My budgie saphy

[Wolf]

You really want the young leaves as they are more tender and less bitter. I pick them for the birds to eat.

[Pajarita]

Dandelion greens are good for salads early in the spring (when they are tender and sweet) BEFORE they get the flowers because, when they do, the leaves turn bitter so, for human consumption, during the summer months, it's more palatable to eat them cooked (as it 'removes' the bitterness). But the leaves turn sweet again after the first frost so they can be eaten in a salad then, also. Of course, the birds don't care if they are bitter as they do like that taste so I use them all the time until they die off. I actually give the canaries the entire plant, with root and everything (they actually peck at the roots) but I give the parrots the leaves and the flowers, only, because they don't eat the roots.

[seagoatdeb]

I am preparing for winter and mulching my garden so I dug up some really nice dandelion roots that have been organically grown. I made up a nice tea for me and used some of the tea to soak seeds in for the birds this morning. I only give them the tea once a month or so.

[seagoatdeb]

Then I dug up the carrots and they had been kissed by frost and are so good. Sunny is just gobbling up the carrots but Gaugan in her true picky fashion thinks carrots are not good.

[Pajarita]

I am preparing for winter and mulching my garden so I dug up some really nice dandelion roots that have been organically grown. I made up a nice tea for me and used some of the tea to soak seeds in for the birds this morning. I only give them the tea once a month or so.

I don't know how you prepare the roots for the tea but, if you don't really do anything to them, you can actually give them the tea every day because it would be so very mild that it wouldn't even have a diuretic effect (which is the only thing, aside from the interaction with quinolones, that one needs to take into consideration).

[seagoatdeb]

I vary the teas I use to soak. The dandelions are a lot of work, I have to clip the heads all the time so the neighbors dont get upset, but they are worth it.

[Pajarita]

Well, this is the very best time of the year to harvest dandelion roots so you might want to try decocting after roasting them. It intensifies the effect and it keeps for a long time.

[seagoatdeb]

I found some stinging netttle by accident and got stung, but made some nice nettle and dandelion tea and it was really good together.