5 WAYS to USE DANDELION FLOWERS 🌼

[Music] hello friends and welcome back to my homestead i just picked a beautiful bunch of dandelion flowers look at these guys aren't they and the aroma is so incredible so i just came home and i need to process them so before i do anything with them i need to pour them out on the surface just like this so it will and i just put newspapers clean newspapers on the bottom uh on the table so just to keep them clean and i'm gonna spread them out evenly the best i can and this will allow any kind of bug that might have been hiding and this will give them a chance to kind of run out and do their thing and this is why it's a good thing to do this outdoors somewhere where the bugs have a chance to escape all right um if i did this in the kitchen they would stay in my kitchen so this is why i'm outside on the porch doing this and um this will give it like an hour an hour and a half i'll give it a chance to run away from the flowers okay because i will not be washing them i don't want to bring any more moisture to them um because then i don't want to dry them okay i want to keep them the way they are so it's been about an hour of this flower sitting here outside on a table and now i'm just going to and i see the bugs have escaped i don't see any more uh bugs crawling on them now i'm going to be separating them not all of them but just some um because i'm going to be making four different things actually five different things using this flowers today one of them is i'm gonna be making apple cider vinegar infused with this beautiful flowers okay uh and the reason why i'm separating because this is bitter and i don't want a bitter vinegar for um for my cooking now i'm gonna be using that in i'm going to be using that when i make salad dressings and i'm going to be using my homemade apple cider vinegar that i made last fall remember that guys i made it with organic apples so this is the apple cider vinegar and all i need to do is i need this beautiful petals that i'm separating right now and i'm going to take a container a glass container with a plastic cover i don't want to put it on the metal because metal can erode uh under the acidity of the apple cider vinegar and i'm gonna infuse that i'm gonna mix them together and i'm going to let it sit in a dark place in my kitchen cupboard for about two to four weeks or so and let them just infuse okay i have my petals all right all right it's going to be wonderful to be used when i'm doing some cooking so i have a glass container but i don't have a plastic cover so i'll show you what guys what i'm gonna do all right so let me just pour this inside push all these beautiful petals inside okay it's they're so fragrant oh my goodness all right just like this maybe i'll put a few more let me put a few more of these guys i'm just going to warn you your fingers will turn yellow from handling these flowers but it's okay it's all washable all right all right so now i have my apple cider vinegar this apple cider vinegar is so delicious i have to tell you guys it's really really delicious so i just shook it so the mother that was on the bottom moved up mmm smells like apples all right so let me cover that all right there it is now because i don't have a pla uh plastic cover for this all i'm gonna do is i'm just gonna take uh you know just a little little piece of plastic put it right over and then i will attach my metal cover all right that's it shake it all together and let this bad boy infuse but i also uh need to make sure that i put a label on it and i have a little piece of paper here that i will attach and i will label it with what it is and when i made it and when it's ready for use okay so one thing is infusing it's going to be delicious to be uh put over salads okay next thing next thing i'm going to be making is a salve for itself so i need to infuse oil okay so what i need to do now is all i'm going to take is i don't need to remove any kind of uh because it's not for digestion ingesting so it doesn't matter i'm going to be putting my flower petals into a small glass container make sure it's clean and dry all right i'm gonna put them all in here just like this i'm not making a very big uh amount because i don't need a very big amount amount so i like to recycle my glass containers this was from an herb a turmeric herb i used okay um some people like to use the baby food little jars those are perfect as well let me tell you on the homestead we learn to be frugal all right so i filled this up and i'm going to cover that with extra virgin olive oil if you have any avocado oil cold pressed also a wonderful thing to use but i'm gonna be using this um so just a cold pressed extra virgin olive oil okay so i'm gonna fill this up to the top okay and i'm gonna let this sit in a dark place for next four to six weeks and i'm gonna mix it once in a while make sure everything is okay because i don't want any anything exposed so i have a little where did i put it i had a little wooden skewer here because i'm just going to mix it and make sure that all the air bubbles are gone because the air bubbles i don't know if you can see that guys and i make sure that they all disappear all right and i'm going to make sure that the plant material is completely covered with oil because i don't want it to go bad on me okay and it's going to sit here and infuse and after it's infused i'm going to strain it and i'm going to use this oil to make a salve which a separate video how i make salves or hand lotions okay and i use coconut oil i use some essential oils and i use the wax from my beehive to make to make the selves so what are these self good for well it's perfect to be used in the wintertime when you have those dry chopped