Greetings and Salutations to all you intrepid gardeners out there, welcome back to another installment of the Forage Foods series on Lost In The Farmer’s Market. As you might already know the current Geo-Political situation coupled with inflation and supply shortages has prompted a series on foods you can forage for just in case things go sideways. Even if they don’t, forage foods may have added nutritional benefits and may also have medicinal benefits that can help you out. Today’s topic is the poster child for a useful weed, although I personally do not consider it a weed we will be discussing the Common Dandelion.
Dandelions are surprisingly resilient except when you actively try to cultivate them. What I find most interesting is that in a given population in the test gardens have different leaf shapes. All of the true dandelions in the test gardens originated from a single packet of French Dandelion seed bought from Richter's herbs years ago. This one looks like what you would expect from a dandelion. 
This specimen which is just a few feet away from the one above has extremely jagged leaves and no doubt had the same parent. 
This Dandelion has more rounded leaves in comparison to the first two, also notice the fine 'teeth' on the leaf margin. 
This specimen is both jagged and curled to a point the leaf lobes look almost like sharkfins.
Common Name: Common Dandelion
Other Common Names: Dandelion
Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Aster Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Taraxacum officinale
Season to Harvest: Dandelion can be harvested in spring, summer and fall.
Habitat: Dandelions are notorious for being able to pop up anywhere much to the absolute horror of advocates for perfect green golf-course-esque lawns. Generally speaking though it is most common in lawns, yards, sites where the soil has been disturbed (dandelion seed can still be viable for up to five years), and pretty much any exposed soil site within hundreds of feet or more of the nearest mature plant. The one thing Dandelion does not seem to tolerate very well is dry soils. If exposed to unintended irrigation or in partial shade situations dandelions may tolerate noticeably dry and poor soils.
Parts to Harvest: The leaves, flowers and root are the primary things to harvest.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None in the Continental USA.
Related Edible Species: There are several related dandelions and other asters that are edible; Asiatic Hawksbeard (Youngia japonica), Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola), Sow Thistle (Sonchus arvensis), Wild Lettuce (Lactuca virosa), Chicory (Chichorium intybus), Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) and several others.
Description: Dandelion is best known for its variously and irregularly lobed leaves which can vary in shape and form to a certain degree. Some Dandelion leaves are more rounded, and posess fewer lobes while others are sharply lobed in neat triangular lobes. Others are so sharply loved that the lobes leave little leaf margin on the main leaf rib to speak of. Leaves tend to be slightly hairy on the underside. Flowers are a cheery yellow color and are borne on hollow stems. Dandelion flowers interestingly tend to not open if it is too cloudy. The dandelion ‘puffball’ seed head is the best indicator of the plant’s ability to spread itself.
How to Harvest: Leaves are at their best when picked fairly young as they tend to get a bit bitter with age. Roots can be dug at any time of year but in younger plants it is wise not to bother as the taproot will not be very large and you may deplete the population of dandelions in an area. Flowers can be harvested as needed.
Recipe: You can peel young roots, slice them thin and boil in two changes of water for about twenty minutes. In the first batch of water be sure to add a pinch of baking soda. The roots then can be served with seasoning to taste. Alternately after cooking you can sauté the cooked slices in butter until they are golden brown. Dandelion leaves can be used as a potherb or salad green but their potential bitterness must be tempered out with other mild greens. Flowers and flower buds can be dipped in batter and fried or alternately used to make Dandelion wine.
There is one special recipe I like to make with Dandelion greens that isn’t for everybody but it’s an interesting thing to try. If you can harvest about six ounces of Dandelion greens, you can add them in with two bundles of Broccoli Rabe along with the usual seasonings of olive oil, fresh garlic and season it with salt and pepper. Since the Broccoli Rabe is already going to be a bit on the bitter side it will go well with the Dandelion greens and, you get a more nutritious meal. You can temper out the flavor if need be by adding pasta or cheese ravioli. It’s up to you if you want to have a meat item beyond that but it makes for a filling meal that uses a readily abundant forage green in a recipe that is easily available.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Special Stuff:
Abutilon ‘Orange Hot Lava’ - $4.00
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Tomato – Glacier
Tomato – Sungold
Tomato – Mountain Pride
Tomato – Purple Cherokee
Tomato – Black Krim
Tomato – Paul Robeson
Peppers – Carolina Reaper
Peppers – Trinidad Scorpion
Peppers – Ghost
Peppers – Anaheim
Peppers – Cayenne
Softneck Garlic
Ground Cherry
Cucumber – Armenian
Cucumber – Lemon
Cucumber – Space Master
Okra – Baby Bubba
Orka – Jing Orange
Okra – Red Burgundy
Basil
Coming Soon:
Marsh Mallow
Zanzibar Castor Bean
Roselle
Heritage Cotton
More TBA!
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (Season 3): - American Wintergreen
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on May 19th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
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