Dandelion tea

Sweet, yellow and fragrant...ahh...the dandelion.  Tea, that is.  

Most gardeners have probably spent hours wrestling with dandelion roots, trying to pull out these pesky weeds that grow everywhere.  Well, if you knew how good the roots are, you might realise you have a goldmine of herbal goodness growing free in your garden.  Good for your health - and best of all, good to drink and very easy to make

It's all about timing, they say, and that's the case for digging up the roots.  Autumn is your chosen season as it's the time when the sap and Qi is all drawn down into the root.  You can spend the other seasons keeping an eye out for good spray free harvesting locations!

Some nice wet weather before you go out to harvest helps get the roots out of the ground.  

When you get your booty home, next comes the labour intensive part:  washing.  Cut the tops off and toss the roots in a bucket, then rinse with water till most of the mud comes off. I find this best to do at an outside tap to avoid clogging your sink, and an old dishscrubbing brush helps to get stubborn bits off.  Then I take them into the kitchen and trim off any dud bits.  

When the roots are looking nice and clean, chop them into pieces (.5 - 1cm long), and put in a blender. Blend until finely minced.  If you don't have a blender, you could just use a knife and chop them very finely.  This technique has an added advantage of saving you gym membership fees as you will build your arm strength at the same time.

Put the minced root into a baking tray and put under the grill.  

Now for the fun part!  Toast under the grill, stirring regularly.  If you leave it too long and it starts to burn a little, it doesn't really matter, just stir it in. The chopped root will gradually steam, dry, and go golden brown.  An amazing aroma of deliciousness will fill the air and your life will never be the same again.  

The fully dried & roasted root seems to last indefinitely in a sealed container...or maybe not that long once you taste it :)