rough hands right also it's good to be used on eczema or any kind of um like sore hands sore joints so it's really really good for your hands or for your extremities all right i'm just going to add a little bit more oil because when i pushed all the air bubbles the oil settled on the bottom and i want to make sure that there's no air left in this jar so all the way to the top i'm going to put a cover on oh my goodness look how beautiful this little jar is huh isn't that nice and again i need to put a label on it because the label has to say what's contained in it okay what's in it when i made it and when it's good to be used okay so again four to six weeks probably six weeks total all right nice and tight no air gets in all right that's the second thing that i made all right now the third thing i'm gonna be making is a tincture and tincture i'm gonna be using fresh plant material i'm not gonna separate i'm just gonna use them just like this okay and the concentration should be two to one two parts of of flowers or plant material all right and one part of vodka so what i'm gonna do is i'm just gonna oh a little piece of leaf i'm just gonna fill up my container and i'm gonna cover everything with vodka so what kind of alcohol should should be used um i'm gonna be using vodka but you can also use rum um but i find that vodka is better anywhere from 80 to 100 proof so when it's 100 proof means that they're 50 of alcohol and 50 of water when it's 80 proof that means it's 40 of alcohol and uh 40 of alcohol and in water all right i don't use any other kind this is this is what i use and again i'm going to put this in a dark place somewhere in my kitchen cupboard away from the sunlight and i'm going to be stirring that i'm going to be stirring that once a day once a day again i'm using a little skewer let me just push this aside i'm using a little skewer just to push all those air bubbles down make sure there's no air bubbles left because i want to make sure that all the plant material is covered to the top because i don't want any oxidation happening of the flowers all right and it's going to sit in a cupboard six to eight weeks probably a whole eight weeks but even if you forget it and let it sit longer it's okay it's not going to go bad tinctures last forever and let me add a little bit more alcohol to top it off all right and i'm going to put a cover on all right so i'm going to be mixing this once a day every day for at least a week after that once or twice a week when i remember just mix it up and down just make sure everything is covered nicely again i need to put a label on it because believe you me this is gonna start changing color and pretty soon i'm not gonna know what it is so um don't let your mind fail you again i'm gonna take a little label i'm just hiding everything here under the newspapers because it's a little windy today and uh i don't want things to fly away again i'm going to put a label on it and i'm going to mark it what it is what i use for material what kind of alcohol i used when it's made and when it's good to be used okay now what are the tinctures used for remember tincture is a very strong medicine that one dose of tincture would be equivalent to a one cup of infusion if you made a tea infusion okay and distinctions can be used as a liver detox as a digestion stimulator this helps with constipation it helps as a blood purifier that's what how the old textbook herbal textbooks call them all right but it's also used um uh to treat uh pms cramps uh what else um anti-inflammatory so people with rheumatism have used that it's a good to stimulate bile production so people who have poor bile flow for digestion will take this often before eating anything i do have to do a disclaimer i'm not a doctor i don't diagnose treat or recommend anything here please do your own research okay please please do your own research so i'm not qualified to do that um so i'm just showing what i what i know and how i like to use it in my household um okay so what else what else the next thing i'm going to be doing i'm just going to be separating them a whole bunch of them so i can dry them for um for tea okay and they're a beautiful addition to any kind of tea especially tea i make because these flowers have a very mild analgesic effect okay so when you're tired when you soar um when you have pms cramps or when the joints are stiff and sore i like to make this tea and this is just one of the ingredients i put a whole bunch of other ingredients and it's a really good tea to drink because it really helps with that um with that stiffness with that pain because it does have mild uh anti anti-inflammatory prop properties now also dandelion is a natural diuretic mild diuretic but there's something interesting about it is that because it's packed with potassium even so normally when diuretics are taken um people lose a lot of potassium through through through urine to excretion of urine but this one will not do that why because um it has a lot of potassium okay so so i'm just breaking this up i'm gonna break a whole bunch of it and i'm going to dry them okay how do i dry um my my petals here i can put it in a dehydrator i have a dehydrator but also um and it will just take a few hours not long at all you don't want to put it for several hours probably about four to six hours and these will be dry but before you store them make sure that they're super dry because you don't want to store them and then mold begins to grow and you just wasted all of your efforts and all that work so make sure they completely dry before you store them away so but also if you don't have a dehydrator you can put it on a baking sheet lined with like parchment paper and put it on the lowest setting in