Food/Cooking, Gardening, Herbs

Boost Your Immune System With Dandelion Tea

bubblebathselfempowerment

Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic I’ve been on a quest to grow as many fruits, vegetables and herbs as possible for my health, and in case anything happened to our food system. During this quest I found out that Dandelion is highly nutritious.

Dandelions are full of antioxidants and boost the immune system which is great news at a time like this. Especially because I have quite a few growing in my yard and they are growing organically without any chemical sprays. This may be the case for you too. Free nutrition and enhanced immunity to help us get through the pandemic healthy!

The leaves, flowers and roots all have minerals, vitamins and antioxidants including Vitamins A, C, E and K and minerals iron, calcium, magnesium and potassium.

There are many health ailments it can help, but just knowing the vitamin and mineral content was enough for me to begin adding it regularly to my diet. If you are interested in the health benefits, you can do a search on Google. Also be sure to check with your Dr. to be sure it is safe for you to use. If you spray your yard with chemicals, you wouldn’t want to use them, or if you harvest them from somewhere else, be sure they are organically grown and not next to a busy road collecting pollution.

So far, I’ve been using the leaves and flowers in salads (see Dandelion Salad), in tea, and I made a syrup from the flowers. I’ve also been drying the leaves, flowers and root so I’ll have some in the fall and winter that I can use. To dry them, I’ve been laying them on a towel in my kitchen and once they are crispy dry, I put them into glass jars with lids (the jars are from store-purchased jelly, pizza sauce, pickles etc. that I cleaned and saved). I’ll label the jars with a permanent marker with what it is and the date, for reference later.

The leaves and roots are bitter tasting. When I make tea, I’ll add other herbs like mint or thyme to improve the flavor (these other herbs also have their own vitamins and minerals so the tea is extremely healthful). To make tea, I’ll add a handful of the washed fresh leaves of the herbs I use to my ceramic teapot, boil water in a pan, then fill the teapot up with boiling water, put the lid on and let sit for at least 10 minutes. The same method can be used with dried herbs but you only need to use 1/3 the amount of fresh because flavors are concentrated in dried herbs.

Making herbal tea has become a daily health ritual for me and I’m loving it. Sometimes I’ll drink it 2-3 times per day. I love knowing I’m getting all those vitamins and minerals in a healthier more natural way than taking supplements and because I’m growing them, it’s free!

If you decide to use dandelion be sure to identify the plant you are using. There is another weed that looks very similar to dandelion called Cat’s Ear. The way that I can tell the difference is that the Cat’s Ear leaves have small hairs on them and Dandelion leaves do not. It’s always a good idea to positively identify any plant before using because there are some plants that are poisonous.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments. Have you used dandelion in a different way? Do you have other immune system boosting tips? Please share below.

~ Monica

Published by bubblebathselfempowerment

The pandemic brought a lot of awareness to me about climate change, food shortages, how quickly our hospitals could colapse and more. This has sent me on a mission of becoming self-sustainable, empowered and working to help heal the earth. That is what the focus of this blog has become. The main way I'm working at this is through building a food forest and documenting as much as possible in hopes to inspire others. The more of us that do this, the more it will help heal the earth. When we buy produce from the grocery store, it was grown through monoculture, and that leads to use of chemicals that goes onto our food and into our planet, destroying soil. If we grow our own through permaculture (a food forest), we give the soil health. We also give ourselves health by growing organic foods and herbs that contribute to our health. There's a lot more to this, but this touches the surface. I'm only one year into this but my food forest is growing. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

43 thoughts on “Boost Your Immune System With Dandelion Tea”

    1. I believe that the mind is the best doctor: Lifestyle the best medication. What you eat and drink tops the list.

      When I was 50 I looked 60.
      Now that I am 78+, I still look 60 or less per my family doctor last week.

      My wife is always mistaken to be my mother when anyone meets us for the first time.

      It’s meditation, acupressure, walking, vitamins, minerals, food and teas for me!

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  3. We have a really old book called Gods own pharmacy, when I find it i’ll post the authors name. It has some amazing recipes. One that I have used & works is radish juice for gall stones. 100ml of radish juice for a few days then decrease amount over 2weeks, I think it is, will dissolve a gall stone. Always check with a health professional though before trying anything.

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  5. Great idea, Monica, offering all manner of useful ideas for that most healthy of crops, the dandelion. Quite easy to obtain, too. Bidden or not (nearly always not), if you have a front yard, you have dandelions.

    Valuable advice about the pesticides. If you ever had Chemlawn treat the grass, or threw down some Scott’s on your own, your dandelions will have soaked up all those chemicals, even if the supplements came about years ago.

    Still, easy enough to gather some potting soil, and blanket it with a gray puff’s bounty. The dandelions will grow. 100% pure, and they’ll grow.

    Trust me on this one. .

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  9. So great to hear that you also grow vegetables. I have been wondering about our dandelions and you have given me the answer. When I go walking again I am going to check if they have hairs or not. Very interesting post about dandelions.

    I started growing a vegetable garden 4 months before I discovered that I had breast cancer in 2012. I believe I was being guided to eat more healthily but eventually I became distracted and at the end of last year I told my husband that I wanted wooden vegetable planters for my birthday in January so that I could start growing vegetables again. So by the time covid was around we were eating my veggies again. 😊

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    1. I was thrilled to be able to start a garden when I was laid off from my job for 2.5 months because of the pandemic. I hadn’t gardened since my divorce 13 years ago and forgot how much I loved it. Being back to work, I don’t have any time for it anymore and the garden didn’t do as well as I had wished. Do you think your garden helped your cancer? How are you doing now? I don’t mean to pry, but my mom just passed in October from brain cancer – it started out as uterus cancer, then it spread to her lungs and brain. A year and a half of chemo, radiation and other treatments, she was gone. My dad and I both question if it was the cancer or the chemo that sucked her life away. Louise Hay got cancer in her 20’s, refused chemo and went to a healthier lifestyle and her cancer left and never came back. She lived to her 90s. I hope you are doing well now and that you are not suffering.

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      1. Thank you for asking, I don’t mind at all.
        I am doing well, it’s been 8 years since and still no signs of it spreading. 🙏🙏 I am so grateful for my life. My sister in law and close friend had it around the same time as I did and they both have past on. Shew there is so much to say about it. I am sorry your mom went that way, my sister in law finally died of brain cancer as well after her initial cancer being breast cancer.

        I am not sure if it did help my cancer but I definitely believe in living the most healthy lifestyle as possible and I think healthy organic vegetables are important. I was very resistant to the idea of chemotherapy but thankfully I didn’t need it. I took the option of a double mastectomy instead. Radical but I don’t like artificial chemicals in my body if at all possible.

        I wrote a whole series of posts on it at the beginning of the year if you want to read more.

        Sending love and hugs

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      2. Thank-you for sharing something so personal. I am glad it has not spread in 8 years. My heart goes out to you for what you had to go through and sacrifice. I know that if I ever get diagnosed, chemo will not be an option. It’s one reason I’m passionate about herbs. I only wish I had re-educated myself so I knew how to help my mom. She was also into herbs but not real heavy into it – more like a hobby and she got more sick so she was not able to go out and garden. At some point I will get to your series 🙂

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    2. There’s so many herbs with reports that say they ‘may’ help fight cancer because there has not been research! I just don’t understand this when chemo practically kills people. Well, I do understand it, it’s about money. So one of the things I want to do is study herbs and use them, helping family and friends. If I can ever figure out how to make the time for all that I want to do.

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