The best time of year to pick dandelions is early April. Pick it up in places away from roads, outside of the city. Because every part of the dandelion is useful and healthy, make sure you pick the entire plant (the easiest way is to put a knife under the root and push the knife up).
The leaves of the dandelion (chicory) are great for making a salad. The leaves go great in combination with boiled eggs and potatoes. The leaves contain more vitamins than the spinach and the tomatoes. In addition to that it has diuretic properties it stimulates the gallbladder, cleanses the liver, helps with allergies and reduces cholesterol and is recommended as a dietary supplement for pregnant women and postmenopausal women. Dandelion contains more carotenes than carrots and is a great source of various vitamins and minerals.
From the flowers of these plants you can make syrup, which is sometimes compared to honey. This syrup cleans and strengthens the blood and improves digestion, and helps with coughing.
Preparation:
Pick about 400 yellow dandelion flowers. Pour over them 3 liters of cold water and insert 4 slices of lemon and 4 sliced oranges. Leave for 24 hours. Then filter through gauze and transfer the liquid in a pot. Add 2 pounds of sugar and stir frequently, cook for about an hour and a half after the liquid is brought to the boil and you should get thick syrup.
Then reduce the heat and pour the hot syrup in hot jars that you
previously sterilized. Close the lids on the jars. The syrup is dense
and is often referred to as honey. It is excellent for removing the
symptoms of colds, coughs, bronchitis … Take it with a teaspoon. It’s
great for the kids, so do not be afraid to give it to them every day.
Tea made from dandelion.
Pick the flowers and dry them in the open. Of the dried flowers make tea and drink it always freshly prepared. You can add honey, which will further enrich the healing properties of tea, but do not forget that you should never put honey in hot tea with a metal spoon. Use a wooden or plastic one.
This plant is so healing that not so long ago scientists discovered that the root of the dandelion can cure cancer. If we want to keep dandelion root fresh, it should be dry. Before drying, the roots should be carefully peeled and cut into equal smaller pieces after that dandelion root is dried in the open. Spread the dandelion root on a surface, in a cool dry place with good air flow. The root will be dried for a period of 3-14 days, and you will recognize that when dried becomes brittle under the fingers. Dry dandelion root preserves its medicinal properties up to a year in its dried form, keeping it in a jar in a dry, dark place helps.
Dandelion root cleanses the liver, gallbladder, kidneys and lymph and stimulates the kidneys to get rid of toxins through urine sent out from the body. This root is also used to treat many diseases, such as constipation, clean the skin of acne, edema and similar, cures arthritis, rheumatism, hepatitis and gallstones.
Dandelion root is extremely good for treating women’s diseases, especially the prevention and treatment of various diseases of the breast, such as cysts, cancer, various tumors, swollen breasts, breastfeeding problems and improving breast milk.
In order to utilize the full potential of dandelion roots, it is best used as a decoction or a tincture.
Recipe for decoction:
Mix 30 grams of dried roots of dandelion with 60 grams of fresh dandelion roots and pour 2.5dl of water in the mixture and add a pinch of salt. Put the liquid in a pan and bring it to a boil, cover the pan and let it simmer for 20 minutes. After cooking, filter the content, and drink three cups of “tea” day.
Tea from the root of the dandelion:
Dry the root of the plant, then chop it and grind it. Store the
powder for future use. Drink half a teaspoon of the powder with a glass
of water .