The Cordial Forager: Taming the Wild Dandelion
by Cait Johnson

My boyfriend and I were perpetually hungry in college because the cafeteria food was beyond disgusting: tasteless Mystery Meat, ersatz powdered mashed potatoes, veggies boiled to a uniform gray. So when we discovered Euell Gibbons's Stalking the Wild Asparagus we set out, armed with a pair of scissors and growling stomachs, to search the sandy soil around our watery campus in search of some. Miraculously, we actually bagged about eight spears, and we also managed to catch a few meager catfish with a rudimentary pole and some freshly-dug earthworms. We cleaned the fish in our dorm sink, dipped them in instant grits, and fried them in our electric popcorn popper. The asparagus we ate raw. It was one of the best meals of my life—and this was before I learned about all the other edible greens we could have feasted on.

If you're concerned about the toxins, inferior nutrition, disastrous environmental implications, and sheer tastelessness of food from the Factory Farm, gathering your own greens presents a refreshing alternative: foraged greens are, as herbalist Susun Weed tells us, bursting with vitamins and minerals. They taste lively, and—like splitting your own firewood which warms you twice, once in the chopping and again in the burning—they offer health benefits two ways: in the gathering and in the eating.

According to Patience Gray's Honey From a Weed (a rollicking memoir in food from her years traipsing around Naxos, Sardinia, and Tuscany with a marble sculptor), weeds were once a primary health component of the Mediterranean diet, until widespread herbicide use ruined the party. Several years ago, an intrusive lawn company rep insisted he comb our yard for noxious weeds, intending to alarm me enough, no doubt, to sign up for his Pounds-o'-Toxins Kill-'em service. Little did he know that a friend of mine was apprenticing with the aforementioned Susun Weed at the time. Having heard all about the nutritional wonders of weeds, I greeted the lawn man's long list with excitement rather than dismay.

Chances are there are dozens of delicious things growing quietly in your yard, too, just waiting to be noticed, gathered, and enjoyed in the form of salads, sautés with olive oil and garlic, or cordials with a healthy kick. You too can be a cordial forager, as long as you avoid the following: 1) areas less than six feet from major roadways (so you won't get heavy metals along with your greens); 2) areas soiled or sullied by animals; 3) areas treated with pesticides or herbicides. For most of us, this means simply sticking to our own backyards.

While edible possibilities are legion, you can't go wrong with the stalwart and ever-so-common dandelion, easily recognized with its toothed leaves and perky yellow flowers, followed closely by the granny's head of seedy white fluff. Celebrated worldwide for its healing properties, loaded with vitamin A beta-carotenes, lots of immune-boosting C, B-complex, and liver-loving choline, dandelion is known to promote liver function, kidney and bladder health, digestion, and overall vitality. Plus, stooping and picking on a sunny day is gentle pleasant exercise. So grab a basket and head out to your favorite dandelion patch to make any of the following recipes.

Dandelion Salad
Gather a handful of fresh young leaves per person. Give them a quick plunge in a cold water bath, then shake or spin dry. Add any or all of the following to the salad (or just serve the dandelion leaves solo): Lettuce, chopped scallions, violet flowers, garlic mustard, snipped chives, hard-cooked egg, nasturtium flowers, fresh mint leaves, chopped walnuts or pistachios, croutons. Dress simply with a squeeze of fresh lemon and a little olive oil whisked into an emulsion with the possible addition of a pressed garlic clove and some sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper. Serve immediately.

Dandelion Delight
Gather 1 packed cup of young fresh leaves per person and chop coarsely. Cook in boiling water 5 to 15 minutes, to taste, then drain. Finish in a hot skillet with any or all of the following: olive oil, sesame oil, butter, tamari, Bragg's seasoning, pressed garlic, minced shallots, chopped red onion, chopped nuts.

Dandelion Cordial
Part of the joy of this recipe is the process of picking sunny yellow flowers on a gorgeous spring day. It's especially fun to do with a sweetheart: remembering all that mutual affection and the beauty of the day will add to your pleasure when you enjoy the results weeks later. Dandelion Cordial is actually a good liver tonic and beneficial for the complexion.

You will need a lidded jar and some fairly good-quality vodka (although you could experiment with other alcohols—brandy or Irish whisky, for instance.) Fill your jar with yellow dandelion flowers. Fill again with vodka. Close lid tightly and keep in a cool place, shaking vigorously once a day. After two to six weeks, strain out the flowers, squeezing them firmly to release as much of the liquid as possible. Pour the liquid into a honey jar with an inch or so of honey in the bottom (this is a dandy way to use up leftover honey after it has crystallized in the jar) and shake vigorously. The concoction may be drunk neat, on the rocks, or in hot tea with a little lemon.

If you want to explore the myriad other edible possibilities lurking in your backyard, invest in a good field guide to edible weeds. And for health and nutrition information delivered in a fun format, check out Susun Weed's Healing Wise.