By MARY ANN LIENHART CROSS
Extension Director, Purdue Extension Elkhart County

With spring we begin to think more about locally grown foods. The first food of spring that I see and enjoy is dandelion greens. The last few days I was out walking, enjoying the spring flowers, and picking up the trash from fall and winter. As I was doing this I was looking for the dandelion greens and seeing how they were growing. I have seen some that are almost ready, they just need a little rain to help their growth.

Dandelion greens are a spring food that have been eaten for years because they were the first salad-like food that grew and people were hungry for something that was fresh and like a salad. When people first started eating them they did not realize how good for them they were, greens of all kinds are a great source of vitamins and minerals.

Spring is the only time to really enjoy fresh dandelion greens as this is when they are tender and mild flavored. Once they get close to blooming their flavor changes and they develop a strong flavor. Nowadays commercial dandelion greens are grown and used in spring salad mixes that you can buy in the grocery store. You have probably enjoyed them in a salad at a restaurant and not even noticed them.

I really encourage you to enjoy a mess of dandelion greens and I believe you are going to have to dig or cut your own as I have not seen them in local markets. There are a lot of different varieties of leaves to dig and there is a slight difference in their flavor. I suggest you look for dark green, long leaves less than one inch wide. When the dandelion is close to blooming the leaves become bitter so I suggest you enjoy them soon.

From my experiences, I like to dig the root and do some serious shaking right after I dig the plant. My Mother taught me to do a lot of what she called, “dry cleaning.” Cut the root off and let all the dead leaves and everything else fall out of it. Pick through it before you begin rinsing the leaves in several changes of water. Sort or pick through the stems and discard any of them that are woody or thick.

My enjoyment of dandelion greens is wilted greens. A dressing is made by browning flour in bacon grease and then adding water, a little vinegar and sugar and cooked until it is a little thick. The cleaned greens with as much of the water drained from them are cut into the dressing and just heated until they are wilted. The wilted greens are often served on red potatoes or mashed potatoes. The greens are garnished with crumbles of bacon and hard cooked eggs. I have also enjoyed dandelion greens with a hot bacon dressing.

If you want to store the leaves I have found it best to sort through leaves when dry and store dry in the refrigerator crisper, then rinse several times before preparing. The greens will keep for two or three days.