Natural Health – Tulitha King

Drying Dandelion roots to make Dandelion tea.

Dandelions are one of those incredible plants which are often thought of only as an invasive weed, but instead are so much more. They make great companion plants in the garden, their long tap roots bringing up nutrients from below, making them available to other plants. The leaves, flowers & roots (everything but the stem) are all edible and great for the liver.

Better than buying the tea from the supermarket, which can be expensive, it is absolutely simple to make your own, just make sure you don’t pick all of them and I would avoid those which have been mown over, just not sure about the possibility of lead accumulating in them.

Pick

Wash

Dry

Grind

Steep

Tea!

It is sadly, satisfyingly novel to cook from your own garden. Sadly because, really, it should be the norm to gather our own food rather than pay for it. Satisfying because there is a real sense of acheivement (though one does so little!) in watching a seed that you have planted grow into a tiny sprout, into a bigger plant and finally fruit to make its way to your dinner plate.

A few days ago I harvested Broad Beans, Garlic bulbs and Garlic flowers and Thyme to make a Broad Bean Casserole. (I will not include the recipe as I’m not a particularly fussy eater, and though I enjoyed it immensely, others may not, and really you would probably have the same results if you just played around with your ingredients as I did!) The total list of ingredients were: Broad beans (pre-boiled), green beans, one garlic bulb, a few garlic flowers (with stems), sprigs of thyme, onions, mushrooms vege stock, cornflour. Short & simple. Everything could collected from the garden, it’s all in the timing. In fact I have all of these things in my garden a times

Speaking of garlic flowers, have you ever tried them? The first time I ever ate one was in New Zealand whilst being hosted on the property of a woman who had the most incredible permaculture style garden I had then yet seen. They are…sublime! The flowers are unbelievable exactly like a very young garlic bulb, without the dirt, a lovely subtle flavour.

Growing veges is easy peasy, I would encougage anyone to try it. Sometimes all you need to do is push a few seeds under the earth, water them a few times a week, and wait and watch.

Glorious.

Garlic Flower Head

Dandelion Head among Rocket Flowers (I like to grow Dandelion in my vege ‘patch’, they are edible and good for the soil, they aren’t given enough of a chance. Great for the liver!)