You all are really good. I am going to have to find more interesting things for my family to try for my What Is It Wednesday posts.
Most of you guessed dandelion greens for last week’s What Is It Wednesday item and you were right. They were dandelion greens. I loved reading all your comments and stories about eating them, so thank you for taking the time to share those.
And what can I say, yes, I paid money for dandelion greens, when I could have picked them out of my yard.
After I bought them, I told my dad that my grandma would have given me quite a lecture if she knew I paid good money for something like dandelion greens.
Dandelion greens are what helped many of our grandparents and great grandparents survive the great depression. Now several generations later, they are a gourmet food item at the grocery store.
This is part of why I bought them and decided to use them for a post. I find it a little fascinating/strange that something past generations ate just to survive is now considered a gourmet food item.
This got me thinking about what this says about our society. We are willing to pay good money for something at the store like dandelion greens, when we could easily get them for free if we wanted to.
Is it that we don’t like the idea of picking something from our field or yard? Do we want our food to look clean and pretty and not like the idea of something being dirty and from the field? Are we afraid of the little work it takes to get them? Do we really only want organic food that we “think” we know where it came from?
Just some things to think about…….
Now onto what we thought of the dandelion greens.
I simply cooked them in a little oil with some salt and garlic. Basically I cooked them like I do fresh spinach. My husband and one of my daughters loved them and would eat them again, but they both like all kinds of cooked greens.
I did not like them, at all. However, I am not a fan of any sort of cooked greens.
I have told my husband that I will never be a true Oklahoman because I do not like a big bowl of greens that has been cooked all day in bacon grease.
Those of you from Oklahoma, or parts of the south, know exactly what I am talking about. I just can’t do greens, cooked to death or not, I don’t like them.
Well, okay I can eat them if I have to, or if I was starving, but they are not high on my list of favorite foods that is for sure. Dandelion greens were no different.
The ones I bought were not very tender, so we did not even try them raw. I think if they were baby greens and were more tender, they would be good in salad, similar to putting fresh spinach in a salad. I would definitely try them that way, but I think I would have to be pretty hungry to eat them cooked again.
When I was talking to my dad about buying these, he told me that we used to eat them when I was a kid. We picked them from our yard and field, but no one liked them very much, so we stopped eating them. This must have been when I was quite young because I do not remember it, but I guess I have had them before.
I would love to hear more of your thoughts on dandelion greens?
I think one reason people buy them instead of picking them from their yard is because we pay to have chemicals sprayed on our lawns to prohibit weeds. Or we don’t know if the person who lived there before put chemicals on the lawn.
@Evelyn, That is a good point. I live in the country, so that is not an issue, but for others you are probably right and that was not something that they regularly did years ago.
I feel the same way you do about cooked greens, and have been told before that I’m not a true Southern girl because of it. 😉
I do love dandelion greens, but not to eat for myself. Our tortoise’s main diet is dandelion greens because they are so healthy for him (more so than kale, spinach, etc.). When we have a bunch, we pick them out of the yard. He loves eating them this way, because they are freshly picked every day. Unfortunately, sometimes only a handful of dandelions will be growing at any one time (I think my neighbors hate me for purposely keeping dandelion plants alive :P), then we have to buy dandelion greens at the store. They get blanched and frozen, then defrosted little bits at a time for Koopa.
I, also, am not a fan of any sort of cooked greens. However, I found that I love raw baby spinach and baby dandelion greens in salads.
Where do you buy dandelion greens?
Yes, I am from Oklahoma, and grew up eating dandelion greens and poke. We ate them to survive. If anyone eats poke, be sure and check how to cook them, because they can be poisonous if cooked the wrong way, or at least that is what my mom told me.