Dandelion Root

[lynda66]

lmao di that's brilliant, i've hidden lots of things in food but that's a new one

[Snadger]

Time for a little story I think I've related before, but here goes.............

Once upon a time in a far off land (Consett) there was a steelman who was made redundant.....Aaaaaarh!

Because he didn't have a job he set to and cultivated his MIL's large council house garden. It was full of dandelions, big ones with big roots.

After looking at the six sacks of dandelions for a while a lightbulb suddenly appeared above his head and the idea was hatched! "I'll try and make some coffee from the roots ses he!!!!"

After duly drying loads of roots in the oven he powdered them up and put them in jars.

It has to be said, they weren't a half bad coffee substitute.

Because a lot of the 5000+ ex steelworkers were quite destitute ( He was reasonably well off becuaue he got a handsome severance pay off to live on) there was regular meetings where the worst off recieved food hampers and food vouchers. At one of these meetings I mentioned jokingly to an ex work colleague that I was having to make my own coffee from dandelion roots!

Anyway.............a couple of days past and converstaion was forgotten about.

One afternoon there was a knock on the door and on opening the door at first I thought the kids had been playing 'Knocky nine door' knocking on the door then legging it!
On looking down I sees this little street urchin with short trousers mucky face and a big grin on his face. He was standing with a huge jar of nescafe and pipes up " Me Da sent you this" A bit quizzed I thanked him and took the jar inside. Mentioned it to OH and she said "How strange"

It wasn't until a couple of hours later that the penny dropped. My old mucker who was much worse off than I was had thought I was so destitute I had to make my own coffee!

In retrospect it was good to see people sticking together in adversity.

Sorry for such a long post but there's a tear in my eye now as old memories are re-kindled!

Nowt the matter with dandelion coffee!

[Polly Fouracre]

If mixed half and half with real coffee you would hardly know the difference, especially if the dandelion is roasted twice, once before and once after grinding. This takes away a lot of the bitterness. I used to do lots of things like this when we were poor and lived seven miles from the nearest shops with no transport and shall do again as poor Jim has been made redundant.
I still have all my recipes and will happily share them.

[Chillimad]

If mixed half and half with real coffee you would hardly know the difference, especially if the dandelion is roasted twice, once before and once after grinding. This takes away a lot of the bitterness. I used to do lots of things like this when we were poor and lived seven miles from the nearest shops with no transport and shall do again as poor Jim has been made redundant.
I still have all my recipes and will happily share them.

Sorry to hear that Jim has been made redundant.

If you would not mind sharing the recipes I would be so greatfull ?..

[Flummery]

It's the leaves that make you moisten the sheets I believe - not the coffee. I rather liked it in a an 'almost, but not quite totally unlike coffee' sort of way.

[Hilary B]

The only parts of a dandelion that can't be turned into food or drink are the flower-stalk and the seeds. Flower HEADS are the basis of a nice wine; Roots can be roasted for a 'instead of coffee' drink (yes, it tastes much better if you are NOT expecting coffee flavour) or boiled as a root veg; Young leaves are good in salad (bitter, but not unpleasantly so) and even older leaves CAN be eaten, cooked (not sure what they taste like). It IS a mild diuretic, but then so is coffee.....

[Snadger]

The only parts of a dandelion that can't be turned into food or drink are the flower-stalk and the seeds. Flower HEADS are the basis of a nice wine; Roots can be roasted for a 'instead of coffee' drink (yes, it tastes much better if you are NOT expecting coffee flavour) or boiled as a root veg; Young leaves are good in salad (bitter, but not unpleasantly so) and even older leaves CAN be eaten, cooked (not sure what they taste like). It IS a mild diuretic, but then so is coffee.....

We used to use the stalks for very small pea shooters (Used to finish up with black lips!) or by splitting the ends and blowing making a sound like someone who has been eating Jerusalem Artichokes!

[Snadger]

If mixed half and half with real coffee you would hardly know the difference, especially if the dandelion is roasted twice, once before and once after grinding. This takes away a lot of the bitterness. I used to do lots of things like this when we were poor and lived seven miles from the nearest shops with no transport and shall do again as poor Jim has been made redundant.
I still have all my recipes and will happily share them.

Sorry to hear about Jim's redundancy. Hope my rhetoric wasn't thought of as being flippant. Redundancy is no joke I know!

[Chillimad]

Time for a little story I think I've related before, but here goes.............

Once upon a time in a far off land (Consett) there was a steelman who was made redundant.....Aaaaaarh!

Because he didn't have a job he set to and cultivated his MIL's large council house garden. It was full of dandelions, big ones with big roots.

After looking at the six sacks of dandelions for a while a lightbulb suddenly appeared above his head and the idea was hatched! "I'll try and make some coffee from the roots ses he!!!!"

After duly drying loads of roots in the oven he powdered them up and put them in jars.

It has to be said, they weren't a half bad coffee substitute.

Because a lot of the 5000+ ex steelworkers were quite destitute ( He was reasonably well off becuaue he got a handsome severance pay off to live on) there was regular meetings where the worst off recieved food hampers and food vouchers. At one of these meetings I mentioned jokingly to an ex work colleague that I was having to make my own coffee from dandelion roots!

Anyway.............a couple of days past and converstaion was forgotten about.

One afternoon there was a knock on the door and on opening the door at first I thought the kids had been playing 'Knocky nine door' knocking on the door then legging it!
On looking down I sees this little street urchin with short trousers mucky face and a big grin on his face. He was standing with a huge jar of nescafe and pipes up " Me Da sent you this" A bit quizzed I thanked him and took the jar inside. Mentioned it to OH and she said "How strange"

It wasn't until a couple of hours later that the penny dropped. My old mucker who was much worse off than I was had thought I was so destitute I had to make my own coffee!

In retrospect it was good to see people sticking together in adversity.

Sorry for such a long post but there's a tear in my eye now as old memories are re-kindled!

Nowt the matter with dandelion coffee!

Thanks for that Snadger,,,,, Well shall be trying it, going to, start dandelion hunting at the weekend, after the ham is started :-),, thankyou for a positive answer