Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Garden To Table Challenge: Dandy Bread

It's Garden To Table Challenge time again!

Alas, I now live in the mountains, where even if you have the nerve to get out and plant seeds before June, the weather isn't warm enough to make them sprout. And so... I got nothin'. At least as far as gardening goes. I have a sneaking suspicion I have no idea just how hard it will be to garden in this new climate.

However, I refuse to let our lack of homegrown spring veggies stand in the way of Wendy's fun blog challenge. While gardens up at our elevation might not be producing much, the weeds don't seem to mind the lack of warmth. We have a lawn full of dandelions right now (much to my husband's chagrin) and where there's a homesteading will, there's a way.

I happened to mention to my Littlest One that dandelions are, in fact, actually food. This prompted her to go outside, grab one, and eat it. Um, yeah. Not the best tasting thing she's had lately. I told her I'd read about making things like dandelion bread and dandelion muffins, and even dandelion wine.

"Oh! If I make dandelion wine, can I drink some?"

We opted for bread.

But first came the pleasure of 'harvesting' the dandelions.


Because picking dandelions is about the most fun you can have when you're four years old.


Eventually she enlisted the help of The Oldest.


It didn't take long before they had a basketful of dandelion blossoms.


Of course, it took twice that long to separate the petals from the sepals to actually use them in baking, but we managed.

And so, we baked our dandelion bread. The result? It really doesn't take much different from any other quick bread, but at least it's got pretty yellow specks in it. And when you're four, the novelty of eating flowers is worth all the effort.

This post is shared at Greenish Thumb's Garden To Table Challenge. Head on over to join in the fun!

3 comments:

~TastyTravels~ said...

Looks like your helpers had fun collecting the dandelions. Cute!!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... dandelion wine? LOL!
'Gotta get a few more dandelions popping up on our end of the world.
Cute babies :-) So happy, finding real food!

Wendy said...

oh that's so fun! I bet she/they got such a kick out of the picking and seeing the flecks of yellow flowers. What awesome memories you're creating for your kids. Now each spring, she'll see the dandelions pop up and will think of the bread.