the oven lowest lowest setting in the oven and so the moisture escapes i usually would take like a wooden spoon or something and like jam it in a door of the oven so the door always stays a jar and that way the moisture escapes from the oven it's super low temperature and you just let it dehydrate don't leave the house so you don't forget about it okay um but while you're doing other chores in the house let this dry up all right if you live in a very dry climate you can always just spread this out on the newspaper put it somewhere in a place where it's not going to be bothering anybody and let it dry air dry just like that okay but we live in a very humid environment so for us it's not always the best way to dry these petals so i'm gonna put mine into a dehydrator for a few hours and see how they go because they should still retain that yellow color okay but they're gonna be super super dry you can pulverize them if you want to but i don't i just leave them the way they are and i put them in a mixture with tea so i have this tea i make for i call them pms cramp tea and dandelion is one of the ingredients dandelions also put in a tea or infusion you can make for people who have acne and eczema because that's also a great detox okay it's a great detox so it helps to purify skin as well oh my goodness guys if you could only sit here and smell this right now it's absolutely wonderful it's so so good so the last and the fifth thing i'm gonna make is gonna be dandeline wine i've never made dandelion wine before and we're not big drinkers but i want to learn how to make it so i've been researching internet i looked in some old-fashioned cooking books homesteading books and there are recipes how to make dandelion wine and i have all the ingredients so i've decided to chance it and make it because i feel like learning a new skill is always useful on a homestead um because you never know when that wine may come in handy for cooking medicinally okay or maybe you may have to give it to somebody as for exchange or as a gift something like that i just want to share with you that there are a couple of considerations when there is a use for um the dandelion and this came from a book um it's called prescription for herbal healing second edition and it was written by phyllis belch i think it's pronounced belched belch and she describes that there are some considerations when dandelions are being used because they can be used as pills as ts as tinctures as cells but especially more concerning when it's taken internally so for example because it increases stomach ph if someone who has a um known gastric ulcer this can increase um discomfort okay so um discuss the situation with your physician also some people have reported increased heartburn because again it increases ph for those who have obstructed common bile duct this is contraindicated because it increases bile production again discuss it with your physician should be avoided um so again people who are taking potassium supplements on a daily basis something that's prescribed to them they should discuss using dandelion why because dandelion may block absorption of their potassium that they're consuming okay also if people who are taking um blood thinners on a daily basis prescribed blood thinners this may interfere with their blood thinners anticoagulant medications and what else what else dendoline should be avoided doing during use of antibiotic such as um ciprofloxacin so any antibiotic that has a flaxseed name in it so it's like ciproflaxin which is cipro this can i block use of this antibiotic okay so again always speak with this physician before you're using herbal preparations all right oh my goodness this is beautiful so that's what's something i wanted to share with you so i took out my one of my herbal books but i continuously refer to my herbal books anytime i use any herbs for my family or for myself for the dandelion wine i have chosen to remove these little green parts because i know they're a little bitter and i really want my wine to have that pale white clear yellowish color almost like white wine so i have decided to remove them i know there are some recipes though don't say to remove them at all but i'm going to remove them so it is very time consuming but you know what have this is like a you know family thing where you can have your kids sit around the table and you do this activity together those are probably the most precious memories i have with my babushka with my grandmother because we always did things like this around the homestead back in the day back in the old country we would just sit in the backyard and she would share stories very often she repeated the same stories over and over again so my siblings know this but it was still so so wonderful just to listen to her telling stories and i hope to pass on these stories to my kids and with everybody so attached to the electronics these days it's very difficult to pull the kids away from the electronics so this is going to be a great way to have them sit here with you outdoors on a fresh air such as today that birds are chirping and i'm just sitting here pulling my petals apart uh how i'm gonna make this wine i will do a separate video because i feel like it's gonna be a lengthy process so i'm gonna be doing that in that video but right now yes five things we can do using these beautiful dandelion flowers

Channel: Luli's Homestead

Views: 408,032

Keywords: Homestead, homesteading, garden, organic, home remedies, remedies, dandelions, dandelion flowers, dandelion infusion, dandelion infused oil, dandelion infused apple cider vinegar, dandelion tincture

Id: Nw6gaEmPFcY

Length: 22min 23sec (1343 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021