Dancing Dandelions
I know what you're thinking....
DANDELIONS?!?!?! What the heck do dandelions have to do with a medicinal garden? Dandelions are nuisance weeds that are all over our yard. They turn the luscious green landscape into a yellow speckled weed field.
Oh my friends, how you are so wrong!!! I used to have that same mindset. Pour the weed killer on those ugly things to get rid of them! Not only do I refuse to use weed killer (that's a whole other blog post), but I began to love dandelions.
Now we aren't putting dandelions straight into our medicinal garden in our front landscape, but we have such respect for these little guys that we needed to showcase them. We'll be saving a whole section of our vegetable garden just for these guys.
Dandelions are a necessities for bees. We need bees to pollinate our other plants so they thrive, so these guys are staying put in our yard.
So why dandelions? What part of the dandelions are medicinal? Guess what.....ALL OF IT! That's right, these miracle "weeds" can be used in their entirety. The most well known part of the plant that is used medicinally is the dandelion root. If you've ever pulled a dandelion because you thought it was a weed that you needed to get rid of, you probably know that dandelion roots can plant themselves relatively deep, often breaking off before you get to the bottom of the root. Boy does that grind my gears (lol here's to Peter Griffin!). Usually when the root breaks, you have a new plant appear not that long after, which is why these plants are stubborn. Instead of fighting them, EMBRACE them!
We've been hard at work on our medicinal garden, but are also cleaning out some other areas around our home for some other smaller gardens. I was cleaning an area by our back door and there were dandelions galore! I knew I wasn't going to be planting dandelions there, so I decided to harvest the roots. Check out these babies!
Some of the leaves on the dandelions were pushing a foot in length! They've obviously been there a while. Speaking of the leaves, I did say that the entire dandelion plant can be used remember? Well the leaves can be used in cooking. Some people enjoy the bitterness and will toss them into their salads, while others mix them into different soups. This soup over at Exist Green looks divine! There are so many recipes that feature dandelions that you can even buy a cookbook that has 148 recipes! Check it out here.
Medicinal Tea
I'm sure if you've been following along with our blog here at Skeletonex, you can probably guess the first medicinal use of dandelion that I'm going to talk about...TEA! The taste of dandelion is bitter and is often used as a diuretic and to speed up those gastrointestinal functions. If you've ever researched any type of detox drink, you've probably stumbled upon Jillian Michael's detox water. You can find the recipe over a He & She Eat Clean (one of my favorite blogs...you should definitely follow them!). Guess what the primary ingredient is in this detox water....DANDELION ROOT TEA! (yay for tea!)
If you're interested in trying the detox tea, you can get organic dandelion root tea on Amazon. For your convenience, we've provided the link below!
Infused Oil
So what about those dandelion flowers? Well those can be used to make dandelion infused oil. This infused oil has so many purposes and is a base for many different medicinal products. All you need to do to make your infused oil is follow these steps:
1) In the morning, after the dew has evaporated and the flowers are fully open, pluck enough dandelions to fill a small jelly jar.
2) Lay the dandelion flowers on a screen or paper towel and check for any little critters that may have been hiding in the flowers. Either dispose of the bugs or dispose of those particular flowers. Allow them to dry overnight. Dandelions have water content in their flowers. Water + oil = bacteria.
3) After drying overnight (they will not be brittle, but they will be slightly wilted), tear the dandelion flowers and place them back into the jar.
4) Cover the flowers with a carrying oil. I typically use olive oil due to its long shelf life, but other oils will work as well.
5) Allow the jar to sit in a sunny place for 2 weeks to infuse with the oil.
6) Strain the flowers from the oil. You can compost the flowers if you have a compost bin!
7) Store the strained oil in a dark cabinet.
Ta-da! Now you have infused dandelion oil!
Healing Salves
The dandelion oil above is a great base for dandelion salves. Dandelion salve can be used on sore muscles and joints. Many people who suffer from arthritis can benefit from using dandelion salve because of the anti-inflammatory properties of the plant. This recipe from the Prairie Homestead is great. She uses essential oils in her salve, but they aren't required, they just provide added benefits.
So now that you've learned a little bit about dandelions, are you going to try them?? Let us know the creative ways you're using dandelions!
