Dandelions

By Rebecca Sornson

It’s been just over a month since I arrived at Salt Water Farm. I came on April Fool’s Day, driving up from Connecticut in my little green Oldsmobile Achieva, which I bought for $500 when I returned to the States after farming for a time in the Virgin Islands.  My almost-sixteen-year-old sister, Molly, refuses to ride in it, claiming it to be far too hideous. I offered to give it to her for Christmas. She said she’d rather walk.

Several days before I drove to Maine, I flew to Connecticut from Hawaii where I had been taking an ethnobotany class. Ethnobotany is the study of how plants affect people and how people affect plants.  Since we all eat plants, wear plants, build stuff from plants, and make medicine out of plants, ethnobotany is relevant and wildly interesting if you ask a plant geek like me.

In Hawaii, many of the important plants used for food, fiber, medicine, and fuel were brought by Polynesian explorers. These plants included banana, coconut, yam, and cassava. They were called canoe plants because they were brought on the beautiful double hulled canoes that the Polynesians sailed to Hawaii. These Polynesian explorers were not unique in toting along their survival plants. For most of human history, whenever we have traveled somewhere new, we have brought along the seeds of plants which will hopefully help us survive in our new environment. Africans, in the process of being captured and forced into ships bound for the Americas, would braid seeds into their hair and thus these braids became called corn rows.

I brought a bag full of seeds in my Oldsmobile but mostly just because I couldn’t resist the charm of the Comstock Ferre Seed Company in Wethersfield, CT. I knew that I didn’t need to bring seeds to Maine to survive. My survival plants were already there, brought along by my European ancestors in the 1600s and 1700s. Sure enough, when I arrived, the first plant that I met was a pretty spring ephemeral called coltsfoot. A classic lung medicine, the coltsfoot leaf was etched on the door of European apothecaries to let people know that there was medicine inside.

Many people mistake coltsfoot for it’s more familiar cousin, taraxacum officinale or my friend, dandelion. In mid-coast Maine, dandelions shoot up their flowery yellow heads in mid-April. Like coltsfoot, dandelion was brought to America by Europeans for its vast culinary and medicinal uses. Dandelions quite liked their new environment and shot across America like wildfire. Apparently, Native Americans knew when European colonists were getting close because dandelions would begin growing in their fields and along the edges of their forests.

Dandelion root

Dandelions are tastiest in the early spring when their toothy leaves are still tender. Here at Salt Water Farm, we’ve been eating dandelions like crazy. First before they flowered, we ate dandelion greens in pesto. Then, we started eating dandelion salads. Their bitter leaves are rendered quite delicious with the addition of a honeyed vinaigrette. We’ve eaten them lightly sauteed with bacon. Also tasty. We’ve fried them, turning the blossoms into delicate fritters. (Check out Tuesday’s recipe post). We’ve put dandelion greens on pizza, and yesterday, I put three gallons of dandelion wine into a carboy to ferment for a few months. Apparently, in the depths of winter, when it’s ready to drink, it will taste like liquid sunshine. I haven’t spent a winter in Maine yet, but I grew up in Michigan so if the winters are anything alike, I think a glass of liquid sunshine in February will be mighty wonderful.

Dandelion wine fermenting

Medicinally, dandelions target the liver and the kidneys. Due to their bitter qualities, they help the liver kick into gear, clearing the body from any winter stagnation. The roots are sometimes ground up and used as a coffee substitute. I dried some last week after weeding the garden. Ladleah wanted to eat them like dandelion chips.

Today, it’s rainy and gray as I look out the window at the ocean. The dandelions are all closed up, protecting their golden blossoms from the rain. Even though I can’t see their smiling faces, I’m glad that they are there, easing my transition into a new life at Salt Water Farm. Hooray for the adventurous human spirit and the plants that help us along the way.

Dandelion Green Pesto

4 cups dandelion greens
2 lemons, juiced
1 cup almonds
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated, hard cheese such as pecorino romano

Place almonds, lemon juice, olive oil, optional cheese, and salt in a food processor and process until blended. Then add greens through the top while the food processor is still running and process until the greens are completely incorporated. Enjoy with crusty bread.