Dandelion Syrup

This is how the meadow behind our house looks in spring:

Oh, so much to harvest :)

I always knew one could eat dandelion leaves (they make a nice salad when they´re fresh and young), but cooking syrup from the flowers was news to me until we learned it last year on our weekend class about herbs.

I had wanted to try it then, but the season for dandelions was over then - so I took the first chance I got this year :)

What you do is - you take a Ronja to collect a whole bunch of dandelions. The basic recipe is

1 litre of water
2kg of sugar
3 lemons
200 dandelion heads.

You only need the heads, so cut off everything green and with the juice of the stem - you don´t want that.  Use this opportunity to get rid of any small bug that might have been stupid enough to hide in there.


Bring all ingredients to boil...

...and let boil for about an hour to achieve the desired intensity and thickness of your syrup. The petals give their slightly honey-like taste and their yellow color to the syrup, and the lemon serves to conservate it all - and adds a nice splash of flavour.

After boiling, strain it, boil again, and then pour it, steaming hot, into your jars, and immediatly put on the lid. That way, they will last for months.

Nice harvest, huh?
The lady who told me the recipe said this was how people used to imitate real honey when they didn´t have any, in times of war or hunger. It´s not exactly like we don´t have honey... we checked on our bees today, and the honeyspace was allready filled, so we´ll add a second one - as soon as our delivery arrives. And then, in about one month, we should be able to harvest the first real honey :)

Be sure to nicely label your jars, and enjoy :)

It tastes mindblowing over goat cheese, preferably on baguette and with rucola and cherry tomatoes. Or I mix it into drinks, or simply into sparkling water. 

And if this got you into syrup-making -
here´s a recipe for elderblossom-syrup, and
one for woodruff syrup :)

It´s really easy, and they make nice gifts... if you manage to keep them long enough.

Music:

Ed Sheeran´s new single "Sing" sounds like dripping honey to me, so I think it suits today´s post beautifully :)