Dandelions: Best Food in Town!

Everyone remembers their children bringing bouquet of dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) home. I used to put them in a little vase on the dinner table. The kids were so proud and happy to see their flowers displayed in such an elegant manner...that they would hunt for them on every yard in the neighborhood!

Dandelions are essential in the honey bees' diet . They are an indicator that the honey bee season is starting. In fact, they are the first flowers that the honey bees will see in the spring. In Minnesota the first dandelion blooms can be seen around the first week of May.

When the Mayflower left Plymouth England with its English Separatists (Pilgrims) and arrived to Plymouth MA in 1620, not one dandelion could be found or seen on this new discovered land. It is then that this misunderstood plant has been introduced to America by European immigrants which used dandelions as part of their every day diet. What is under appreciated about this medicinal plant is the fact that every part of the dandelion is edible. For instance, these new comers roasted the roots to use as a caffeine free type of coffee; the leaves were toss together to make salad greens, and the flowers were boiled to make wine!

Even if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to treat the dandelion as a weed, it has remarkable values. It has good sources of calcium, potassium ,vitamin A and C, protein, fat, carbohydrates, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus and iron. It has almost as much iron as spinach and 4 times the vitamin A. In addition, did you know that a serving of dandelion greens has much calcium as half a cup of milk!

The earliest mention of dandelion is obscure but Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) wrote about it in his Naturalis Historia published in AD 77-79. The dandelion has also been recognized as an effective diuretic, helps in the prevention of urinary infections, and cleans the liver. Later, the Chinese herbalists recorded its use in AD 659.

Its peculiar name originates from France during the Medieval era : Dent de Lion ( lion's tooth) because of the distinctive jagged edges of the leaves.

So, next time take a different look at the dandelion and smile!