Eat the Dandelions

Spring is the season of flowers, rebirth, planting, and so many other wonderful things. I’ve also come to notice that it’s the season for people to talk about bees. As a forager, a gardener, and an environmentally concerned citizen of the planet, I am very happy when the general public also remembers that bees are important. Since they play a key role in most of our food production, bees and other pollinators are vital to our survival so we are right to be concerned about protecting their food sources and habitat.

This concern for the bees gets demonstrated in all sorts of ways. Just today I was shopping and samples of Honey Nut Cheerios were being given out (very difficult to eat that sample as you’re pushing your shopping cart), along with packets of sunflower seeds to plant to ‘save the bees’. They even changed the design on their box to show a blank silhouette where the cartoon bee would be, to remind you that your beloved breakfast cereal is dependent on the bees not going missing. This is all well and good - even practical by giving out the sunflower seed mix to plant.

The most common thing I’ve noticed these days is that people demonstrate their care for the bees in the same way they do for almost everything else: hitting ‘share’ on a Facebook meme.

I’m sure you’ve seen these kinds of posts. They usually make the rounds on social media this time of year saying something like:

“Dandelions are the first food for bees in the spring. Don‘t spray them with pesticides! ”

— Random Meme on Facebook

This concern for the environment is great, but can we find better ways of expressing it than just sharing a Facebook post? I see this kind of thing all the time for all sorts of issues - and occasionally I’ll share some things that I find important too - but I hope that I can also say I’m working in other ways to make a positive change in my world than just clicking one button online. In the end, I do hope that people are discouraged from spraying weed killer, and if the Facebook posts are helping that’s great.

There has been an offshoot of this making it’s way into conversations about foraging.

I still have so much to learn about foraging, but over the past few years the humble dandelion and I have developed what you might call a relationship. We’re both descended from European transplants, and have naturalized here in North America. I let them grow in/near my garden, and they grow huge (I take care of my soil) and feed me. You can eat the entire plant from flower to root, and it’s all delicious. I’ve written here about using them in pesto, and also adding them to egg noodles. All this doesn’t even mention the role they play in bringing beneficial insects to my plants. Basically, I love the dandelion. It really might be my favourite plant.

Bracelet is the sterling silver spoon bracelet from my shop.

There is a ‘rule of thirds’ in foraging - meaning that you take no more than a third of any given thing when you find it, and leave the rest to serve it’s purpose in nature. Exceptions would apply for invasive species (take it all), and the rare ones (take none). This sometimes gets combined with the advice about leaving the dandelions unsprayed for the bees, and people get very vocal (usually on the comments section on social media and blogs) about making sure you leave some dandelion blossoms for the bees when you pick some for yourself.

While there is nothing really harmful in this advice, I maintain that - for dandelions - it’s not really necessary. Dandelions are by no means the first or only food for bees in early spring. Here in Kamloops they are only just blooming, but the bees have been out and about foraging for a few weeks already. Don’t forget that dandelions are imports from Europe, so before they were here the pollinators had to have something available to survive until settlers brought them over! Dandelions are plentiful, and definitely valuable for many insect species (not just bees), but you’re not going to endanger the bees by picking too many of their blossoms. They also have a very long blooming season, and send up several flowering stalks at a time so even if you did pick every blossom you saw another would be waiting to shoot up and replace it.

I also don’t appreciate adding unnecessary barriers to people enjoying the nature around them. Dandelions are easy to identify and have no toxic lookalikes, so I like to encourage people who want to learn about foraging to start there. I wouldn’t want them to read one of those comments and feel unsure of whether or not they should pick them.

If those Facebook memes convince people to appreciate this amazing little plant that is awesome. Please don’t take this to mean that I approve of people using broadleaf herbicides on their yards. I just like to correct misinformation where I can. I also feel that encouraging people to eat the dandelions will discourage them from spraying them.

I’ll leave you with some encouragement to pick and eat dandelions without worrying about if you are destroying a fragile ecosystem. Enjoy them! They are as healthy and delicious as they are cheery and bright.

Flower Foraging and How to Make a Salve for Bumps and Burns

Something I have been expanding on in my foraging repertoire this year is the amount of flowers (edible or medicinal) that I collect.  I have been reading a lot about the benefits of flowers like yarrow, red clover, arnica, and even daisies, and have been making a point of taking bunches home whenever we walk around the block.  It is surprising how many useful flowers grow on the roadside in my neighbourhood!

Some might argue that you might want to avoid roadside foraging because of the pollution from passing cars.  I agree that it is not exactly ideal, but my street is fairly quiet, so I'm comfortable with it.  I also feel like this alienates a lot of people who might want to try foraging but who live in urban environments.  I think as long as you know that there are some potential downsides you can decide if you are comfortable with them or not.

One of my main reasons for foraging more flowers this year was that I wanted to try to make a few medicinal items for my pantry.  My first attempt came out really well, so I thought I'd share it with you!  I read that daisies and dandelions are really good flowers for aches, pains, bumps, bruises, bug bites, and burns so I decided to go with them.  Also they are really common flowers, so that helped make this doable! Apparently arnica is also really amazing for this purpose, but I didn't find any until after I made this one.  I have since located and picked some, and it is infusing in oil as I type!  

The dandelions infused in olive oil over a few weeks, the daisies I quick infused with coconut oil on the stovetop (I chose this method because I was out of time, and also because I only had solid coconut oil and I needed to melt it.  The other ingredients were beeswax from a local apiary, and some lavender essential oil.  This is one I have had for quite a while that I just bought at the store.  Something therapeutic grade would be better for this purpose, but I didn't want to spend any extra until I knew if this would work!

The verdict is - it's awesome!  I tried this out as a massage oil for a sore back, on bug bites, on sunburn, and I feel comfortable recommending it as something worth making.  Now, if you need medical attention for your condition, this is not going to replace pharmaceutical drugs or anything.  It's not going to cure you of anything, but it will help alleviate some minor symptoms and it's worth having in the medicine cabinet.

One important thing to note is that this is not recommended for open wounds.  I am going to be trying another salve with yarrow (featured in many of these photos) that will be more suited for something like that.  I am also going to be making a cough syrup with the red clover I gathered, so stick around if you like homemade herbal remedies!