Roasted dandelion roots (and roasted barley) for a coffee substitute

I've been learning a lot to enjoy eating dandelions this year. In late spring, I infused mature leaves and young roots in apple cider vinegar, and I've been using the mineral-rich, less acidic vinegar for a salad dressing (dandelion leaf and root vinegar tastes milder than apple cider vinegar itself due to a lot of calcium in the leaves and starch-like inulin in the roots extracted by vinegar). In early fall, I harvested re-emerged young leaves as salad greens, which was surprisingly tasty, like arugula. Now I'm harvesting a lot of thick tap roots to roast for a caffeine-free coffee substitute. Here are my steps:

1. Wash harvested dandelion roots well, air-dry and chop them up.
2. Roast the roots in the oven at between 200F and 250F (with the oven door slightly open) for a few hours until they turn dark brown with chocolaty aroma.
3. Grind the roasted roots in the blender.
4. Make decoction (boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes) with 3 teaspoonful of ground roasted roots in a mug-cupful of water.

Roasted dandelion root decoction tastes like weak but bitter coffee, so I usually add a smidgen of stevia and 1 teaspoonful of heavy cream to make it taste like cafe ole. To make it even more flavorful, I roast barley (preferably germinated for a few days) in a frying pan (about 20-30 minutes in low heat) and mix it with roasted dandelion roots (about 2:1 ratio). Roasted barley seems to add boldness and sweetness. I plan to grow chicory next year. Hope I will be able to harvest the chicory roots to add to the mix by this time next year.

Roasted dandelion roots mixed with roasted barley

Ground roasted dandelion roots and barley

Roasted dandelion roots and barley cafe ole with a curious cockatiel

Sharing dill and parsley with black swallowtail caterpillars

A very acrobatic black swallowtail caterpillar by bodhilens

The black swallowtail we saw in July must have laid a lot of eggs in our yard. We found two caterpillars on dill in a pot in August. They ate up all fresh leaves and left (or captured by other creatures). We enjoyed watching them eating and growing happily, and I had already harvested some leaves and seeds, so it was all good, except that their sudden disappearance was disappointing. Then, in September, half a dozen caterpillars showed up on parsley in a pot. I divided the plant and transplanted some from the pot to the ground, hoping to save some leaves for me to harvest for a little longer. That was a good idea. Parsley in the ground grew well and spread quite a bit. I also took two caterpillars in the house and went to a store to buy a bunch of parsley to feed them, hoping to see them metamorphosing into butterflies. That was a big mistake. I was saddened to find them dead in the following morning. I learned that they could not tolerate a trace of pesticides on store-bought non-organic parsley, though I rinsed it thoroughly before feeding it to them. I felt really bad about killing two caterpillars and decided to give all parsley in our yard to their siblings. Two caterpillars were on the parsley in the ground until a few days ago, but now they are gone. I hope that they left to be chrysalises somewhere else and will show up as butterflies in our yard next spring.

Dill flowers with a bee by bodhilens

Echinacea infusion

Echinacea infusion

This summer I tried echinacea infusion for sore throat and ear ache. According to botanists/herbalists, the medicinal properties of echinacea are concentrated on its roots, but I did not want to cut a piece of roots from blooming echinacea, so I harvested some flower tops, leaves, and stems. Also, experts suggest that echinacea should be taken as tincture (of fresh root) or tea (of dried flower tops, leaves, and stems) for herbal remedy, but I had neither form of echinacea handy, so I made infusion of fresh flower tops, leaves, and stems. The below is my notes for the experiment and the results. 

1. Rinsed harvested herb with water. Put 3 flower tops and 2 cups of chopped leaves and stems in a quart mason jar, poured boiling water over the herb until it filled up to the top of the jar, and closed the jar with a lid. 

2. Waited for 2 hours or so until the infusion turned golden brown. Sipped a teacupful, warm. It's hard to describe the flavor. Reminded me of Japanese twig tea. It's not bitter. 

3. Let the rest of the infusion sit for another 2 hours or so. Sipped another teacupful, lukewarm. Began feeling some positive effects on me. Took out the herb from the jar and stored the rest in fridge. 

4. Sipped 2 more cups, chilled, over several hours. 

After drinking the quart of echinacea infusion, I noticed some positive effects on me, so I made another quart and sipped a teacupful at a time throughout a day. Within 2 days, my sore throat and ear ache were totally gone. I never expected herbal infusion to be noticeably effective because no commercial herbal/medicinal tea bags have ever worked well on me. As a back-story, I gave echinacea in my yard extra attention and care this spring because the young shoots were chewed up by flee beetles and the growth was stunted. I felt as if the echinacea shared her loving and healing energy with me in return when I needed it this summer.