Dandelion Greens (Bangor, Bath: live, store, eat)

[mainebrokerman]

Does anyone here pick and cook these??

how do you cook them??




I saw some fiddleheads - fresh picked in a store for 4.59lb last week-first ones ive seen, the store was in new hampshire

[Kracer]

My old time back woods raised friend can't resist fresh dandies.

She places the fresh newly formed green leaves in a few changes of boiling water and a final cold water rinse and then freezes them or serves fresh. Cover with the traditional vinegar and salt and butter for a fine tasting dish. Makes you wonder why anyone in the state is ever hungry or nutritionaly lacking.

then come the fiddleheads which generally appear in the Bangor area around Mother's Day.

Hey, how's that rhubarb growing?

Violets on the salad brings a touch of the Martha Strewart good life to the table.

Daylily buds just before they open can be dipped in boiling water for a coule of muinutes, like corn on the cob, and served as above. Some say it tastes like asparagus I think it tastes like corn especially if you roast them.

Then there is pigweed or lambs quarter that has a great taste and the longer you chew it the more sweet the taste. Found in every vacant lot.

Of course fresh trout are the best reason to line the plate with fiddleheads or dandies.

Repulsed? or a tender green loving grazer.....it all there to ignore, use weed killer on or devour in mouth watering enjoyment.

[namder1]

Love fiddleheads. HATE dandelion greens! They taste soooo bitter.

[in_newengland]

But the bitter greens are good for you. Supposedly they help cleanse the liver and spring is cleaning time for the body too after all the heavy, greasy stuff we ate all winter.

Just steam the greens and eat them in a salad or with some lemon juice. They're not THAT bad, they're good for you and they're FREE. Pick them before the flowers form.

(The dried root is good for you too in dandelion tea but that really does taste so despicable that I don't even want to think of it.)

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Gathering or picking dandelion greens goes way back in New England. On April 19, 1775, Mother Batherick was gathering dandelion greens Between Menotomy and Charlestown on the south side of a stone wall where greens emerge first in the spring. She had not had any greens of any kind since the previous fall.

Eight Redcoats of the King's grenadiers came running down the road, fleeing toward Boston. They had thrown their muskets in a pond. They asked Mother Batherick if she would take them prisoner. She did and marched them off to the first militia company she found. Before leaving to resume her dandelion harvest she loudly stated, "If any of you Redcoats are lucky enough to make it back to England, you tell old King George if one old Yankee woman can take eight grenadiers prisoner, what does he think it will take to defeat America?"

[Submariner]

Last week I checked my fiddlehead field, it was still underwater.

This evening we had our first serving of asparagus, from our garden. This is the third spring the asparagus has been in our garden, finally big enough to begin eating some of it

[bangorme]

I ate dandelion greens when I was a kid, 50 years ago. The trick is to pick the youngest greens. From memory, I think we used vinegar as a garnish.

[namder1]

My Mom used vinegar too bangorme. Didn't help me cause I didn't like vinegar!
I heard it takes 3 years to harvest asparagus submariner. I bought 50 this spring and as soon as they get here will put them into a raised bed and...WAIT!!!!

[Colebrook]

Dandelion greens I grew up on. Boiled with a big slab of salt pork sometimes par boiled then finished off by sauteing with butter and garlic. Same as fiddleheads.