Eat Your Weed

You thought I was going to recommend some great new diet in which you consume pot in your cookies, didn't you?  (That diet is lovingly referred to as the "Get fatter faster!!" diet, in case you weren't aware.)  Although I was raised by pot smoking hippies, I never could abide the smell, the taste, or the way pot made me feel.  Pot makes me want to vomit and since I am really afraid of vomiting I avoid anything that might possilby produce the unfortunate affect of an undulating stomach. 

I am all excited about eating dandelions!  I am trying really hard to keep my super spazzy twitches and swearing to this blog and not let it unduly infect Stitch and Boots which I want to be more friendly to a wider range of people who might not want to hear stories about growing up with parents who studied to be Tibetan Monks (in Tibet, no less) and who got themselves arrested and the resulting wild children they reared...all of us crazy as bedlam.  So I will keep talking more personally here and let it all hang out all the time.

I just wrote what I hope will be a useful and inspiring article on how to identify true dandelions (I never knew there were "false" ones until I took the Master Gardening course) and why you might want to harvest some from your garden.  It includes the proper plant names, very carefully photographed specimens for identification purposes, and herbal use information.  No specific recipes yet (that will follow shortly).  This article is kicking off my series of "Plant Profiles"  Yeeeeehe!  (Squealing, if you didn't get that).  So if you're interested in that article go here:

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale): Plant Profile

I actually made a pasta this week using dandelion greens that was based on a favorite recipe I like to make from a French vegetarian cookbook of mine.  I have never used the dandelion greens it calls for, always substituting chard instead, but after reading about dandelions recently I realized that I am missing some serious easy nutrition.  I picked the leaves from a part of my garden that the dog hasn't got access to and used a good handful of them.  I also used some collards in the recipe. 

It was pasta with a cheese sauce mixed with mushrooms and greens.  Oh so good!  Yes, I could tell the dandelions were bitter.  I normally don't go for bitter greens.  Certainly not in my salad.  But the bitterness was pleasantly complimented by the rich creaminess of the sauce. I have to admit that it gave me an extra thrill knowing that that bunch of greens otherwise known as a garden scourge was supplying my body with more nutrients and vitamins per bite than any other green I can grow or harvest. 

I will make the pasta again to refine my directions and process and then I will post the recipe on Stitch and Boots.  I will also be trying some spring tonics using dandelions and if I find one I really like I will share that as well. 

C'mon- eat weeds with me!! 

I worked all day on this article and now it's almost time to start my paying job.  I suppose I better go run an errand or two beforehand.  Wow, the day sure went by fast.  But it's been storming outside and what a pleasant way to spend the day.  I had meant to jump back into the sewing but I really needed to hammer out this piece so I could get it out of my head.  These informational pieces require a lot of cross checking and the photo work took some time as well (hooray for eejut-me learning to do a photo montage!!).

Go read it while it's all shiny still.