Spring Greens or pissenlit (I had high school French too!)

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One of my earliest memories was of my Gramma Austin wishing for some dandelion leaves to add to her meal. As young as I was, I knew dandelions and I also knew somehow that a dandelion could be very bitter -- had I tasted the pretty yellow blossom?

In the "olden days" of my grandmother's youth in the last decade of the 1800s, folks had only to eat what they had taken care to put away during the growing season. They would can or dry berries, fruits and vegetables. They tried to preserve everything they found or got a hold of. Waste was irresponsible, if not down right evil. They didn't have much cash to spend at the general store and the general store wouldn't have had many fresh vegetables or fruits to sell anyway. There was no such thing as a refrigerated freight train car.

Had the summer been dry, short or the garden hailed out -- or the winter long -- the meals would have become monotanous and maybe even sparse. (My dad told of one winter during the 1930s when his folks and family lived almost entirely on bean soup.) Perhaps the family was down to the last few jars of home-canned tomatoes. Maybe the potatoes they had managed to get to the cave were shriveled and starting to sprout. The canned berries, corn or green beans were probably gone or spoiled. The canning methods weren't as good as they are now. Each family member might each have had an orange at Christmas but fresh fruit and vegetables were too expensive or too scarce for most common folks to have even on a weekly basis. Unless they still had some apple cider (probably "turned" by spring) there was no fruit juice and sure no frozen concentrate.

Which brings us to Gramma and spring greens. Gramma got to craving green vegetables come late March or early April. The earliest green in all of Iowa would be the lowly dandelion. Find the dandelion leaves before the bright flowers pop some early spring day and you might beat the "bitter". Of course, after a winter without any fresh vegetables, bitter is a matter of perspective anyway. A little bitter on a fresh green in late March would be far more acceptable than bitter in the middle of August with the garden in full glory. Ripe tomatoes on the vine and sweet corn on the cob.

Gramma, with her bibbed apron and her plain black shoes, took up her butcher knife and hunted the lowly dandelion.



Dandelion Greens, 1 cup raw
Vit A, daily value 2712 IU54%
Vit K, daily value 151 mcg188%
Calcium, daily value 103 mg10%
Iron, daily value 1.7 mg9%

Broccoli, 1 cup raw
Vit A, daily value 581 IU12%
Vit K, daily value 89.4 mcg112%
Calcium, daily value 41.4 mg4%
Iron, daily value 0.6 mg4%

Well, look at that! My gramma knew what she was doing! And, read here. Dandilions are a tonic too! http://www.rwood.com/Articles/Dandelion_Greens.htm