Saturday, April 25, 2009

THEY'RE BACK

Now why would something thats kinda pretty and colorful cause some of us to almost have a nervous breakdown when we see it appear in our lush green lawn???? I think the only ones that love these "Dandy" litte yellow weeds are little children, they love to pick them and people who make Dandelion wine. Here is a recipe for those of you who would like to try your hand at making some homemade wine. It sounds good. And if you need some dandelions, come on over to my house, we have plenty.

Dandelion Wine

2 qts dandelion flowers
3 lbs granulated sugar
4 oranges
1 gallon water
yeast and nutrient
This is the traditional "Midday Dandelion Wine" of old, named because the flowers must be picked at midday when they are fully open. Pick the flowers and bring into the kitchen. Set one gallon of water to boil. While it heats up to a boil, remove as much of the green material from the flower heads as possible (the original recipe calls for two quarts of petals only, but this will work as long as you end up with two quarts of prepared flowers). Pour the boiling water over the flowers, cover with cloth, and leave to steep for two days. Do not exceed two days. Pour the mixture back into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the peelings from the four oranges (again, no white pith) and boil for ten minutes. Strain through a muslin cloth or bag onto a crock or plastic pail containing the sugar, stirring to dissolve. When cool, add the juice of the oranges, the yeast and yeast nutrient. Pour into secondary fermentation vessel, fit fermentation trap, and allow to ferment completely. Rack and bottle when wine clears and again when no more lees form for 60 days. Allow it to age six months in the bottle before tasting, but a year will improve it vastly.

3 comments:

Living Life said...

Those pretty little yeller flowers are plentiful at my house too! The dandelion wine sounds fine!

John Atkinson said...

Janis, I wish I could have ordered Dandelion wine the other night at our writer’s guild dinner meeting. Renee and I were late getting there, (someone posted 5:30 instead of 5;00) and the waitress asked what kind of wine my wife had said she wanted. Renee said she wanted Zinfandel and left visiting old friends while I talked to a lady newspaper reporter. I don’t hear well in a crowd and I misunderstood what Renee said. The reporter was asking about my new book and I wanted to get the facts right and the waitress pulled at my arm for an answer. I excused myself and turned to the kind waitress. I said, “I don’t know a lot about wine, but would you please bring my wife a glass of infidel.” The waitress stood dumbfounded and the reporter screamed with laughter after she noticed I held a straight face like Jack Benny. The next time I order wine for my wife it will be Dandelion wine. I hope that one brings on good cheer as well.

Anonymous said...

PUFF FLOWERS ! How pretty they are !
BUT, I must say, Dandelion Wine has a much better ring to it than Puff Flower Wine.
Cheers.
Hicupp !