Dandelion Goo.

Rogers Park is awash with dandelions. It's lovely. My motivation to make something with this favorite yellow flower peaked this week, so I followed these instructions in an attempt to make dandelion "honey/syrup." 

First I went for a jog with my little drawstring back to collect some the flowers! I had probably about 3 cups worth of heads. 

I snipped the green "bracts" off at the point where they easily released the yellow petals and white fluff. Once I had two cups of petals/fluff, I put it in 2 cups of boiling water for 10 minutes. 

Then I strained it so I just had dandelion water. I added a cup of sugar.

And this, my friends, is where things went horribly wrong. I decided to skip the pectin, because my neighborhood grocery didn't carry it, and just make a syrup. Now, the instructions say to boil for an additional minute or two, but I thought that would be insufficient without pectin to gel it. I let it go for a half hour. Once I saw some foam forming, I began skimming it off as the instructions recommended. And I noticed things were indeed stick and syrupy. In fact, such strong sugar-syrup strings were forming I could have bound a very big man to a chair. 

Immediately I took it off the heat and poured it into a jar. After it cooled, it was only a small step away from hard candy. I had to reboil it just to melt it enough to pry the goo out and save the jar.

If I was into euphemisms, I'd call this a "learning experience." Luckily, we aren't running out of dandelions any time soon, and I will try again. The earth offers us these lovely flowers for free, and knowing they can be used in a productive way is a lure I can't resist.