Wild edibles sometimes seem so... complicated. You have to find the time and the place to forage for your foods, you have to hit the season just right, you have to have good plant identification skills. While wild foods and foraging bring me great joy, it's not likely going to be something that everyone will want to jump in on full-force.
You're busy. I get it. But you are also curious. (Right?) So I thought maybe we'd take this wild edibles conversation down to perhaps its simplest incarnation. A plant that I daresay everyone reading this knows. The loved/loathed dandelion.
Much to the chagrin of our neighbors, we have a healthy crop of robust yellow flowers throughout our lawn. I'm guessing you do, too. Did you know that the leaves, flowers, and roots all have edible and/or medicinal value? Its true!
The kids and I whipped up a quick and easy batch of dandelion fritters using a variation of the recipe we found here. (We modified it by using freshly ground spelt flour.)
Sage picked a few dozen dandelion flower heads while Lupine and I made the batter. Then we dipped them in the batter and cooked them up like tiny pancakes. The flipping of all those flower-sized pancakes is the only time consuming part of the project, and Sage was a faithful flipper. I dipped, he flipped.
And the taste? Yum. Without reservation the kids (and adults) gobbled them up. The recipe was so quick, so simple, so wild from our yard. Very satisfying. (Sage was almost impossible to photograph. In his words"I can't stop eating them. They are too good!")
So before you fire up the lawnmower this weekend, give it a whirl. It's easy. And quick. I promise!
