I found this awesome YouTube channel recently called “Great Depression Cooking”, which features a 94-year-old woman, Clara, going through common recipes used during the Great Depression.
I thought this particular video on dandelion salad was great for homesteaders to know, or anyone really, because it’s simple, nutritious, and almost everyone has dandelion growing in their yard or nearby their house. I think my favorite part of this video, however, is watching Clara carefully pick and clean the dandelion, explaining that it’s free, and all it takes is patience. It made me think about how much more work people used to put into getting and processing food, and of course, that’s what homesteading is all about! Putting in the extra effort to get free, natural, sustainable food that you grew and harvested yourself. If you aren’t homesteading yet, regularly harvesting and processing dandelion greens would be a great habit to get into to develop the patience! Enjoy.
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One comment on “Great Depression Era Dandelion Salad (Video)”
Well, the idea seemed like a good one I’ve tossed a dandelion leaf or two in salads but not made the whole salad with them. But the video needs some serious editing. The dialogue is often not in sync with her lips, or what she is saying bears no relation to what we see. Many of her “lines” are repeated. WHY is it necessary to soak these leaves for 2 hours or more? Something to do with overwhelming flavor? What type of dressing does Clara recommend? Why show the dish of dressing long before the leaves are cleaned without telling us what it is?
I’ll definitely try adding dandelion leaves to my salads in the future, but please do edit the video.
Also, it’s the ONLY video I have ever seen that gives the total length (in this case 5:39) and then has audio rolling with no picture running at least 2 minutes longer than the time we would expect (I clicked off the video at 6:55).