Dandelions: Sorely Underestimated and Hugely Versatile

Apparently it’s not uncommon for small children to put all sorts of things in their mouths, but it was a miracle I survived my childhood with all of the poisonous plants and flowers I had at my disposal out in the woods of Boring, Oregon. Although there was a bit of an incident with the Fox Glove flower, there are in fact flowers you can eat that won’t make you sick. Here’s a nice long list of some of the ones you can eat and how best to prepare them. My favorites include rose petals, clover, and nasturtiums—but today we’re focusing on dandelions.

Perhaps the title of a particular Ray Bradbury book clued you in that dandelions could be used as a food source, perhaps you already knew, or perhaps you’re shocked. The dandelion, although often regarded as a common weed, is a plant that can be prepared in many ways. One can harvest the flowers to make wine with, collect the greens to include in salads or other dishes, and even cook and eat the roots. There’s a lot of advice out there about how to harvest dandelions, but let me quickly go over some of the most important stuff:

First of all, never harvest dandelions from areas that may have been sprayed with pesticides, near roads, or where people often take their pets to do their business. Secondly, start harvesting the leaves of the plant at the beginning of the season when the plants are young. Apparently the leaves are less bitter at this time in the dandelion’s lifespan. Continue to collect dandelion leaves until they become too bitter for you, and make note of when that is so you can collect leaves of an agreeable nature in the future. However, be aware that if the leaves are too bitter, you can always blanche or steam them to get rid of some of the bitterness. This is particularly effective when adding them to other dishes, such as a French cream of dandelion soup or a tasty vegetarian dandelion quiche. Third, if it’s dandelion flowers you’re after for cooking or wine making, be sure to get them early, when they’ve just flowered. If you leave them too long, these will also become bitter. And, lastly, if you’re trying to harvest the roots, be sure to dig deep. The dandelion root is long and thin like a carrot, so bring a gardening tool with you to get at the long roots without snapping them. To prepare the roots, simply treat them as if they were carrots—although apparently there is a way to roast them and use them as tea and coffee substitute as well if you’re interested in that!

If you want to make dandelion wine, there are a lot of different recipes and methods for brewing it out there. See here, here, and here for the best three I found.

As you can see, this common garden “weed” has been sorely underestimated and is actually hugely versatile; much like a couple of protagonists in two of my favorite franchises, Kingdom Hearts and Phoenix Wright.

The protagonist of Kingdom Hearts is a boy named Sora. In the first game of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, the player is led to believe that Sora is the main character of the game because he is the wielder of the Keyblade. The Keyblade is a mythical weapon that is said to be able to open and close off hearts. Sora uses the Keyblade to seal off the hearts from shadowy beings without hearts—fittingly called “the Heartless”—who hunt down and devour the hearts of individuals and worlds. The game was intended to be a one-shot, but very quickly was retconned for a series.  As the series progresses, the player learns that there are many Keyblades and that anyone with a heart can learn to summon them. However, the Keyblades are passed down from Keyblade users who deem others worthy of the honor of possessing a Keyblade. Sora was never given a Keyblade by a previous Keyblade wielder. His friend Riku, however, was. When Riku was unable to claim his Keyblade when his and Sora’s home world of the Destiny Islands was attacked by Heartless, Sora “borrowed” the power completely by accident. In short, Sora isn’t special—but it is how he deals with not being special that makes him the main character of the series:

The people Sora is talking about, of course, are his friends. He goes on to say that his friends are his power. The camera swoops out to show all of them behind him, connected through their hearts. To see the full scene, click here. In a way, Sora is the main character of Kingdom Hearts not because he is special, but because he is the most versatile member of the story due to his normalcy and willingness to be part of something bigger than just himself.

Rookie defense attorney Phoenix Wright of the Phoenix Wright franchise is even more of a regular Joe than Sora. Phoenix is a lawyer, and the sort of bumbling sweetie that always smiles and tries his best. His opinion of himself isn’t very high though…

And neither are his friends’ opinions of him…

But everything changes the moment Phoenix enters a court room.

In being the sort of bumbling sweetie that always smiles and tries his best, Phoenix becomes a force to be reckoned with in the court room, because his best must be the exposure of the truth and the protection of the innocent. In every way he is underestimated in his day to day life, but in every case in his video game and manga series, Phoenix fights his way to the truth successfully every time.

The last bit of media I’d like to share with you today is a little more directly related to the dandelion than our last two examples: the sports day chapters of Cardcaptor Sakura in which the Flowery card appears.

Sakura, unlike our other two protagonists, actually is a chosen one—and it is her task to collect the escaped magical Clow Cards that could cause all sorts of havoc if left unchecked. This particular episode takes place during her school’s sports day activities. What’s funny about this episode, however, is that no one thinks anything of the beautiful falling flowers and flower petals until the flowers begin to interfere with the sports day activities.

Flowers are so commonly used as a background panel filter in manga, that even the readers have it pointed out to them by the characters that there’s something strange about all of the flowers all over the pages.

In the end, Sakura manages to capture the Clow Card. Her guardian beast Kero (currently assuming his “power saving” form similar in appearance to a stuffed animal) comments on how easy it must have been since the card is good natured and fun loving.

Just goes to show one should never underestimate the value of anything. Happy dandelion hunting!