Dandelion | Rooted Resiliency

Don’t fear the weeds. Eat them! It’s Dandelion season, and as these robust little plants begin to send forth their shiny golden heads, basking in the warm spring sunshine across North America, they are met with reactions both foul and friendly. In this post I share about the edibility, medicinal uses, harvesting and ‘growing’ this oft misunderstood weed.

Dandelion blossoms are edible and medicinal, and a very important to bees in the springtime.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is thought to have evolved in Eurasia over 30 million years ago. It was introduced to North America from Europe by early sailing ships some 400+ years ago, thought to have been brought along for its use as a medicine. It is said to have spread across the country ahead of the settlers, preceding the arrival of Europeans from the coast, where it was adopted as an important food and medicine plant by indigenous groups in many regions.

Ever-present and enduring, though not a native plant, after hundreds of years here in the Western world, Dandelion has found it’s own special niche in our ecosystem. Growing and thriving in even the most undesirable of places, Dandelions root deep to find nourishment. Bursting through the seams in the pavement, Dandelions work to reclaim nature, one crack at a time: if there ever was a symbol of resiliency it would be the humble but tenacious Dandelion.

Dandelion builds resilient communities with its steadfastness and adaptability, it can teach us the value of being firmly rooted in the places where we live. No matter what people may do to try to eradicate the lowly Dandelion; no matter how many herbicides are thrown at it or how many times you try uproot it, the Dandelion is here to stay. You can’t keep a good weed down.

The stuff wishes are made of…

As people all around the world continue to turn back to the land for guidance and sustenance, together we learn more than ever the value of the simple edibles growing wild and free in our local ecosystems. Dandelion is one of the most abundant of these wild and free edibles, it is a superfood and medicine packed with useful nutrition and healing properties.

Often thought of as only a nuisance, weeds like Dandelion actually fill a useful role in the environment. Everything in nature has its place, even us humans and the weeds.

After all, what is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered. ~ Emmerson

Appearing rapidly on barren soil that has been freshly disturbed, weeds quickly transform the barren earth. Their leaves shade out and protect soil microbes, while their roots stabilize the earth and prevent erosion. They act to provide habitat, and food for insects and other animal species. Dandelion in particular is a very important bee plant, one of the first flowers that bloom in early spring and provide the bees with much needed pollen and nectar.

Tap rooted weeds like Dandelion draw up useful minerals from deeper in the soil and make them more available to other plants, fungi, and microbes. As the weeds break down and decompose, they feed the soil and build organic matter, paving the way for successive species and the development of more complex ecosystems.

A happy community of wild Dandelions.

Let thy food be thy medicine

It is said that all of health begins in the gut and radiates outward from there. As the wise quote by the father of medicine, Hipocrates, goes “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” It is food that heals us, builds and repairs the tissues of the body, and provides the essential nutrients responsible for the healthy functioning of every organ system.

We literally are are what we eat. Our cells, tissues, and entire body are made up of the building blocks consumed each day at mealtime. On a deeper-level the concept of ‘food as medicine’ also has to do with the relationship we have with the food we eat, with our bodies, and the connections we make with the ecosystems we live in.

What is our relationship to the plants and animals that feed us, or to the farmers who grow? Not so long ago, before industrialized society, we as humans were intrinsically connected to to the plants and animals that fed us. By necessity we understood where our food came from, how that food impacted our bodies, and the ecosystems of land and community. It was within the basics of day to day survival to do so.

A principle in all indigenous cultures is that that land does not belong to us, but that we belong to the land. I believe this relationship is experienced most profoundly through our tastebuds, bringing the outer world into our bodies. It is a powerful and radical act of connection to take what grows on the land into your body and utilize it as your sustenance.

As we do so we become the land and the land us, and a relationship of caring is built. To know something is to care for it, and through the practice of foraging and feasting on the land, getting to know the place we live, we can slowly return to our roots as respectful and diligent stewards of the earth.

The resiliency and adaptability of the Dandelion is reflected in its diversity of leaf shapes.

