Wild Yellow Rockstars

The sun's out! Well it was in full show when I wrote this earlier...

Everything looks and feels better in the sun especially coming out of a long, dark and wet winter; the yearning for the 'other' is relative. No light without dark, it's not easy if it's not hard etc (the latter an old wise adage my Nanny used to proffer during the tough times). I mean we all wanted the sun to just go away last summer in the dead heat that hung off of everything, didn't we? I recall discussions about heatwave etiquette - should windows being opened or closed during daylight hours and what about curtains too? Flung open or firmly knitted shut until you could, at the tip of dusk, begin to breathe easier as the heat began to dial down and the lilt of the smallest breeze was like showering under a gallon of water after a hefty trek across sand dunes. Then, then, we dreamt of the simple pleasure of feeling the cold, of rain soaked days and of log fires crackling inside. No more grilled meat we need a roast dinner swimming in gravy as a plate of comfort to the drab outdoors. And what about the psychotic flies and wasps? It was utter chaos trying to read, consume anything remotely foody or drink wine outdoors with the striped guys haloing over everything.

I also recall around this time last year how many hundreds of dandelions were all of a sudden just everywhere. I made a mental note to check if the same happened this year in case it was a mother nature blip or should I say ,deluge. Well it has happened. The fields around me are awash with dandelions - they're all over the place. Before moving to the country I never realised how prevalent they are in April but here in rurality there are pops and clusters of happy yellow all around; like a green canvas sprinkled with custard powder. Who knew they were there all winter long waiting patiently to show their rock star yellow heads. They're clever little things too, they can predict the weather so in the sun they're lily pad wide to absorb the rays but if they close (as they do when the sun goes down) during the day, they're forecasting rain - closing up like a little closed umbrella to shelter from the wet. With very good diuretic properties that help cleanse the kidneys they were also known once as 'wet the beds' with the old fashioned thought that if you so much as looked or worse, touched a dandelion, you would most certainly wet the bed that night.

But what can you do with all this abundance? You can gather their heads put them in a sterilised jam jar and drown them in a carrier oil such as almond or olive oil. Leave the healing benefits of the little flowers to seep into the oil for a couple of weeks after which time you have some natural home made oil to soothe aches and pains. The young tender leaves can also be eaten- mix into a salad or weave them into your fresh pesto mix too. All of this adding potassium to your diet - potassium helps the body regulate fluid and muscle contractions. If you want to dig the dandelion up then the root also has lots of healing properties and as an alternative to wild elderflower also makes a delicious cordial (with burdock), for mixing with water or if you're feeling like a home made cocktail, some prosecco. Also delicious as a cleansing tea. So next time you hear a gardener or farmer moan about the pesky dandelion 'weeds,' know also the other side that they are also one (of many!) of the champions of the wild foraging world and maybe go and pick some. For animal lovers out there, rabbits love them! With the plethora available now I am gathering the surplus and drying them for winter long treats for the bunnies.

And if you didn't realise the white fluffy things that you blow and that scatter the encapsulated seed everywhere are actually dandelions in a later stage - the yellow flowers eventually close up are then shrouded upwards by a tight green shawl and then they re-open again wiser, older, greyer and off the little seed parachutes go blowing in the warm breeze to reroot and make sunny yellow rock star heads appear again next Spring. Magic.