Dandelion - intro, appearance and characteristics

A milky herb, also called dandelion grows up to 30 cm. It has a strong taproot, hollow stems and leaves with jagged edges. Yellow flower, consisting of countless petals. It has many rather small flowers, which are gathered in "baskets" on hollow stems. Each individual yellow petal is a whole flower that can develop into a small seed with a "parachute", a tassel. The Danish dandelions are apomictic, i.e. they do not need pollination to set seed, so it is a form of virgin birth, or clonal propagation by seed.

There are up to 1000 small species in the Danish nature, with variations in taste and appearance, but the active ingredients are the same. The young leaves and flowers are both healthy and delicious in a salad. The leaves can be picked from March to September. The young leaves are best, they are bitter and piquant. It blooms in April and May. The flower is lightly perfumed with a mild taste of nectar. The root is fresh, mild and slightly bitter.

Dandelion locations
You find dandelions everywhere! From the garden, across the field and beach to the roadside and up between the cobblestones in the city. It is a stubborn little herb that does not require special conditions in the soil.

Funny Stories
Instead of removing dandelions as weeds, we should collect them for daily use in salads. It could be the dandelion we one day choose to put in the basket at the supermarket, instead of its Spanish cousin arugula.

Funnily enough, the dandelion was not native to the US, it was the Europeans who brought it over there to cultivate it for medicinal use!

Dandelion (dent de lion) is the French name for dandelion, which refers to the leaves resembling dangerous dandelions.

Myths
If you eat a dandelion on a Monday or Thursday, you will always be healthy.

If you hang a dandelion root around your neck, you will be cured of watery eyes.

Dandelion - active substances and their effects

Already in the 13th century, Arab doctors used the dandelion as a diuretic. It is the bitter substance taraxacin that has the diuretic effect. Dandelion cleanses the liver and also has a choleretic effect. The effect is also stronger than with horsetail and juniper. Therefore, you must be careful with dandelion if you have narrowed bile ducts or gallstones.

This is because the dandelion root in particular contains a type of substance called polysaccharides. These substances stimulate the microflora in the stomach and intestines.

Research has also shown that dandelions contain a number of bitter substances that activate the liver and bile. Dandelion is therefore good as a cleansing agent for detoxifying the body.

It is assumed that the drug's high potassium content is partly responsible for the effect. With excessive use, an excess of stomach acid may occur, and this is generally the case with bitter drugs.

In the Middle Ages, monks treated jaundice with dandelion juice. They also smeared the juice on warts and freckles to make them disappear. The roots of dandelion were used by the monks against kidney disorders, diarrhea and acid reflux.

Henrik Smid, who was physician to Christian II, wrote in a large work on medicinal plants that the dandelion is distinguished by the fact that you can use both leaves, root, juice and flowers. He lamented that the dandelion is "despised and trampled underfoot" when God created it to do good to man.

In the middle of the 19th century, substitute coffee was made from dandelion roots. And if the tobacco ran out, they smoked the leaves from dandelions.

Recipes

Dandelion honey if you have a sore throat

Ingredients

100 dandelion flower heads
2 organic lemons
1 glass of Danish honey

You must use this

1 pair of scissors
1 grater
1 blender
Glass for storage

Pick approx. 100 dandelion flower heads, (if you use scissors you won't get so greasy from the milk in the stem). Place them upside down for approx. 1 hour, so small animals can crawl out. Then rinse and wash it thoroughly - give them if necessary. a quick boil.

Grate the peel of one lemon and roughly chop the insides of both lemons.

Put all the ingredients, the flower heads, honey shell and fruit and honey in a blender. Blend until you obtain a uniform mass. Pour the dandelion honey into a glass and finish with a layer of liquid honey on top.

Now you have a wonderful honey that you can eat directly as candy when you have a sore throat, otherwise it came in a mug of tea

Storage and durability

Always store your honey in a dark and cool place. You can freeze this honey, so I recommend that you use a plastic bucket to store it in. Shelf life a few years unless you eat it quickly 

To relieve a sore throat, take 1-2 teaspoons 3-4 times a day. If you add it to your tea, remember that the beneficial substances in honey break down if you pour boiling water over it - always wait until the water has cooled a little before adding honey.

Others

The young leaves are used in salads or pesto. They are also good on bread or pizza. The older large leaves are brushed with oil and fried in the oven as chips. The yellow petals as juice, syrup, dandelion honey or as a decoration in a salad. The unsprung heads can be pickled as capers or cucumber salad. Roots sautéed in butter as a side dish or in stews where root vegetables are otherwise used.