We have been inundated by dandelions – LOTS OF DANDELIONS! They are everywhere! Along the driveway…
…in the garden, in the yard – hundreds (maybe thousands?) of dandelions.
What do yo do when you’re overrun with dandelions? Eat them (and make some wine)! 
The boys and I got picking and we gathered a large bowl full of dandelion flowers for wine and cookies, plus some greens for a decoction. I grabbed some roots, too, but then I read that you’re supposed to harvest those in fall, so my dried and roasted dandelion root coffee substitute is on hold.
The recipes I used called for the petals only, so we sat down to a long session of “second picking”.
The cookies called for 1/2 cup of petals, the rest went into the gallon crock for wine. This crock belonged to my mother and her mother before her.
My wine recipe was from the book Dandelion Medicine by Brigitte Mars. It’s really interesting book and I look forward to trying out more of the recipes. There are a great variety for both medicinal and culinary use. This humble “weed” is a veritable pharmacy in and of itself.
From Dandelion Medicine
Homemade Dandelion Wine Recipe
Dandelion wine, believed to be of Celtic origin, is regarded as one of the fine country wines of Europe. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was not proper for ladies to drink alcohol; however, dandelion flower wine was considered so therapeutic to the kidneys and digestive system that it was deemed medicinal even for the ladies.
Ingredients
3 quarts dandelion blossoms
1 gallon water
2 oranges, with peel
1 lemon, with peel
3 pounds sugar
1 ounce fresh yeast
1 pound raisins
Directions
1) Collect the blossoms when they are fully open on a sunny day. Remove any green parts; they will impair fermentation.
2) Bring the water to a boil and pour it over the flowers in a large pot. Cover and let steep for three days.
3) Peel and juice the oranges and the lemon, saving the peels and reserving the liquid. (Note: I used organic oranges and lemon, zested about half the skin off and cut the rest off in very thin strips to minimize the amount of white pith I added to the brew. I love, love, love my Microplane grater
4) Add the orange and lemon peel to the flower-water mixture and bring to a boil. (At this time I added only the zest.) Remove from heat, strain out solids, then add the sugar (I used one pound Florida Crystals and two pounds white sugar), stirring until it is dissolved. Allow to cool.
5) Add the orange and lemon juice (I added the slices), yeast, and raisins to the liquid. Put everything into a crock with a loose lid (so gas can escape) to ferment. (I covered it with a clean cotton towel held down by a rubber band.)
6) When the mixture has stopped bubbling (2 days to a week), fermentation is complete. Strain the liquid through several layers of cheesecloth (I think my jelly bags
I’m working on getting a video (with sound) of this fermenting. It sounds like a really big bowl of Rice Krispies. I’ll update later on the status of the “medicinal brew”.
For the cookies, I used a recipe from my friend Hannah at Preparing for Our Children’s Future.
Dandelion Flower Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
1⁄2 cup coconut oil
1⁄2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached, unbromated flour
1 cup dry oatmeal
1⁄2 cup dandelion flower petals
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 375.
2) Mix the oil and honey and then beat in the 2 eggs and vanilla.
3) Remove the yellow flower parts from the green parts (compost the green parts).
4) Stir in the flour, oatmeal, and dandelion flowers.
5) Drop the batter by tablespoonfuls onto an oiled cookie sheet.
6) Bake for 10-15 minutes.
7) Cool and enjoy!
I chopped some dandelion greens and made a decoction by pouring boiling water over them and letting them steep overnight.
In the morning I strained out the chunks and heated it up with a little honey to make it more palatable. (I can deal with sour much easier than bitter.) I have to say that I prefer my kombucha and coconut milk tonic much better.
Here’s a link to Dandelion Medicine on Amazon.com
Next posts in the series: Bottling the wine and tasting the wine.
Oh MY!! You were not kidding when you Facebooked about the Dandelions. Your yard looks like mine did last year – a sea of yellow. I'm going to keep this post book marked in case the second round of dandelions is big. The first round this spring was a lot but nothing like last year. Although I may keep ahead of them with the mowing since I am mowing and blowing the grass into long swaths to rake up and mulch the garden with this year.
I look forward to finding out how the wine tastes. Keep us posted.
It smells really nice now (three days in) – very floral and fruity. The initial aggressive bubbling that nearly forced the fruit out of the crock has subsided somewhat, but it is still very active.
ahhhhh you fixed it!!!! I'm so very glad I can leave a comment now!
Wow, you guys were really busy. It's funny since I started harvesting dandelions a few years ago….well, I had less go to seed and less dandelions in the yard now! I do allow some to go to seed in some safe places so I can have the greens.
I can't wait to hear how the wine taste! Love your crock!
Laurie, this is incredible. I have to repost this on Facebook. My goodness – amazing. I love how you involve your boys to help. Great pictures, Laurie.
lol, Jasmine – it sounds so exciting when you comment about it.
For us it's just a normal day playing in the weeds. One week in and the wine smells absolutely wonderful. It's going to be tough to wait six months to try it.
Why do you have to waite so long? I've made grape wine and it took 2 to 3 weeks for it to be ready to drink. I see it s been almost a year. How did it turn out?
Six months was the time recommended by the recipe. In my past experience, dandelion wine can be a little harsh on the palate and the flavor improves with age. For better or worse, I haven't tried it yet. Things have been a little crazy around here and we don't drink much, so I was hoping to hit it with some of my girlfriends, but it just hasn't happened yet. Soon!
