Golden “weeds” for “Dandy” coffee

DANDELION COFFEE RECIPE

• Collect in spring or fall, some Dandelion big roots (much easier in tender soil)

• Wash them under water.

• Do not remove their brown skin.

• Chop them in small pieces.

• Roast them in the oven for about 2 to 2.5 hours at 250 F. You can turn them over while in the oven.

• Remove from the oven when crisp and dark brown like coffee. It should smell very good in your kitchen.

• Grind the baked roots as you would with normal coffee

• Use a regular coffee filter in a coffee machine.

• Serve black, or with milk, cream, sugar or honey.

• Also nice in the summer as iced coffee.

Now, after all those efforts, you are enjoying your healthy, local and Fair Trade coffee in your favourite cup, sitting in a comfortable armchair. You are dreaming and thinking: What time is it? Will it rain tomorrow during our barbecue party? Am I loved? Dandelions can give you the answers:

What time is it? "The dandelion is called the rustic oracle; its flowers always open about 5 A.M. and shut at 8 P.M., serving the shepherd for a clock." F. Chamberlain

Will it rain ? (it's true!) "The dandelion is an excellent barometer....it is when the blooms have seeded and are in the fluffy, feathery condition that its weather prophet facilities come to the fore. In fine weather the ball extends to the full, but when rain approaches, it shuts like an umbrella. If the weather is inclined to be showery it keeps shut all the time, only opening when the danger from the wet is past." H.W. Gibson

Are you loved? Try to blow the seeds off a dandelion globe in one blow. If you succeed then you are loved with passion. If some seeds remain, then your lover has reservations. If a lot of the seeds still remain on the globe, then you are not loved. Folklore tradition.

~Submitted by Nathalie Degas