For tea or tincture use, clean, chop, and dry. It is time consuming to scrub all the dirt off and chop but the bounty is in your own yard and free for the taking.

FataMorgana

You could make a tincture out of it. Freeze it - chop it fine - stick it in a clean jar and cover it with 100% vodka. Stick it in the cabinet for 3 months then strain the alcohol out into another clean dry bottle.

You could do an oil extract too. Same thing except don't freeze it - and you have to get the oil to the top of the jar (minimize air). Heat it a little in a pan of hot water. 6 weeks - then strain out oil.

Hi, Maggie berry
For tea and stir fry a tincture would be unsatifactory at best. dry the roots thoroughly, if they are thick and big, cut them so they don't mildew. don't keep them im an airtight container. Sometimes I freeze my dried herbs to be sure of them not molding. Great stuff, dandelions. Good luck, Gloria

The "dandelion greens" sold in the supermarkets (at least in the US) are often chicory and not actually dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). I've grown the "dandelion" chicories (a Chicorium intybus variety) before and the leaves do look very similar to real dandelions and exactly like what you find in the supermarket.

FataMorgana

Chicory greens nutritional info in link. There's plenty nutrition to them too.

From an herbalist's standpoint, they a bitter green like dandelions. And depending upon your line of herbalism (Western, TCM, Ayurvedic, etc.) there are uses for bitter foods in those schools of thought.

And yes, the wild chicories that grow here (NY State) have much smaller leaves while the cultivated varieties grow some massively huge leaves in comparison. I should have taken a picture of some of the rossettes in the spring of some of the cultivated chicory varieties that grow wild around my vegetable garden - I let some go to seed a number of years back. Some of the rossettes were really huge. They are mostly blooming now - I love the blue blooms!

FataMorgana

Here is a link that might be useful: chicory greens nutrition

Business? No, it's not my day job. But other than life-long learning about plants, I have taken classes from and apprenticed with a Naturopath. I've graduated from his program and while I am an herbalist, my interests lie more with the plants themselves: growing, harvesting, stewardship, wildcrafting, wild & native medicinals, and so on. Perhaps when I grow up someday "herbology" may be my business but not currently. ;)

FataMorgana

Fat:

I was looking a little closer at my store-bought "dandelion" leaves. I think you're correct. They don't have the milky juices of the dandelion and they taste a lot milder than dandelions.

Since you are more into botany than I am, I have a question for you. Can you get freshly harvested madder root? I use it along with other herb ingredients to remove congestion/stagnation of the uterus/liver/venous systems. The only madder root I was able to obtain was through companies that use it for dye. If used for dye, it can be many years old. But for herbology, it needs to be fresher in order to obtain the nutritional properties of it.

Thanks so much.

Charlie in Arizona
The Herbalist

I posted to your thread on that in the Herbs forum the other day. There is a spice company that sells it and notes its herbal medicine uses. Try them.

FataMorgana

Here is a link that might be useful: Herbs Forum - madder roots

"You could do an oil extract too. Same thing except don't freeze it - and you have to get the oil to the top of the jar (minimize air). Heat it a little in a pan of hot water. 6 weeks - then strain out oil."

Please don't do this for internal use, else you might end up with botulism!

I make a tea of the whole plant and freeze it. This is antibiotic, as well as good for liver complaints. It works fine.