A little twist on a country wine - dandelion mead

[hounddawg]

Great question. The roots , leaves and petals of dandelion are all edible and the leaves (especially of young plants) make great salad greens and I hear make a great tea too, but I believe that dandelion wine uses only the petals. In other words, I bet you can make a good wine from the leaves but it won't be recognizable as "dandelion wine" by anyone who has seen or tasted the wine made from petals.

The roots - when roasted make a wonderful beverage too. In Scotland there was a company that provided this as a dandelion coffee - and when I was in my twenties that was something I loved to drink

come next spring i'll be trying them dandelion roots,
dawg

 

[G259]

you must pick in under about 8 inches after that, poke is poisonous, until my grandma passed i'd pick her poke come early spring, she'd wilt it with hot bacon grease, but let it get just a little to tall and you're a goner, native black elderberry has strychnine in bark , leaves; berries, but when you make syrup or wine you're fine, but red elderberry, you die, on elders it's like this, the flowers an/or berries are shaped like umbrella you're good to go, but if the elder is bunched hanging like grapes then don't mess with,

Yeah (lol), that's why I don't mess with it! I mean, if it can make me sick, or kill me, that's not a hobby I'm interested in! I . . . think . . . I'll make some apple wine, yeah!

Happy 4th!

 

[alurpal]

Thanks, Dawg. So I am making 1 gallon of dandelion wine and a second gallon of dandelion mead and so far neither are clear enough for me to want to bottle. They are starting to clear but I think they have a few months still to go. Not a big problem as most people who have made the wine say that you make it in the spring and crack open a bottle in the winter.
The "lightness" of flavor may be the result of too few petals. I imagine that the more petals you use the more intense the flavor. But that said, I believe that dandelions have a diuretic effect on the body (they make you pee!) and I would think that for some people with certain medical conditions a diuretic may be contra-indicated.

How’d the wine and mead turn out? I’ve got a gallon of each in primary right now.

 

[BernardSmith]

Really delightful. Would have made another batch last spring but the weather killed the flowers before I could harvest any. Hopefully, this year, we'll have a good harvest and I will be able to make a another couple of gallons.