Adventures in Homesteading

When I first started my blog five years ago, I didn't just focus on fashion.  I featured posts on baking, sewing, favorite artists, travel, the works.  As I entered a very difficult season in my life, some of these things fell by the wayside and my main focus was on surviving.  It was enough for me to just get through each day.  Little by little my favorite things are returning, but cooking has been the last thing that I carve out time for.

For whatever reason, I am feeling the cooking bug this year.  I walked out into my yard the other day and saw a host of golden dandelions that had sprung up overnight.  I've been drinking dandelion tea for years, but I've always wanted to try baking with them.  So, I did a little research, employed the help of my youngest child, who happened to be home for the day, and together we made Dandelion Syrup and Dandelion Banana Bread--which in spite of being a very pretty yellow color didn't taste any different from regular banana bread, so I won't be talking about it in this post.

Although we think of them as an indigenous plant, the dandelion was first brought to America by early European settlers for its medicinal uses in aiding digestion and as a diuretic.  Dandelions are also one of the first blossoms of springtime, so I imagine they were used as an early food source at the end of winter when supplies were dwindling.

Dandelion Syrup is a Dutch food, and one which I had never heard of or tried before, but having tasted it I know I will make this yummy treat each spring.  Here's how we made it: First we picked 50 dandelions and removed all the greens.  Only the petals are used for syrup as the greens are quite bitter.  We chose not to wash them so as to preserve the pollen--it's supposed to help with allergies, but we did allow the blossoms to sit in a bowl for 30 minutes so that any tiny things living there could crawl away and find new homes.  

Next we peeled and chopped three medium apples and juiced one lemon.  Then we added petals, apples, lemon juice, and one quart of water to saucepan.  We let that simmer for 30 minutes.  We then strained off the pulp using a cheese cloth, returned the liquid to the pot and added 2.5C (500 grams) of sugar.  We returned the liquid to a simmer until it thickened to a syrupy consistency and poured it into sanitized jars.  

I did not can this syrup, I don't expect it to be around very long.  The taste and consistency of our batch is quite like a lovely floral honey, perfect for biscuits, crackers with smoked Irish cheddar, or as a little topping for vanilla mascarpone cheesecake as you see here.  

So delicious, where has this been all my life.  This whole endeavor has me more than a little excited for my next cooking adventure.