Dandelion Honey

Dandelions are Superfood from our backyards. Honey or syrup made from their soft, yellow heads that fill and brighten up spring meadows and lawns, cleans our body and makes our blood flow. Which is one of the main conditions for good health according to the Chinese medicine:

Blood should be like a clean, lucid stream, like water that flows softly yet forcefully, not too hastily and not too slowly. Water that is not muddy or murky but crystal-clear.

It is specifically the potassium in dandelions, a mineral and electrolyte that stimulates the heartbeat, helps the kidney to filter toxins more effectively and improves blood flow. The polysaccharides in dandelion, on the other hand, are known to reduce stress on the liver and support its ability to produce bile which helps our metabolism.

To make the dandelion honey was our family tradition in my childhood and every spring when dandelions showed their little sun-like heads, the task to pick up the exact amount needed to make the honey fell on us, children. We were excited at first but our enthusiasm faded quickly with the flowers piling in our baskets. It always seemed too long and tedious to collect 300 dandelion heads and soon enough we let ourselves be distracted with other, more fun activities.

Spring lightened our hearts and there were many little pleasures to enjoy besides the warm air, sun and long days. Like the tiny goslings with their soft, delicate feathers, yellow like the dandelions, that our Grandma always bought in the spring. For the first week we placed them in a box on the window shelf at our kitchen which was kept warm all year long by a wood stove.  It was very exciting to have such new roommates and we kept taking them out of the box and petting them on our laps. They became so used to us, humans, that in the garden, they would follow us on their shaky legs, flapping their useless, tiny wings and cackling excitedly. But soon, they had to be taken away, to a shed in the yard where they grew too quickly into big and unattractive white birds that were hissing menacingly at us when we came near.

Spring was also time to purchase the chicks, tiny little things, so helpless without their broody hen. At first, we also kept them in a cosy, warm box until they were strong enough to be let out. Then they took over the entire yard, running freely, looking for worms and things to eat until dark when they had to be closed in a henhouse not to become the foxes’ prey at night. The chickens laid the best eggs one can have and our Grandma never allowed to fence them in a smaller space despite many complaints of our parents who didn’t like their children to get the birds’ slimy excrement on their bare feet in the summer. Grandma kept the chickens till the very end of her life, to her 90s, and never failed to get up with the sun to open their shed door and let them out in the early morning when everyone was still sleeping.

Growing up on a farm left a deep mark on me and now collecting dandelions for honey does not seem so tedious any more. The honey is excellent on sourdough bread with butter in the morning, it can replace regular honey in recipes or can be used as a syrup glaze on sweets.

Ingredients

1. 300 dandelion heads
2. 1 kg brown sugar
3. 1 l water
4. bio lemon and bio orange

Method

1. Collect 300 dandelion heads and wash them quickly under running water so you get rid of bugs and dirt.
2. Put the flowers in a pot with 1 l of water and bring them to boil. Boil them on medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Add sliced up lemon and orange, cover the pot and leave it for 24 hours.
4. Strain it into a clean pot through a clean kitchen cotton towel, squeeze it thoroughly.
5. Add sugar and boil it for 1 and half hours. Stir occasionally.
6. Pour into clean jars sterilised by boiled water.
7. Keep in a cooler and dark place.