Victorian America’s Dandelions
Victorian America’s Dandelions
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It’s Dandelion Season!
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Who knew our Victorian ancestors used dandelions in so many ways?
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Victorian Americans found good value in dandelions. Not only were the plant’s leaves lumped into the “greens” category (a vegetable to be cooked), but the leafy edibles were tossed into salads for the 19th century dinner table.
Further, Victorians held dandelion as one of the most powerful medicines, excellent for treating a wild range of maladies. And the weed made good beer, wine, or tea. Plus, the blossoms were prized for their floral beauty and fragrance. The humble dandelion found its place among fancier blooms in “flirting with flowers.”
In a pinch, the roots made a passable coffee substitute–but the stuff was also used to adulterate “pure” coffee.
Many Victorians held fast to the idea that nature (in myriad ways) forecast the weather. Yep, dandelions included. Englishmen, particularly early risers, have long told time by the yellow blossoms.
Farmers grew dandelions as a crop. Intentionally.
For all these valuable purposes, people intentionally sought the tender roots, shoots and spiky leaves.
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Yes, Dandelions are Weeds
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Victorians admitted this fact yet put the plant to use from blossom to root tip.
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Said one of the park gardeners: “It’s a pleasant and harmless occupation, this dandelion picking. It helps the poor folks to turn an honest penny and fill their bellies with nourishing food and gives us some aid in keeping the turf clean of weeds…
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“The dandelion flowers in May, but it gets little chance to show itself in this city, since the industrious pickers have nearly the whole of the local plants out of the ground and boiled during the fickle month of April.”
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~ The Chicago Chronicle of Chicago, Illinois. April 12, 1896.
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Springtime Vegetable: Dandelion Greens
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The use of the dandelion as a vegetable dates back, as the historians say, from remotest antiquity. It grows in nearly all parts of the world and needs no special climate for its health and vigor… the virtues of the dandelion as an edible and antiscorbutic [sic] were known in England…
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…it held a high place in household medicine, and was freely partaken of in the springtime, either boiled as a dinner vegetable, bleached for salads or made into decoctions [sic] that served as a stomach bitters.”
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~ The Chicago Chronicle, April 12, 1896
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Miss Parloa instructed two hours+ boiling time for her dandelions. Others ordered hours of boiling time for a variety of green vegetables. Here’s another example:
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Salads Made of Dandelion Greens
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The following Dandelion Salad recipes include dressings, of which vinegar plays a role.
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Victorian Medicinal Value of Dandelions
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Patent medicines were a big deal in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Advertisements filled newspaper pages, touting cures and treatments for a wide range of maladies. Today’s science makes these claims seem absurd. Yet at the time, the “at-home-doctoring” methods included home-made dandelion tonics and brews as well.
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Dandelion Tea
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Dandelion tea, it seems, could be brewed from any part of the plant. Above, a tea made from dandelion root. Below, a tea made of dandelion leaves.
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Dandelion Beer
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Dandelion Wine
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Victorians Prize Dandelion Blossoms
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Codes existed throughout history–codes to convey affection, flirtation, and the like. Ladies employed fans to transmit in code. Flowers have long meant something, too. Here’s a “Flowers for Flirting” list of 40 botanical specimens, together with conveyed meanings.
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Dandelions in Coffee: Substitute or Adulteration?
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Nature Foretells Weather: Dandelions’ Role
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Telling Time by Dandelion
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…The dandelion was put to other uses in the earlier days. Its bright yellow flowers open regularly in the morning between 5 and 6 o’clock and close in the evening about 8. Its reliability in this respect made the dandelion a clock for early risers and told of the approach of curfew in those good old days of sundials and hour glasses. This habit of the plant attracted the attention of Linaeus, who used it in the formation of his famous floral clock. Its virtues as a time-keeper are well known in rural England, where children guess the hour by the number of tufts left on the receptacle after a vigorous attempt to blow them off.”
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~ The Chicago Chronicle of Chicago, Illinois. April 12, 1896.
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Victorian-era Farmers Grew Dandelions Intentionally
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Large Dandelions.– The editor of the Bunker Hill Aurora, has been presented with two handsome dandelions, each of which is nearly as large as a peck measure, and enough for the meal of any ordinary family. This wild plant is much improved by cultivation, in size and flavor. Being a wholesome vegetable, anti-billious, anti-seorbuetic, and anti every thing bad excepting anti–bank, it is worthy of the gardener’s attention.
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Public Ledger of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 5, 1837
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Copyright © 2022 Kristin Holt LC
Victorian America’s Dandelions Victorian America’s Dandelions