dirt and remove as many of last year’s slimy leaves aspossible.

Digging up dandelions. Photo by GregoryJohnston/Shutterstock.

CleaningDandelions

Pay rigorous attention to cleaning the grit and debris from inside the tightly formed crown. Swish the greens around in a deep panthrough several changes of water. Then cut open the crowns without severing the leaves and scrape debris from each rosette beforesubmerging the greens for a finalrinse.

Washed dandelion greens. Photo by13smile/Shutterstock.

Cooking withDandelions

Although I add the tiniest dandelion greens to fresh salads, I like them best cooked with a couple of onions. I sauté chopped onions (andmaybe a little garlic) in a bit of olive oil until they become translucent, then add the greens with a little rinse water clinging to them and steamuntil the greens aresoft.

I also add dandelions to a spring-tonic soup that could include young nettles, parsley, spinach, kale, and chard cooked in well-seasoned chickenbroth.

Also, a strong tea of dandelion blossoms used as a hair rinse adds shine and highlights to blondhair.

See recipes for dandelion wine, dandelion jelly, and more.

Boiled dandelion greens. Photo by JulieDeshaies/Shutterstock.

Dandelion soup. Photo byminadezhda/Shutterstock.

In theGarden

The deep perennial taproots forage minerals and make them available for shallower-rooted crops. (Don’t let too many get started,though, and pull the blossoms off in the vegetablegarden.)

In a lawn or field, the bright yellow flowers attract pollinators to the spring garden and provide an important early nectar source formanybutterflies.

NOTE: Make sure that you can identify dandelions with certainty before you harvest them. If you’ve never eaten dandelions, prepare andeat a small amount before you begin harvesting in earnest. Never harvest dandelions from areas that have been treated with pesticides or other chemicals, such as alawn.