Dandelions

For me, an extremely important part of being pagan is connecting to earth and nature. If you’ve read any of my blog posts, you already know that I love learning about rock and stone lore. It’s one of the ways I connect. If you know me personally, you also know that herbal lore and herbal remedies are another topic really important to me.

Spring is coming soon, at least I hope it is and with it, all the buds and blooms. Along with the flowers we all know and love come the so called weeds, the undesirables. So, I’m thinking that some of my Pagan Blog Project posts will be about these much maligned yard and garden “upstarts”.

I’m starting off with dandelions, the nuisance plant of every yardman. It seems that no matter what you do, there is a dandelion popping up right where you just mowed! They are one of the most prolific of the summer plants. Most people think they are good for nothing. Oh sure, they know you can use them for salad greens, but why would you do that when there is a perfectly good head of lettuce in the frig and the dog has probably peed on them anyhow?

gardener’s nemesis

Here is what else they are good for.

First of all, they are loaded with vitamin A.  Yes, I know you can take a pill and get vitamin A, but if you run out of pills, remember where there is a natural source.   Be sure and pick them when they are young and tender.  They are just a tad bitter………well, quite bitter as a matter of fact.   You can drink a tea made from them to cleanse your system:  the bladder, the urinary tract, the spleen and kidney.  Dandelion tea is good for gout, insomnia and rheumatism.

Now, I hear you saying, why would I want to drink some nasty old tea when I can go to the doctor and get medicine?  I’ll tell you what got  me started using herbs.  My oldest son was born allergic to everything, soap, his crib, milk and was in the hospital probably half a dozen times with allergic bronchial asthma before he was one year old.   Doctors gave him Benedryl.   So much medication rotted all his baby teeth and he had to have 11 teeth all pulled at once because those teeth were making him sick.   I wanted to stop giving him medication.   I feared he would have false teeth before he was 10!  So, all summer, I gathered “weeds”, anything that I thought might cause allergies.  My idea was to build up immunity.    I dried all the leaves from dandelions, goldenrod, clovers, violets and lots of other plants.   After they were dried, I kept them in a jar.  When I cooked, I tossed in a pinch.   I put them in pancake batter, in biscuits, cookies, chili, soup, and hamburgers.   The next spring, summer and fall, we had no problems with the hospital, no oxygen tents and no Benedryl.  After that, I started learning all kinds of remedies.

I taught my kids:   If you are out in the yard and get stung by a bee……….you pick THIS plant and rub it on the sting.   My grandson was playing with the boy next door one time.   I heard the other kid screaming and Josh, as calm as could be, came running in, dragging him by the arm yelling “MIMI!   Show him how to put this plant on his sting!”

The gypsies say that the juice from dandelion stems will cure warts.   Rub that juice on the warts at least twice a day.

Oh, and dandelions make some really potent home brew wine.   I’ll never forget my first batch.   I told my folks it was a science project down in the basement.   My dad just looked at me.   A week or so later, he told me I had better check on my experiment because it was about to blow up.   No, dad, I got it under control.   Next morning……….all over the basement……..dandelion wine, broken glass and a huge mess.   I was more careful the next time.

And what about these?   How much joy has blowing dandelions fluff given to hundreds of kids all over the country?   Dandelion lore says that its a sure sign of rain when the fluff flies off the dandelion and there is no wind.     And, everyone knows that when you blow dandelion fluff, you are sending love to someone special, don’t they?

If you are interested in herbs and what uses they have, the best book I ever found was Jeannie Rose’s book,  Herbs & Things.   I wonder if it is still in print?   I will have to look on Amazon.   I still have a much battered and ragged copy I first bought in 1981.   You can find cures, recipes for hair care, herbal baths and douches and some oddball lore that is just plain fun to know.

P.S.   I checked on Amazon.   A new copy will cost 39.99 but there are 4 used copies starting at 2.99 so hurry over and get one if you want to learn a lot.   She also has a Herbal Body Book with bath salts, bath herbs, cosmetics and more but the first book is like my Bible.   I bet I could not get 10 cents for my old raggedy wretched copy but I would not take 20 bucks for it.