Friday, April 15, 2005

Weeding the Frugal Way

I horrified my 12 year old last night. As she was taking a bite of the Carribean Rice and Beans we were having for dinner, I asked my youngest son to tell her where the greens in the dish came from. He proudly told her we picked them in the backyard. She stopped with the fork halfway to her mouth and proclaimed, "Tell me these aren't weeds!"

Well, technically I guess dandelion greens are weeds but that's just being nitpicky. Our farm cooperative grew them last season, that makes them a bona fide vegetable! They're a dark green leafy vegetable that is exceptionally hardy. The fact is they're edible and this time of year before the blossoms open, they are less bitter.

Once the blossoms open you can make things like Dandelion Jelly and Dandelion Wine. I've never tried those but this could be the year.

3 comments:

Katie said...

Some days yes! We've never had a perfect lawn anyway, now I can stop cringing when the kids blow the seeds everywhere.

Jacq said...

My mother's great aunt also used to make dandelion wine. :)

I've been planning to pick some and try them here too. Ours haven't started yet but they'll be up soon.

Katie said...

My youngest son carries a bucket around the yard and just pops them in. He thinks its a game and I'm not telling him otherwise. I'm going to try dandelion wine this weekend. It rained the last few days so we should have abumper crop in no time.