Dandelion Honey (Vegan)

Another short guide, this time on making Dandelion Honey. I am by no means an expert in harvesting, preparing and cooking wild flowers. If you have any feedback to give me I'm happy to learn.

A little bit about Dandelions?

Dandelions are know to many in the UK as a weed! The name "dent de lion" is French for Lion tooth, which refers to the shape of the leaf. They have for centuries been a source of food:

- The roots can be used to make a type of coffee.

- The leafs can be used in salad. They contain vitamins A, C, E, K & B6.

- The flowers are great in omelettes, fritters and cakes.

- The flowers have been used to make vinegar and honey.

- An obviously Dandelion and Burdock.

It has also been used to treat a range of medical illness from liver problems, diabetes, heart and respiratory problems.

So this was my experience...

Step one:

Pick the heads of the Dandelions! Now before I started picking I made sure I was picking the correct plant, there is a similar looking plant. It's easy to tell them apart by looking at the leafs. Dandelions have lion teeth like leafs. I chose a place where there wasn't many dog walkers or chances of pesticides being spayed (like in peoples gardens). I picked only the flower heads and picked from multiple locations, leaving enough for the Bees 🐝 to continue working.

(2 dense cups full)

Step two:

I individually shook each flower to remove any free riding flies and bugs, then added the flower heads to a pan.

Step three:

I now added 1 & 1/2 cups of water and 2 table spoons of lemon juice. I Simmered them for 15 mins, turned the heat off and left it to infuse overnight.

Step four:

In the morning I strained the Dandelion juice (I improvised a tea strainer), into a teapot, cleaned the pan, weighed it and returned it back to the pan. (Note the weight of the juice).

Step five:

Now I weighed out the sugar to match the same as the juice, and added it to the pan.

Step six:

I set the pan heat high and boiled for roughly 15-20 minutes until the liquid turned dark brown and was sticking to the spoon.

Step seven:

Now was the fun part, funnelling the honey into a glass jar and put the lid on, leave to cool down.

And Voila! Ready to use in my tea and on pancakes!

I hope this blog has been useful, if you have any questions please feel free to email me at explore@bee-adventures.co.uk If you want to tell us about your own wild flower experiments join our subscribers page and help us build an outdoor community of like-minded people!

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