Dandelion Days

The other day Nutmeg remarked that we had so many dandelions that we should send some to Grandma so she could have some too. So Nutmeg called her to let her know.

Meanwhile I had remembered Elizabeth making dandelion syrup with her girls. So we looked up the recipe and tried it ourselves. We liked it. We only had two cups of sugar, so we just made half a batch.

We'll do this again when we get to Dd in her alphabet garden. D is for dandelion. We'll read some dandelion picture books and maybe use dandelion in some other recipes. They are super healthy you know. I have my eye on this book for some recipes.

It's always helpful to have a couple of superheroes around, ya know.

While we were out, we decided to visit the neighbors.

Counting, counting.

Simmering.

The next morning: simmering with sugar and lemon juice.

Viola! 

It was tasty my oatmeal this morning. I'm sure it will be great in tea too. The kids liked it right off the spoon ! :)

Dandelion Syrup

250 Dandelion tops (yep, count em!)

the juice of 1 lemon

4 cups of water

2 pounds of sugar (about equal to 4 cups of granulated sugar)

In a large pot on the stove, stir the dandelion tops with the 4 cups water, bring to a boil and then cover and simmer 1 hour. Cool and allow the dandelion tea to continue to steep in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, strain the tops, reserving all the tea. Mix the tea with the sugar and the lemon juice. Simmer, stirring occasionally, on the stovetop, until the water evaporates and you have syrup. A froth will form on the top of the syrup. Turn off the heat and allow the syrup to cool completely. it will thicken as it cools.