Dandelions - weeds of abundance!

The dandelion syndrome: ignoring what is all around you, right under your nose, in search of more complicated solutions. Dandelion detoxifies, provides digestive regeneration (the gut is the center of health!) you can eat the green leaves fresh, make soothing oils from its flowers, steep its roots for digestive teas, and yet we will go out of our way to get greens from a grocer that have traveled endless miles to get to us (i am totally guilty of this!) buy fancy skin treatments, and boxed teas that provide barely as much nutrients as something we could easily make for ourselves (provided you have access to areas not sprayed with chemicals).

This brings up ideas of how often I take obvious abundance for granted... I regularly find myself itching to purchase new fabric, new yarns, try out new dyes, or get seeds for new plants.. when all the while i have a closet brimming with materials from which to make things, and a yard that is literally overflowing with plants to harvest, learn from, enjoy. That book you are dying to get a copy of? I dare you to go to your bookshelf right now and NOT find a book you haven't finished. One that won't inspire you just as much as the new one.

Not only that, but the level of abundance that dandelions grow at make it practically impossible to over-harvest. I'm doing the flowers along the house a favor by removing the dandelions at their base (don't worry - plenty more will pop up in their place!) This new perspective turns the laborious task of weeding into an act of harvesting, collecting these beauties for medicinal and dye use makes the labor dual purpose.

That said, I can't wait to find a purpose for Goldenrod root... we pulled out about 50 pounds of intricate root systems from our garden, which had been allowed to grow over for years as the house was unoccupied. Any suggestions out there?

Image from the Poison Apple Printshop's Herbal Grimoire