Traditionally picked on St. George’s Day, the flower petals of the dandelion can be brewed into a country wine. It turns out that its leaves can also be eaten as a salad leaf and its horrendously long tap roots that seem to grow down as far Australia make a passable coffee substitute: but now the humble dandelion has another use – it can be turned into car tyres.
That milky-white substance that oozes onto your fingers whenever you break the stem or root of this useful plant/weed is actually latex. And German tyre maker Continental is about to turn its research project into a facility that makes dandelion rubber by the ton.
“We have built up a great deal of expertise in the field of dandelion cultivation in recent years.” explains project manager Professor Dirk Prüfer, “This enables us to grow particularly high-yield plants much more efficiently.” Okay, so what the good Professor is saying is they’ve developed a super-duper dandelion with massive roots – the gardening wine-lovers among you may want to have a small cry now.
But let’s try and be positive. You may not (as yet) have enough dandelions to turn your garden into a profitable rubber plantation (you’ll need the Russian variety, or Kazakh dandelion, to be sure of optimum production) but you’ve probably got enough to make dandelion coffee (dry roast the de-mudded roots in a low oven at 130C for a couple of hours then grind and steep in boiling water as usual) or use the petals to make an old-fashioned country wine.
No part of the calyx (the green bit below the petals) should enter your initial steeping mixture of boiling water, so use scissors to cut off the petals while remembering why you wanted to go to all the effort of making this in the first place – because you can’t buy this barley-sugar tasting wine and it’s fun anyway.
Strain the petals out of the soaking liquid after a couple of days and throw these away (or compost them) and add sugar, raisins, lemon juice and wine yeast into the remaining liquid. Leave to ferment for a few more days and then transfer the whole lot (strained) into a demijohn.
Drink when ready.
PG Wine Reviews
Animus Vinho Verde 2017, Portugal
£4.99 Aldi
Floral aromas with light apple flavours. Fresh.
Domaine Ferrandiere French Merlot 2017
£5.99 Aldi
Deep fruity flavours.
Stonehaven South African Sauvignon Blanc 2017
£5.99 Co-op (down from £7.99 until May 22)
A smooth and balanced Sauvignon Blanc with flavours of nuts and lemon.
The Wine Foundry Spanish Godello 2017
£6.49 Aldi
Apple and lemon with a floral edge.
Co-op Irresistible French Marsanne 2016
£7.99 Co-op
Subtle flavours of pears and honey. A nice wine.
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© Paula Goddard 2018 www.paulagoddard.com