Dandelion in the kitchen

Though sometimes overlooked as just an annoying garden weed, Dandelions are in fact a superfood. The entire Dandelion plant is edible, nutritious and delicious. The roots are my favourite part to eat, the spring greens are also tender and lovely, and the flowers are yummy in salads, made into fritters, or used to brew mead and wine. Dandelion flowers also make a pretty gorgeous garnish, the sunny yellow colour a feast for the eyes.

Dandelion leaves can be eaten fresh or cooked and are incredibly jam-packed with nutrients. I like to add them in with braising greens like kale and spinach as a side dish. A little goes a long way with these bitter greens incredibly rich in minerals like iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, copper, folate, and manganese; and Vitamins C, A, E, K, and B6.

Spring harvested Dandelion greens are tender and only mildly bitter, and lightly cooking them nearly eliminates the bitterness. The summer leaves can become extremely bitter as the weather warms, sometimes making the leaves unpalatable. Make sure to drink lots of water along with the greens, Dandelions tend to be systemically drying.

Though many people have become unaccustomed to the bitter taste it can actually be really good for you. Eating bitter greens before a meal was commonly practiced in many traditional diets to stimulate digestion before ingesting heavier foods. Routinely priming digestion with the bitter taste is actually one of the simplest and most beneficial things you can do for your overall digestive health.

The bitter taste stimulates digestive excretions, helping the overall digestive health, reducing bloating, and improving nutrient assimilation. Bitters are also well known to reduce sugar cravings. Simply chewing on a bitter Dandelion leaf, or having a bottle of herbal bitters, such as our Better Bitters Tincture Blend, on hand to take before meals can radical transform and empower your digestive process.

Unlike the bitter greens, the roots of Dandelion, harvested during the dormant season, only have the faintest hint of bitter. Rather, the taste is quite bland and slightly sweet, similar to a carrot. Dandelion roots can be harvested from fall to early spring and added to soups, stews, and root veggie roasts.

Though they are a worthy vegetable, they are also a medicine, and you’ll want to eat the Dandelion roots sparingly at first to see how they feel in your body. They can be slightly laxative, so just start with 1-3 tablespoons per day until your body gets used to them, then work your way up from there depending on how your tummy feels.

Dandelion root is a fantastic prebiotic, helping to support gut health by nourishing the beneficial bacterial in the gut. Healthy digestion has a lot to do with healthy gut flora, and when digestion is optimized, everything from nutrition to mood to immunity are improved.

Another way to support healthy gut flora is by eating fermented foods such as sauerkraut or kimchi. Fresh Dandelion roots and greens can both be added to your homemade ferments. For those of you new to fermenting, I’ve included one of my favourite recipes for homemade dandelion root sauerkraut at the end this post. This is hands-down my favourite way to eat Dandelion roots!

Dandelion in the apothecary

Dandelion leaf is a powerful diuretic and one of the best sources of natural potassium, as such it prevents loss of this important mineral from diuresis. The leaf can be prepared as a hot infusion and steeped for 2-3 hours to best extract the mineral content. Dandelion leaf tea is helpful to promote detoxification of the body though increased elimination. It is very effective at reducing water retention and lowering blood pressure; and is a useful kidney tonic for strengthening the kidneys and bladder.

The flowers are also sometimes used in herbal medicine. They are mildly pain-relieving and promote lymph flow. Said to help reduce cancerous cells, Dandelion flowers are commonly infused in oil and rubbed on the breasts daily to prevent and heal breast cancer. There is also some magic in this medicine, as the warm golden oil brings an energetic sense of light and sunshine to the hearts centre resting in the chest.

Dandelion root is the part of the plant most commonly used in herbal medicine, and this is the part of the plant that I have the most experience using in my practice. My top three uses for Dandelion root in the apothecary are: clearing up skin conditions, balancing hormones, and relieving allergies. In other words, liver support, liver support, liver support!

Through its action on the liver, Dandelion root can help keep the body nourished, adaptable, and resilient. The liver is responsible for so many different tasks in the body, and it is our body’s chief detoxifier and metobolizer. Metabolic wastes, environmental toxins (which sadly seem permeate everything these days), excess hormones, and allergens are all removed from the body through the heroic work of the liver.

