Why waste dandelions?

Never tried Dandelion wine- how does it taste?

As tried the Dandelion and Burdock fizzy drink once and found it to be an 'acquired taste' (that I didn't want to acquire!)........

Dandelion wine is super.  My Grandfather was an avid wine maker and I was brought up on the stuff from an early age.  It takes quite a while to clear but it can be drunk after about 10 to 12 months even still a bit cloudy.

Ypu can also wilt a few older leaves into curries similar to with spinach.  Adds an interesting tang.

I feed them to my chickens. There's about half a dozen weeds (that grow in my garden) that they really like, and dandelions are one of them.

Be careful leaving dandelions to wilt and return to the soil if they have flowers on them as they can continue to go to seed and cause problems that way.

For salad leaves, try blanching them by placing a plant pot on top of the plant for a few days; not so bitter then.

You pee a bit more if you eat them.    Not a great amount more, though.  Don't avoid the more bitter leaves, they're great for the digestion.  If you're feeling a bit bloaty or have overdone it a bit, eat a couple of dandelion leaves - more effective than rennies!  It's the bitter compounds hitting the tongue that help the digestion.  Alternatively, shred the leaves and make a tea from them.

You can also grind and roast the roots to make a coffee substitute - my other half says it's ok, but it smells almost totally unlike coffee!

Don't you pee a lot if you pick dandelions?
that's what my nanna used to say

The old name for dandelions is 'pissabed'! Note: the active diuretic is in the 'milk' in the stems.  A few leaves in a salad is neither here nor there, but I guess if they were all the greens you were getting, as may well have been the case for some cottagers in rural communities during early spring, or for the children sent to pick dandelions for wine and getting hands covered in the milk, well, you can see how it got the name!