Dandelion

Did you know that there is a war going on in your neighborhood, and it is chemical warfare? Most of us haven't a clue what is happening right under our noses. Who is benefiting from this war, Mr. and Mrs. Perfect. Who is it hurting, almost everyone and everything thing in the neighborhood. Do you know people who are allergic to a lot of things? Maybe you know someone who has asthma? A lot of my friends have taken the carpeting out of their houses in favor of hardwood floors because of all the allergies but don't think twice about what they are doing to their lawns.

Today I want to talk about Dandelions. Most people have someone come in and spray to get rid of them. These companies do this at a rate of four or more times a summer to keep Dandelions from messing up their perfect yard. If they would only realize that Dandelions are helping the yard to stay healthy. These colorful plants are loaded with the ability to help everything around them, us included.

History teaches us that the new and smaller leaves can be used in salads. These salads are loaded with Vitamins A and C along with minerals such as organic Chromium, organic Calcium, organic Potassium and organic Selenium. You will even find organic Zinc in trace amounts. The leaves are a powerful diuretic and are used to treat urinary disorders without depleting the body of Potassium. These same leaves detoxify the blood and are therefore used for acne and eczema.

These leaves have trace amounts of all sorts of good things. The body does not need a whole capsule of Selenium or most of the other things that we get at the health food store, these leaves are perfect. We need traces to stay healthy just like these plants. If they get too much of something, they are out of balance just like we get when we do too much of anything.

Jethro Kloss, an herbalist that grew up in Wisconsin, mentioned that Dandelion "has a beneficial effect on female organs. Increases the activity of the liver, pancreas and spleen. " It is especially great when dealing with an enlargement of the liver or spleen.

The roots nourish and cleanse the kidneys, skin and even affect the heart, due to its blood purifying properties. Historically the root has been used to reduce inflammation, correct conditions in rheumatic joints and through the liver, clean up jaundice and gall stones.

At our house we use dried Dandelion roots like black pepper on our food. According to one of my mentors, when you use the real Black Pepper, be sure to use it after cooking as the heat changes its chemical properties.

When my mother had a stroke, she "balled" her hand into her shoulder. While doing some research, I found that Rosemary sprigs were placed in Dandelion Wine and made into a tonic to help Queen Victoria's Cousin who had a stroke. We did this and Mom relaxed her hand into her lap. (Rosemary heads for the brain.)

I make Dandelion wine out of the Dandelion petals. Spring is the best time to do this with the abundance of flowers, as one needs a gallon of flower petals. I made it once with the calyx (the green part on the back of the flower) and got a green wine so after that I pulled petals off the flowers. The next step is to pour a gallon of hot water over these petals and let them stand for 12 hours, drain them, saving the liquid and add to only the liquid, 3 pounds of sugar, the juice of one orange and two lemons and a package of yeast. (I use wine yeast for this and the packet tells me that it makes 5 gallons but I only make one so I seal the remaining yeast and refrigerate it for another time.) Now it is time to allow it to ferment.

I don't believe in investing a lot of money in small projects so I use plastic water gallon jugs to process this. I have found a beach balloon at the drug store that has a very large opening, so this is stretched over the mouth of the gallon jug. As my product ferments, the balloon fills with the gas that is being made. When the ball gets about 18 inches in diameter, I put a pin hole in the hard rubber nipple that was designed to tie a rubber band on. When my wine is not able to make enough gas to keep my balloon inflated, it is time to bottle.

At bottling time I taste the wine and decide if it needs help. This last spring I had two jugs going. One came out very dry and the other very sweet so when bottling, these were combined to make the perfect blend. The sterilized bottles and caps have been cooled and are ready to receive the wine.

The last process is to label. I am very big on labeling. I find that many times without labels we forget what we have. When I harvest leaves and dry them, they look nothing like what they did when I picked them and are hard to identify. So I put them into a paper bag and write on the bag that this is Dandelion roots or whatever it is. Labeling is so important.

I need to talk about the paper bag. Most people think that you dry herbs by hanging them upside down in a cool dry place. If I did that, I would be processing all sorts of bugs. I love bugs and they have a place in my world but not in the herbs that I plan to make medicine with. So my herbs get put into large paper bags and then I write what is in there and staple the top together. I shake this bag every so often and turn it to another surface of the bag. Bags have bottoms and four sides. The side that it is laying on will become damp as the moisture is being wicked out of the plant matter. The wet side is now up and will dry allowing more moisture to leave. This way when they are completely dry and I put the plant matter into glass jars for storage, they will not mildew. They have been completely dried.

Back to wine. Wine is great for cooking and drinking and healing. In the cooking process the alcohol is dissipated so even people who can't drink wine, can cook with it and get many benefits from the properties that are left in the foods. My students have sampled my Dandelion wine and I have had no complaints.

The late Hanna Kroeger used Dandelion flowers to clean up diabetes. In the Globalherb computer program, there is reference given from a book by John Heinerman called "Science of Herbal Medicine", for using Dandelions to heal the pancreas.

Dandelions can do so much more. They have been used to handle age spots, anemia, as an appetite stimulant, arthritis, asthma, blisters, blood cleanser, high blood pressure, gall bladder problems, hepatitis, hypoglycemia, kidney infections, skin problems and weight loss.

In many countries Dandelions are cultivated as a food. The roots are cooked as a vegetable.

For those who dislike the looks of Dandelion, perhaps taking a page out of David Christopher's book (the director of the School of Natural Healing) and eat the flowers early in the morning before the animals have been around would keep them from putting their seeds out and making more. If you try them you might understand why bees like them.

No matter how you use Dandelions, they are a harbinger of health. Usually they tell me that there are few if any toxins in the area where they are found. Even Dogs like our yard because we are not at war with the Dandelion.