Still clearing out summer detritus and planting seeds! Put more parsnip, cylindra beet and parsely seeds in, hopefully capitalizing on the rainy weather. Wild dandelions are all over the beds and paths, thank goodness.
Time for lunch.....
Either pull up or cut off tops of dandelions. If you pull them up, cut off the root and throw it back in the beds to decompose, the long tap root pulls minerals up from deeper in the soil and so is a rod of ~fertilizer (or so I've read).
If you leave the root in the ground and cut the greens off at the top of the root, they will regrow (this is a good thing). References say the greens will be too tough if the plant has flowered, but for spring or fall harvested greens it doesn't seem to matter.
Sautee onions and a small piece of finely diced bacon, a little olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper in a cast iron skillet until the onions are soft and golden. Remove from the pan and reserve. Add chopped dandelion greens (twist off the narrow ends of the stems before chopping) to the pan with some salt and just enough water to almost cover. Cover the pan and simmer till tender (~5-10 min) then remove the cover, raise the heat and boil off the water. When the water is gone add the onion/bacon back to the pan and cook for another min to mix the flavors. Remove from the pan and sprinkle with a little red wine vinegar.
I had mine with some left over 'Forbidden rice' (a black variety) and some raw cashews.
Cultivated dandelions would also be great cooked this way.
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