When the liver has too much work to do, the skin takes over some of that work by excreting a share of the toxins. This often leads to breakouts, rashes, sores, and hives, in the skin’s effort to take on the burden of an overloaded liver. I have found great results in calming and clearing the skin with herbal formulas combining Dandelion root and other gentle skin detoxifiers like Burdock (Arctium lappa), Chickweed (Stellaria media), and Calendula (C. officinalis), as in our Serene Skin Tincture blend.

If excess hormones, such as reproductive and stress hormones, are not efficiently detoxified through the liver and allowed to build up in the blood, this will often result in symptoms such as moodiness, anxiety, and depression. PMS symptoms and reproductive issues can also often be cleared up by working on supporting the livers detoxification process.

Dandelion root can be very effective at balancing hormones when taken daily for several months, especially combined with a warming herb such as Rosemary or Ginger. I also like to combine gentle liver herbs like Dandelion root with nervine uterine tonics for overall fertility and reproductive support. Our Hormone Balancer Tincture blend combines Dandelion root with Angelica, Yarrow, Motherwort, and Rosemary to create an energetically balanced tonic blend.

In much the same fashion, if the liver isn’t able to do its job effectively, allergens can also build up in the blood stream. This can lead to skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, as well as chronic inflammation in the body. This inflammation can manifest in many ways depending on the individual, and may be experienced as aches and pains in the body, asthma, digestive issues, or other inflammatory conditions. When taken regularity, I’ve seen Dandelion root clear up many chronic allergic conditions, especially seasonal allergies.

For symptomatic relief and deeper healing of allergies, I’ve combined detoxifying Dandelion root with natural antihistamine and anti-inflammatory herbs such as Nettle (Urtica dioica), Goldenrod (Solidego lepida), and Ambrosia (Ambrosia chamissonis) in our Allergy Easer Tincture blend. This blend works great for seasonal allergies, and we’ve even had reports of it helping out with occasional flare ups from pet allergies too.

Overall Dandelion root as a good herb to start with when recommending herbs to cleanse or support the liver. There are more powerful liver cleansers out there for certain, such as Oregon Grape (Mahonia spp) or Yellow Dock (Rumex crispus), but the nice thing about Dandelion root is that it gentle while being effective. Unlike some some of the stronger liver cleansers, Dandelion root is much less likely to cause a healing crisis (ie when a therapy makes you ‘get worse before you get better’).

Dandelion root combines well with the powerful liver protectant and regenerator Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum), and calming and detoxifying Mint (Mentha spp) and Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) in the cooling liver-supportive Love Your Liver Tincture blend. This blend works wonders for draining excess heat from the body and calming the liver tension that often manifests as irritability and excess anger.

As well as its safe and gentle nature, Dandelion has the added appeal and benefit of supporting other channels of elimination at the same time as the liver, both as a lymphagogue and as a diuretic. Overall I would name Dandelion root as one of our most valuable alteratives, especially when conditions are irritable, inflamed, hot, and moist or swollen in nature.

The feeling Dandelion root medicine bestows upon the body is one of being cooled, cleansed, and calmed. I find the root decoction to be wonderful and the best way to extract the mineral content. The tincture has a well-balanced constituent profile when made from the fresh root, rather than dried root. We have fresh Dandelion Root Tincture available in the shop in 50ml-1000ml sizes.

Harvesting Dandelion

Dandelions have a few look-a-likes, but can be identified most easily by their widely-toothed basal leaves, and fleshy stems which are notably hollow and leak a white milky latex when broken.

A common look-a-like to consider is Hairy Cat’s Ear (Hypochaeris radicata) which has noticeably more hairy leaves, and a pale-cream coloured tap root. Hairy Cat’s Ear has a branching flower stalk with several small yellow dandelion-like flowers that appear near the top. This differs from Dandelion, which has only one single flower on the end of each stalk.

Another edible weed that grows in similar areas and may be confused with Dandelion is wild Chicory (Cichorium intybus). Chicory is another wild weedy edible and medicinal. The basal leaves of Chicory resemble Dandelion closely but the dentation is less deep. The two plants can easily be told apart by their flowers, Chicory flowers are a lovely pale-blue colour and rise on branched stems to up to 5ft tall.

