I interviewed Wendy Pope who is a successful micro farmer and gardener. How I love the term micro farm. She spoke about an unusual crop she is very excited about: the humble dandelion. Wendy has a great love of nature and a deep knowledge of natural cycles.
Dandelions are a short-lived perennial plant which is nice to have in the vegetable garden as it means you do not have to start every last thing from seed in the spring. Wendy has about fifty dandelions, not common ones but a broad-leaved hybrid. She finds dandelions greens are excellent for a whole range of domesticated animals and they are also a very nutritious green for humans.
In fact, we think of the dandelion as a weed now but our ancestors brought the dandelion from Europe as a food and medicinal plant. Dandelions are not native to the Americas, coming from Asia and Europe.
Dandelions live for about five to seven years and when they die, their tap root decomposes enriching the surface soil. The dandelions grow bigger every year and simply love to be loved, side dressed with compost and watered. You can get tons of greens of such a plant and they are far more nutritious than lettuce.
The greens go well in soups and can be steamed and eaten with some butter or chili oil. They are good added to stir fries. The roots can be dug up, cleaned, peeled and chopped to make a nutritious vinegar. Leave the chopped roots in the vinegar for a couple of months and strain. Use the vinegar to make vinaigrette. Making your own salad dressing is vastly cheaper and more nutritious than buying commercially-prepared vinaigrette.
The roots can also be cleaned, chopped, roasted and ground into a very clean and wholesome coffee substitute. Dandelion has been used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for over a thousand years. It is used to treat stomach problems, and a lack of lactation. In Europe, herbalists use dandelion to treat fever, boils, eye problems, diabetes and other problems. The leaves act as a diuretic and stimulate the appetite and improve digestion.
I was put off from eating the leaves as the references talk about them being bitter but this is only the older leaves which can be given to small livestock such as rabbits, sheep and goats. I find the leaves of Wendy’s plants to be very mild and palatable. Pigeons, chickens and ducks all love dandelion leaves too.
One of the great advantages of cultivating dandelions is that they come up very early in the spring and their flowers are the first major source of nectar for the pollinators. The flowers also make a good vinegar. Just fill a jar with the blossoms and cover them with apple-cider vinegar and steep for four to six weeks, strain and use as a salad vinegar. The flowers are also good fried, made into pesto and eaten in a salad. Dandelion wine is flavoured with the petals of dandelion flowers and while I haven’t tried it, it is on the list for next year.
Another great benefit of dandelions is that they are really tough plants and can survive our cold winters and dry summers. With just a little care, they will provide tons of food for your family. Wendy will have young plants to share with interested gardeners in the fall. Wendy will also have lots of seeds to give away.
With any salad plant, you do not want to take more than a third of the leaves at once. More than that, and the plant has a hard time recovering. Dandelion greens contain vitamins A, B, C and D. They also are high in minerals especially iron, potassium and zinc.
Wendy explained that her approach to micro farming is that she wants to have a mutually beneficial relationship with the place that she lives. This all stems from Wendy’s desire, which started a few decades ago, “to do something attainable, pleasurable and enriching with my life instead of being caught up in capitalism.”
Most mornings, I go and harvest an armload of Wendy’s dandelions to feed to my poultry. They are so happy and excited to get this food and it makes the yolks of their eggs a terrific shade of orange. Dandelions are the perfect plant to start with when teaching young children to forage. There are many interesting and educational projects that can be done with little kids and dandelions.
