Dandelions originate from Eurasia where they were used as food and medicine in various cultures for thousands of years. Our colonial ancestors intentionally brought dandelions to America because they could not imagine life without them. To them, dandelions were an important herb, not a weed.
Today, I’m going to teach you how to make dandelion honey, which is actually a dandelion syrup. No bees involved. Flower flavored sweets and syrups were popular from early colonial days all the way to the late 1800s. While roses, orange blossoms and violets were the most popular flowers to make sweets from, dandelions were not to be forgotten. They were also the most accessible to the everyday person due to the high volume of dandelions in the average field or yard.
Dandelion jelly was a little more popular than dandelion honey. To turn your dandelion honey into jelly, add a packet of pectin to your syrup while it is still on the stove.
Please make sure that you collect your dandelions from a yard that has not been treated with chemicals.
If you want to learn how to make other dandelion recipes, check out the wilted salad and dandelion tea recipes.