Dandelion leaves are best harvested for eating in the spring from April-June when the plants put out fresh tender new leaves. The leaves have a mild bitter taste during this time in the season, and will eventually become increasingly bitter with the summer sun. For medicinal use, the leaves may be gathered anytime during their bloom period.

Dandelions are very vigorous plants and can be cut back entirely when harvesting the greens. The more you harvest, the more the plant will produce. Water them regularly to encourage more tender mild-tasting greens. Dandelion leaves dry very well for tea and keep for about 1 year if stored out of sunlight in an airtight container. The flowers are harvested during the bloom period and generally used fresh, as they will turn to ‘fluff’ when dried (ie go to seed).

Some gorgeous Dandelion roots harvested in the fall of their second year of growth.

The roots of Dandelions may be harvested during the dormant season, from early fall through until early spring. By late spring and summer roots become very ‘hairy’ (displaying new growth of root hairs), fibrous, and spongy in texture; they are not useful for food or medicine during this period. By early fall the roots will have transformed to become tender and fleshy, with a smooth rusty orange-brown coloured outer skin, a sign that they are ready to harvest again.

Dandelion roots best used fresh for making into tinctures, or infused vinegars. They may be sliced up and dried in a dehydrator for later use in teas. The dried root is also nice to have on hand to add to the pot when making bone broth, soups and stews.

Growing Dandelion

Dandelion is a perennial herb, that will grow easily from seed and root divisions. Found in lawns, fields, roadsides, cracks in the pavement, pretty much everywhere and everywhere, needless to say it is easy to grow. If you wish to cultivate it in your garden, Dandelion enjoys a sunny spot with loose rich soil. It will sprout from any broken roots left in the soil after digging, so make sure to dig the entire root up if you don’t wish it to return, or leave some of it if you do. An easy one from seed, we have Dandelion seeds available in the shop.

Dandelion Sauerkraut Recipe

Raw unpasteurized sauerkraut has many health benefits. It builds your internal biological terrain, adds probiotics to your intestines, increases alkalinity, and helps you absorb your nutrition more effectively. The addition of Dandelion roots and/or greens is a great way to boost your sauerkraut with an abundance of vitamins and minerals, and gently support your liver.

Ingredients:
5 pounds green cabbage, shredded
3-4 tablespoons sea salt
2 cloves of garlic (optional), minced
1 large Dandelion Root, fresh, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
One large handful of fresh Dandelion greens, chopped

Tools:
Large bowl for mixing
1 gallon ceramic or glass crock*
plate to fit inside crock
Jar to use as a weight
Knife, food processor, or mandolin for shredding cabbage
Clean tea towel and elastic band or string to secure it

*don’t use metal or plastic as these will leach/react with the fermentation. If you don’t have a crock a wide mouth mason jar works, and a small 250ml mason jar will fit inside nicely as a weight.

Directions:
1) Place shredded cabbage into large bowl. Add salt and mix thoroughly using your hands to massage the mixture thoroughly. Let sit for 15-20mins to soften.

2) Add Dandelion roots and greens, and mix thoroughly. Garlic may be mixed in at this stage as well.

3) Begin packing cabbage mixture into a one gallon crock or jar one layer at a time. Use your fist or a wooden tamper.

4) Create an anaerobic environment by getting all air bubbles out as you pack it down firmly. As you work the cabbage into the jar, the brine will start to rise to the top of the cabbage.

6) Place a saucer or plate on top of the cabbage. Try to get one that fits as close to the edges as possible. You can also place whole cabbage leaves neatly on top of the shredded cabbage before placing the plate on top. This nifty trick will prevent you from needing to scrape off the top layer of finished kraut before eating.

7) Put a weight on top of that. A jar of water works well.

8) Cover with a cloth and fasten so no bugs get inside.

9) During the first week, push it down daily to help keep the cabbage under the brine. 

10) Let it ferment for about 2-4 weeks. The kraut will start out crunchy and salty and will get softer and more tangy the longer it ferments. The best flavours develop within the 12-18C temperature range.

12) When you are ready to try it, scrape off the top layer or remove whole cabbage leaves, and enjoy the healthy goodness below. Store in the refrigerator to keep up to 6 months.