How exciting! My front yard is covered in dandelions– now I know I can drink them. I am going to have to get out there to start harvesting right away.
Thanks for stopping by, Jennifer. I'm still waiting for this year's dandelions to get uncovered by the latest snowfall, but this post gives me hope.
Wow dandelion wine! Sure helps to have some helpers to pick all those dandelions and help clean them. I made it one year but was so worn out by it all I never managed it again–so far. It was fun and delicious though! Thanks so much for posting this project. I just love dandelions. We live in the city now so I have to be more careful foraging as there are so many dogs around!
Ewwwwwww! No dogs on our place, just cats. I do always examine the area before harvesting. maybe you could get together with a country friend to harvest. Many hands make light work.
I decided that since today was gorgeous with tons of dandelions, that I would try this recipe. I am currently steeping the petals
One thing I noticed… I've never made any kind of wine before, just kombucha, so I read the directions before going out to harvest. As I was picking the petals away from the greens, hours later my gallon jar was still only 1/3 full, and I thought, "Getting three quarts of petals is going to take me FOREVER!" Then I came back, reread your post, and stared at the pictures… finally I realized that the 3 quarts indicated the amount of blossoms BEFORE picking the petals off, oops, lol!
Since I picked so many dandelions, I decided to give up on plucking petals after I had half filled my gallon jar with them, and put the rest of the blossoms (which had shriveled up long before now) into a second gallon sized Jar. I know you said that greens retard the fermentation, but I want to try it anyway
Have a happy day!
Good luck, Roxanne. Just to warn you – the greens will make the resulting brew much more bitter. I hope you'll stop back and let me know how your brew turns out.
Hi… So my brew has steeped for three days, perhaps minus a few hours, lol, and today I noticed that both jars of steeping petals/flowers looked a tiny bit murky, and when I pulled off the lid to continue the recipe, they were bubbling slightly, and smelled unappealing, lol! I decided to come and ask you how it is supposed to smell after the 3 days of steeping. Keep in mind that they smelled like fermenting flowers, and I am sensitive to flowers, so that is probably why I thought they smelled "ugh!"
I added the peels, boiled for a bit, and then strained out the solids. Then I added sugar, and tasted. They both tasted like overly sugary herbal tea, and I couldn't tell the difference between the jar with the greens, and the jar without. I have labeled them so that if they do end up tasting different, I'll know which one, and why.
Lastly, despite reading the recipe several times, I still had it in my head that there was only a handful of raisins in each, and when I finally realized that there is a pound of raisins in each jar, I was like, "Whoa! I have to go buy more raisins!" lol. At least I have time before they are cool. I'm having fun with this recipe, thanks so much for posting it!
Lastly, have you ever made Dandelion Wine before? I noticed you mentioned you mom makes it too. Do you always make this same recipe? Have you played with the ingredient amounts? Also, in the instructions, you say add the peels, boil, and strain out the solids, but then in the pic, it looks like the peels are in the crockpot. Or did I misread that?
Have a happy day!
Roxanne
http://www.5degreesofweirdness.blogspot.com
If I remember correctly, the initial ferment at three days smelled exactly like you described – not something I'd want to drink, rather musty/foxy.
This was my first time making dandelion wine on my own. My mother used to make it when I was a little girl. I suspect there may still be some 30 year old wine in her basement. (She passed away in January 2010, and we hadn't made wine together in many years.) I couldn't get her recipe, but this is similar to what I remember.
The original instructions said to add all of the peelings, but you'll note I only added the zest during the boil. I did this because I remember my mom's recipe having peelings in it. I did trim most of the pith from the peelings I added with the fruit. The pile of ingredients with the cutting board is what went into the boiled and strained liquid.
I hope this answers your questions! It smells very yeasty as it brews, but it mellows over time.
Yes,
Thank you!
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Hello Laurie, this is awesome, my grandpa made many wines out of fruits, I was too little to remember what all he used but remember the large dijon glass bottles. I don’t know where to find fresh yeast, the grocery store don’t carry them no longer and I couldn’t find it at a health food store either. Any alternative? My grandma made Dandelion honey, made with blossoms and probably sugar, unfortunately I don’t have a recipe so need to google it, but I loved the taste, this wine must be awesome with the orange/lemon parts!!
By using just the petals and the zest, this version is a lot less “foxy” than the wine my mom used to make. I’ve got this year’s batch of petals steeping right now.
As for yeast, a good quality champagne yeast will work well. You can generally find that type of yeast at homebrewing stores if you have any in your area, or buy it online retailers, such as amazon.com. Here’s a link to a yeast variety I have used regularly – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00434CB74/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=commosensehom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00434CB74“>Red Star Champagne Yeast (10 Packs) Dried Yeast
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Hi there! Found your post from Fat Tuesday
It caught my eye because for the past 2 weeks I’ve been covering how to cook with dandelions over at my blog. I love the cookie idea, will definitely try it! With the flowers, I made muffins, a cream of dandelion soup, and some veggie burgers – also made other foods with the greens..this is such an amazingly versatile plant!
Anyways, here are the links in case you’re interested
Dandelions: Friend or Foe? Part 1 (Greens)
Dandelions: Friend or Foe? Part 2 (Flowers)
Sarah – thanks for sharing the links. Be sure to stop back later in the week for Wildcrafting Wednesday. These types of posts would be a great addition to the blog hop.