The Little Wild Library: Dandelion: Simple things to do with the plants around you. - Hardcover

Gogerty, Clare

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 144631541X ISBN 13: 9781446315415

Publisher: Verbena, 2025

Synopsis

In The Little Wild Library: Dandelion, discover what makes this little burst of sunshine and fluff so special, with a host of recipes and makes to try throughout the year. All the recipes and makes are beginner friendly, making it easier and more fulfilling to engage with the natural world and form a connection to the plants and flowers that decorate our lives.

Take this pocket-sized book out on foraging adventures to help spot the plant in its natural habitat waving its fluffy dandelion "clock" merrily on a spring breeze, or brightening a dull afternoon with its burst of vibrant color, and learn:

• How to identify the dandelion from the comprehensive botanical information included
• How to safely collect and use the dandelion plants and flowers
• How to make a whole host of delicious, useful or just plain fun projects using the Dandelion.

Through the book, explore how the dandelion got its name, and discover some of the myths, legends, and folklore attached to this fantastic plant.

The perfect beginner's guide to foraging, in a handy pocket-sized format, The Little Wild Library: Dandelion will reveal the secrets of this magical weed and inspire those new to foraging to experiment and explore the beautiful plants around them.

About this title

About the Author

Clare Gogerty lives on a smallholding in deepest Herefordshire which she is opening as a spiritual retreat in 2023. The sound of shamanic drumming often comes from her orchard, and herbal remedies are frequently cooked up in the kitchen. She has been interested in magic, druidry and folklore since a child, encouraged by her father, an enthusiastic dowser and leyline hunter. A former magazine editor, she is now a freelance journalist and author, writing about spirituality, travel, homes and gardens

From the Back Cover

In The Little Wild Library: Dandelion, discover how to make the most of this useful plant, with recipes and makes to try throughout the year. Seek out these little scraps of sunshine as they pop up in spring, and come back as the seasons change and find new things to do with your foraged treasure – from edible treats to useful tinctures.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The dandelion is a herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the Asteraceae family, whose other members include lettuce, artichokes, sunflowers, daisies, and chamomile. These all have flower heads consisting of many individual florets, surrounded by bracts (modified leaves).

Dandelions are a great starter plant for a would-be forager. It would be hard to find anyone who couldn’t identify this most common of wildflowers. Its cheery yellow flowers sing out from roadside verges, the edges of footpaths, and lawns in early spring – it is a familiar and friendly sight.

However, its ubiquity and boldness mean that it has not always been welcome, and it has long been dismissed as a weed to be pulled up or worse, doused with weedkiller. But this most trampled-upon and misunderstood plant has a multitude of uses, from medicinal remedies to beauty treatments and culinary delights. It provides nectar-rich flowers for insects, as it is in peak bloom when pollinators come out of hibernation in April and May. Bees, hoverflies, beetles, caterpillars, moths, and butterflies all feed on its nectar and pollen.

The doggedness of the dandelion is remarkable. It grows almost anywhere, from cracks in the pavement to manicured golf courses. This plant thrives where not much else can. Find it in marginal places in the city – scrubby wasteland, beside railway tracks, bursting through concrete slabs – as well as fringing fields in the countryside. Adaptability is the key to its survival. It puts down roots in disturbed ground where little else grows, but it also thrives in the fertile soil of gardens and parks. The long tap root anchors it deep in the earth, making it challenging to remove and providing a secure launching pad for the dispersal of its seed, carried on the wind when blown from its ‘clock’.
Before lawns became widespread, the dandelion was celebrated as a source of food, medicine, and magic. But somewhere along the way, it was designated a weed, and fell in popularity, disappearing from our kitchens and medicine cabinets.

The dandelion’s name derives from the French dent-de-lion, which translates as ‘lion’s tooth’ and may refer to the jagged shape of the leaves, although some think it’s a nod to the spiky flower head. The lion is often associated with the sun in various cultures and myths, so the name may be a corruption of ‘rays of the sun’. In China, it is called Pu Gong Ying, which translates as ‘earth nail’ because of the length of the tap root. The dandelion's scientific name – Taraxacum officinale – gives it the authority it deserves. Taraxacum derives from the Greek taraxos (disorder) and akos (remedy), and officinale refers to its value as a medicinal herb.

Despite being shunned by gardeners, the dandelion is a generous, altruistic plant. It is potent and nutrient-dense – the only parts that can’t be used are the seed heads and stem. This book has plenty of ideas to make use of it.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verbena
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 144631541X
• ISBN 13: 9781446315415
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112