Quote Originally Posted by Ancienne Alliance View Post
... in France, we eat the young dandelion leaves in salad (before the flowers bloom)...
And very nice they are too...

In Britain there is a soft drink called Dandelion and Burdock which tastes a bit like sarsaparilla and many British kids will remember it being delivered to your door by the man in the 'pop lorry'.

If you fancy knocking up a pot-full in your efforts to control your dandelion population, there's a recipe here taken from Tristan Stephenson's wild drink blog.

Heat 1.5 litres of water in a pan, when boiling add:

2 teaspoons fine ground dandelion root (Might need a mortar & pestle)
1.5 teaspoons fine ground burdock root (Might need a mortar & pestle)
5x 50p sized slices of root ginger
1 1/2 star anise
1 teaspoon of citric acid
Zest of an orange

Leave that little lot to simmer for 15-20 minutes, it will smell a lot like a health food shop, then strain through a tea towel, muslin isn’t really fine enough. Whilst the liquid is still hot you need to dissolve about 750g sugar. If you prefer is sweeter or ‘not-sweeter’ adjust the sugar. If you’re finding the drink a bit flavourless simply add more sugar, it accentuates the flavours of the roots and anise.

In the summer I mix it with plenty of ice and stir through borage flowers for the ultimate English soft drink! Enjoy

Variations
Frederic’s - Use 4x the amount of citric acid for more ‘bite’ and double the amount of spices for more flavour.