The love of Weeds! Dandelion bread recipe

           Einstein looking to see where CeeCee the Roo is before coming outside

Good afternoon to all my chicken friends!  This last week had been a rainy one, but one that we have needed to make up for the small amount of snow we got.  Yesterday I actually saw the sun late in the afternoon for a bit, nice to see Mr Sun since the grumpy old clouds have been blocking him lately.

I have to tell you I love weeds, my yard right now has tons of dandelion flowers blooming & it reminds me of when I was small picking them for my mother.  For me any weed that can be used is a blessing to have.  Yeah I know there are those out there that want the 'perfect' lawn but for me finding usable weeds makes my day.  I have dandelions, plantain, lambsquarters & purslane that all get used either by me or for my chickens.

When I was growing up in Oregon we had a neighbor on our Experimental Station named Virgil who was a big 'back to nature' guy & taught me how to find, cook & eat purslane, then a very old farm woman in Missouri taught me the wonders of lambsquarters, plantain I learned through reading wild plant books or of course dandelions I seemed to always know about.  I know Mother said the small leaves were good to cook & eat.

I love that all of them can be used for the chickens & be a healthy green for them.  I do use a commercial chicken feed but as you all know I tend to hunt for other healthy things to give them.  Since I could not get much lambsquarters are natural weeds up here in my yard I ordered seeds from a company in Canada who carried them as well as the golden purslane 4 years ago to start in my garden.

I let them go crazy in the areas where the garden paths would be instead of trying to weed all the time...too hard on this old back!  I pick the lambsquarters when they are small leaved for us to eat then when they get too big & tough I put it up by its roots & give it to the chickens.  By the end of the day all is left is the stock & the roots.  I do allow some to go to seed so there will be plenty for the next year before I pull them all up.  The purslane I have not had alot of as of yet...they are kind of picky...they want crappy soil so I have found they do well in my tires where I plant the small cantaloupes. So I have yet to get a big crop of them but keep hoping.

OK the reason I am writing about all of this is I found a cool bread recipe 2 days ago that deals with the blooming dandelion flowers.  I have always used the leaves & dried the roots but never knew anything to do with the flowering tops....the chickens play with the flower heads but never really eat them well now I have something to do with them...

So since I like to share here is the recipe for you if you would like to try it:

Dandelion Quick bread  Makes 1 loaf

4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of dandelion blooms (yellow flower petals only) washed & lightly towel dried
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup honey
2 beaten eggs
2 2/3 cup milk

Mix all together & place in a lightly greased bread pan.

Bake 400 degrees 20-25 minutes

So my dream is that all of you will get out in the yard & grab those wonderful flower heads & create a cool bread/s for your family.

For those of you that have purslane, you use the whole pant except for the roots, you can either blanch it for about 3 minutes & then freeze or steam it & eat it like spinach.  The lambsquarters you pick the small leaves, wash them & do the same, steam them & eat like spinach.

Now just bewared, lambsquarter has a furry underside on its leaves so if you eat a lot of them you will get what feels like a fuzzy tongue for a bit...but for me its well worth it.  I love to cook them &  add a small bit of fresh garlic & real butter then when in the bowl toss them with a bit of sea salt & pepper.

So friends get out there & have fun with your weeds!

Have a wonderful Chicken day...M'