Culinary Uses: Leaves are used as a vegetable or raw in salads. Flowers used to make wine, buds are pickled, or boiled and served with butter, or battered and fried. Roots are peeled, boiled and sauteed as a vegetable, or roasted and ground as a coffee substitute. Medicinal Uses: Leaves are a powerful diuretic and are also used for the treatment of acne and eczema. They are an excellent detoxifier and a tonic for the liver, gallbladder and kidneys. They treat urinary infections, prostate enlargement, rheumatism, gout, diabetes. Good for food allergy sufferers. White sap treats warts, corns. Dandelion root helps both the kidneys and the liver to improve elimination. Root reduces blood pressure and inflammation and is a liver stimulant. Frequently used in the treatment of diabetes, water retention, poor digestion and liver problems, including hepatitis. Dandelion Coffee Gather dandelion roots in autumn. Cut into rings about 2cm thick. Dry in the sun on trays during the day, but bring them indoors during the night. When completely dry, roast in a hot oven (200�C) for 20 minutes. Put through a coffee bean grinder or in a blender and store in an airtight jar. Use the same way as instant coffee. Dandelion leaves can become tough and bitter when old. To keep them sweeter for salads and teas, remove the older leaves, then cover the plants with a box to keep out the light for several days before using the fresh young leaves. Warning: May cause bed wetting in children from excessive handling. (One of its common names is 'Pis-en-lit/Wet-the-Bed.) Use with caution, and under medicinal supervision, if suffering from gallstones, stomach ulcer or gastritis. The milky latex in the stem and leaves of fresh dandelion may cause an allergic rash in some individuals. May cause heartburn or diarrhoea in some people.

In PA Dutch cookery, dandelion greens have a tradition as a spring tonic and a welcome harbinger of all the other greens to come. Most often, they are served as a salad, either with a dressing of heavy cream or mayonnaise, cider vinegar, sugar and mustard or wilted by a sweet-sour hot bacon dressing. Since custom dictates that the plants can only be picked and eaten before the flower buds appear, there is about a two week period when it seems as if every rural church and volunteer fire company is having a ham and dandelion fund raising dinner at the same time. Bob, I'd definitely like to try them prepared they way you suggested when ours appear. Thank you for the idea.

Welcome to the club! I've been making beer and wine for probably 20 years now. I started with beer but find wine an easy brew. In years past I've made several grape, rhubarb, apple, and the famous elderberry. I highly recommend those think about giving it a try do so. You can start with a gallon of apple juice which might even come in a glass gallon jug! Get the kind without preservatives. A cork and bubble lock like you see in Gardengrl's are only about $2-3. A cup of corn sugar (dextrose) per gallon will up the alcohol content to a reasonable level. Wine yeast is only a few cents per packet. Buy a simple instuction manual and your bottles won't explode. Forget Grandpa's way... he plowed his fields with a horse. There are better ways now. My favorite thing about homemade wine is that I can leave the sulfates out! Shelf life is reduced and you have to bottle it dry. I like dry wine and appreciate not having a pickled stomach from the sulfates. Not that I don't enjoy a nice claret but it would be nice if France (or Italy or Germany or whoever) could ship it over the ocean without chemicals. When in the mood I sweeten my wine glass by glass with pop or juice... plain water makes an excellent mixer! Great post Gardengrl! Got me thinking about the grapes I see growing out in my field. Five gallons of apple-blueberry being "inspected" by Luna Looski as I was getting ready to bottle and cork it in regular wine bottles. A magical picture because my cats never get on the counter.... Lulu probably Photoshopped herself in the pic? A cheater wine because the apple juice was store bought and the blueberries dry. : ) lyra

I've tried making wine I have my Grandfathers dandelion wine recipe that is great but I like to make cordials, my brother & sister inlaw, sister & brother inlaw, and I and my husband get together and make all kinds of cordials we call ourselves the Cordial Queens (our Dad named us) try the Amaretto recipe below 5 cups sugar 4 cups water boil til clear take this mixture and cool cool cool this is important add 3 oz almond extract 1 pint apricot brandy gallon 100 proof vodka you can drink it right away but the longer it sits the better, really good after 2 years (I found a bottle I forgot I had) I rememeber one time our group made 52 fifths of our coffee drink then split it up between us- whats even funnier is I don't even drink but it makes great gifts.