Dandelion Wine

ril and May are prime dandelion season, so the window of opportunity is now. Thus, dandelion project #2: Wine. Here's what I did!

Saturday afternoon, Kate and I joined forces and rounded up hundreds of blossoms.

We hit about 5 dandy hotspots with the goal of 12 cups of blossoms. We exceeded that goal. Some very sweet children walked by and gave us some they picked, too.

Then we spent a very long time clipping bracts off of blossoms. The more green you can remove, the less bitter the final product--so they say. After awhile we quit being so meticulous and went on turbo-snip. In the meanwhile, I dissolved one packet of yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. When there were 12 cups of yellow petals/fluff, we added 6 cups of sugar and boiled them in 10 cups of water for 5 minutes. It was a thick, thick stew.

r

 I let this mixture cool to lukewarm and strained out the plant material. Then I added the dissolved yeast.

I put a tea towel over the bowl and left it overnight.

The next day, I bottled it. I used on an old wine bottle with a screw-on top, as well as marinara sauce/ honey jars (also with screw on tops). I hope they don't explode as the fermentation process expels gas.

Isn't that bright yellow the most beautiful thing? I sipped a little bit, and thought it was tasty. Hopefully it still tastes good after a month when the yeast has had a chance to devour the sugar. For now it sits in a dark cupboard--fermenting.