Pinterest and my new obsession with Dandelions
Pinterest…. You bastered!
You have given me ideas for things I would have never thought of but in
turn have destroyed my productivity and over flown my To-Do list. Love and hate you
Last year, we sodded most of the backyard and attempted to
grow grass from seeds in the front yard.
Most of the backyard took and not much in the front. Dandelions filled the space where the grass
should be. I, myself, don’t have a
problem with dandelions, I like their bright flowers. But as I am attempting to take the backyard
from a wild place to a well-manicured lawn (a sign I believe I finally got my
$#%@ together) sadly these yellow flowers have to go. I am fully aware I will never be any were
close to rid of these weeds. But before
they “go” and as spring is the best time to harvest the flowers, I would like
to use them in edible products.
Jams - I love them and I am always looking for new and
interesting jam. I had read that the jam taste like honey. How
cool is that! I was very excited to try
this out. In the end I made two batches.
Notes on Jam making
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- Getting enough yellow will take a long time. Longer then you think. My hands hurt after cutting the yellow away from the green. This is not a simple jam to make
- Insure you use the correct amount of pectin. Remember there is no natural pectin in flowers, so you need to insure you add the amount the receipt calls for. Second batch I did not add enough. I have to go back and re add the pectin
- I made two patches: one with lemon and one with orange. The lemon tasted more lemon to me than honey. It was good still but I was looking for more honey taste. The orange was a little more honey like.
- When brewing the juice do not put it in the fridge. I was worried about the petals going bad just sitting on the counter.
- I put it in the fridge and resulting tea was this horrible brown colour. The second batch was not put in the fridge and the tea was a little more yellow.
- I was at first apposed to adding food colouring to the jam. But trust me, you want it.
- Finally, this is an unusual jam receipt. People need to eat it with an open mind. I like it, my husband likes it, and friends like it, but the teenage child from a co-worker hated it. It hurt my pride when my co-worker showed me the video of her child trying it. I wanted to slap the child and the co-worker who showed me the video (why did she video tape it?!? And then show it to me).
Wine
I have started to make dandelion wine. I’ve never made wine before and don’t have
high hopes that this will turn out well.
But hope that one day, after a lot of trial and error; I will be able to
invite friends over for a glass of dandelion wine. I will update you soon on this.
