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Thursday, May 30, 2024

Dandelions and Civilization: A Forgotten History

Dandelions are among the most populous and widespread plants on earth.  The secret to their success has to do both with their unique characteristics, and their inextricable connection to humans. The history of humans and dandelions is forever linked in ways that may surprise you. 

VIDEO HERE  (11:38 minutes)

18 comments:

  1. You link to so many interesting videos, I fall into the rabbit hole watching them. Any chance you could add a list of them on your blog list ?

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    1. I'll give that some thought. In the meantime, you can go to my sidebar on the right, go to the "Old Stuff" box and type in the words VIDEO HERE, it'll bring them all up as posts, although not in the order they were posted.

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    2. My bad, I must've had too many tabs open when I scheduled it. Try it now.

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    3. Interesting video. He covers the bases pretty good.

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  2. My Dad had a story back when he was active in the K of C of being offered some dandelion wine by a parish priest who told him "This wine has authority."
    He liked telling that story. I think he just liked saying that line.
    -lg

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  3. My parents raised us to eat dandelions in soups and salads. I can’t get the hubs to stop using weed killer on the lawn. FML!

    Bobo the Hobo

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    1. When I was in Germany, it was a common food item.

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  4. That's why they push weed killers. Poison the dandelions and others, so when the food gets cut off, you will still die if you don't obey.

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  5. Wild turkey love them some dandelions!

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  6. My grandmother made dandelion wine, got the recipe around here somewhere.

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  7. I use to feed them to a friend’s parakeet back in the 70s…he’d get high, chatty and would fly around the around the room dive bombing us…:))

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  8. We sometimes ate dandelions when I was a kid. My mom would collect some, wash and dry them, coat them with bacon grease and corn meal, and then fry them up. For a while, we had a black maid from Phoebus. That maid said that my mom was the only white woman she had ever met that knew how to make pinto beans.

    Pinto beans the correct way. Soak a pound of fried beans overnight (or during the day in a pinch). Drain the water and cover the beans with fresh water. Add 4 to 5 tablespoons of reserved bacon grease. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until done. Served over pieces of torn up bread, you get an excellent porridge that is cheap and filling. My mom never threw away any bacon grease.

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    1. I cook my beans the same way, but I'll toss in a smoked ham hock or neck bone too.

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    2. Just to clarify: the recipe says "Soak a pound of fried beans..." -- if one started with dried beans, I'm guessing there are a few prior steps? Genuinely interested, thx

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    3. Accounting for the fact that on modern keyboards, the D and F are right next to each other in the same row, I'm going to deduce that is a typo.
      The fact that those kinds of typos, and other really logical ones, are not recognized by most auto-correct logarithms drives me batty. That an search boxes that do not automatically place the cursor in them when that is what you are going to do most of the time (vs changing the location, criteria, etc).

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    4. As long as the word is spelled write, it doesn't matter watt context its used inn.
      Buy the weigh, I think you meant 'and' instead of 'an'.

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