Backyard Harvest

Last year, I read about dandelion digging from Choosing Voluntary Simplicity (CVS) here. At the time, I was so excited. I SO wanted to do that, but we were living in an apartment, and I have no idea what was on our lawn there. So I vowed to dig dandelions our first spring in our house.

Here it is, it's spring. Had I done anything with the dandelions? No. I was hemming and hawing, and pretty much wrote it off. On my way home today, I saw a field with blooming dandelions and I sighed to myself. I'd have to dig dandelions next year when they're not bitter.

Then, I read Momzoo's post on dandelions here. I didn't know they were so good for you. And that was that. I was digging dandelions - tonight. And here we are!

While it's not 8 quarts like Shirley at CVS talks about, I think that's a fair amount of greens for my first pick. When I picked them, I grabbed them at the base and twisted, which gave a fair amount of the root. I washed everything and separated out the good stuff from grass, dog hair, and dead leaves.

I chopped the roots off and held them aside. I have to do a lot more research on what to do with dandelion roots. I don't trust them as much as I trust the leaves.

Speaking of leaves, I washed these for probably about 20 minutes. Call me paranoid. We've only had the house for 7 months, so I don't know if and when they were last sprayed. But I'm pretty convinced that we'll be okay.

So there you have it. My first harvest of the year is dandelion greens and roots!

On a similar note, I identified another feathered friend frequenting our feeder. Say that five times fast! This little guy is a tufted titmouse:

His Face

His Side

I only remember seeing him once, but lately I've just been letting Hailey out the door without looking first. Hailey LOVES to chase anything moving: my cats, birds, and especially squirrels. I'm at least trying to break her of chasing the cats, but at least she gets exercise in the meantime.