I would love to be able to go out and gather herbs and other goodies for my family to eat, but I just haven't learned about the things we could gather.
One thing I DO know however, is the dandelion!
Who doesn't know what a dandelion looks like?!
So, I found a few recipes and decided to start with jelly. As many of you know, I also like to "wing it" as my DH calls it. So, I don't even have an original to point you to as I took about 3 or 4 recipes, twisted them for me, saw some basil I had growing in my hydroponics and thought to myself that I should throw that in as well, and then wrote it down so I could share! Here goes:
Dandelion Basil Jelly
365 Dandelions
1 Lemon
1/4 C Basil, cut into pieces
6 C Water
6 C Sugar
2 Pouches Liquid Pectin
5 Pint Jars, snaps and twists
First find a patch of untreated dandelions. If you own a patch of such land, you are lucky. If you don't, find one and pick your dandelions. (Just for reference, I really should have picked WAY more as they came and treated it not even 2 hours later!)
Wash your little flowers. Here we have these tiny insects that like to live in our flowers...wouldn't want them in your jelly. (well, they would add protein....!) Cut off the little green bulbous section at the bottom so all you are left with is the petals. Place in a large pot.
Add your 6 C Water to your snipped flowers. Add your snipped Basil. Juice the lemon and add the juice to the mixture as well. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover and place in your fridge overnight. You are basically making an infusion.
- Something I wish I would have done (and will next time) is to zest the lemon first. Save your zest for the final step.
The next day, remove your pan, strain the solids from the liquids. I squeezed my solids so all the juicy goodness came out.
Return the liquid to the pan and add your sugar. Bring to a rolling boil, this is a boil that can not be stirred down, and boil for 1 min. Remove from heat.
Add your pectin. Stir for 5 min. Then this is where I would add my saved zest. Stir for 2 more min if you added zest, if not, skip to the next step.
Pour into your sterilized pint jars, top with your snaps and twist to finger tight. You could, at this point choose to water bath for 5 min if you are unsure if you will eat all 5 pints in the next 2 years or so. (I probably shouldn't tell you this, but mine is never processed and most of the types of jelly and jam will last up to 5 years or more...)
Enjoy!
I am loving it on toast, on cream cheese and in my muffins. So good. It honestly tastes a little like sunshine would taste if I could bottle it!
Cheers
5 comments:
I've always wanted to make a dandelion preserve! I'm going to have to go WAY out of the city though where there is fresh fields to find some.
The park next to us is COVERED in dandelions and the seeds end up in our yard {GRrrr}, but before the ban on pesticides...I couldn't use them because of obvious reasons....and then when they quit spraying them...I was excited, only to see that the number of dog owners who brought their dogs to the park to use as a litter box. Ugh!
But I was excited to see this recipe. I will be making the effort to find some nice and "clean" dandelions for sure. ; )
Wow, 365 dandelions?! That's some serious dandelion picking! I'm glad it turned out so well.
I may need to let my little ones loose in an untreated field. They love to pick me bouquets of dandelions, and then we could have a tasty treat too.
So does it taste like dandelions?
Wow...just wow! You are amazing and just a little crazy at the same time. :) You know I love you! I have to say I have never thought of making dandelion...anything! I wish I could taste it because it sounds A.MA.ZING. but I am just going to have to take your word that it tastes good because that is a whole lot of dandelion picking! You are the most motivated to be self reliant person I have ever met! You totally rock!!! If you had a show on TV I would watch it and DVR every episode. I am inspired and jealous that I don't have the vision that you do. You are still storing for 8 people right? I feel strongly that I need to move to Canada so you can teach me...and if I don't get it quite right I can bum some food storage off of you. :) J/K Seriously thought-I still don't believe you when you say you actually sleep 8 hours a night. Are there 2 of you?...
Mmmmm!! Can I have some? :-)
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