Foraging for dandelion

Springtime brought out the dandelions. At our allotment, we left a plot for these powerful ‘weeds’. At a time when plenty was flowering, we picked a few dozen heads to make dandelion honey and dag up a few roots for tea. The kids don’t need to be reminded that we are sharing the flowers with the bees: they carefully only take part of what’s available and leave plenty for the pollinators.

Before doing anything with the flowerheads we left them out for an hour to allow all the crawly creatures to leave the petals. After this, we picked up the flowerheads and soaked them in water together with organic lemon slices and a splash of Fair Trade vanilla for a few hours.

Once all the flavours transferred into the water we added an uncomfortable amount of sugar and boiled it until it reached a thick consistency. 

The dandelion honey turned out to be delicious and tastes incredibly like honey!