I was inspired to write about the magnificent dandelion today as an earthy caramel-like scent wafted through the house. The aroma of roasting dandelion roots is totally unlike anything I have ever smelled before, and definitely not what I expected (being well-accustomed to the smell of the bitter white latex in the leaves).
I’m a coffee addict: at minimum, I probably drink about half of a pot a day, as do most Scandinavians. I’ve worked in a fairtrade coffee cooperative before, and despite all the best efforts to improve the coffee industry, it is as exploitative and environmentally destructive as ever. Therefore, I am always on the lookout for local and/or temperate-hardy sustainable alternatives to get my bitter fix, like chicory and the Kentucky Coffeetree. I even grow my own coffee plants indoors.
Another delectable option for warm tannic satisfaction came today in the form of a dandelion. I was prepping an area to put in some new trees, so I had to clear out some flora. As I pulled up root after root, remembered tattiehoking’s post about dandelion coffee, and decided to give it a go.
I came to understand today that one of the many benefits that has come from covering the garden in mulch instead of grass has been the sheer size of the dandelion roots available for harvest. The dandelions that grow on the grass plane are wiry and stunted, but the behemoths I dug up in the mulched areas may as well be carrots.
With a little under 2 hours between harvest and steeping, I washed, chopped, and then oven-dried the roots at 100˚ C, turning it up to 180˚ C for the last 30 minutes to roast them. After steeping the resulting pellets for a good five minutes, I topped off my mug with a splash of maple syrup: my Canadian roots seemed to intuit that it was the right thing to do.
The result was a caramel-like brew that is an excellent tonic for the liver and gall bladder, which is also being researched as an anti-cancer medicine. [x] It was truly delicious, which–considering my habits–is bad news for the dandelions in the rest of the local area.
“Taraxacum—A review on its phytochemical and pharmacological profile,” in Journal of Ethnopharmacology Volume 107, Issue 3, 11 October 2006, Pages 313–323
Dandelion Research, University of Maryland Medical Centre
Uses, side effects, interactions of Dandelion extracts on WebMD
#eat the weeds #dandelions #coffee #medicinal plants #DIY #bioregionalism #recipes
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