Dandelion Winemaking Instructions - 2002

Yes, the dandelions are back! It's amazing how many people struggle to destroy dandelions, when they are incredibly wonderful in so many ways! They're easy to grow, they make delicious wine, the leaves make a great salad, and you can even brew them for a tea! When spring comes and my yard fills up with dandelions, I think to myself, yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Dandelion wine is EASY. You don't need anything special. And it's *really* tasty. Be sure to give this a try!

The 2002 batch was begun on April 27th, 2002.

Day 1: April 27th

Find a field of dandelions. If it's your own, you'll know it hasn't been poisoned with weed killer. If it's not your own, make sure you check on that first. It's amazing that people try to destroy these beneficial plants.

In 2002 we only did 8 cups of dandelion heads. This didn't make NEARLY enough wine for us to truly savor. We definitely wanted more. This year we went with 16 cups. It really doesn't take that much time to pick them, they very nicely grow in little clumps. You want just the yellow heads, not the leaves or the stems. The little green 'underleaves' are fine. If you pick during the middle of the day they're wide open!

The freshly picked dandelion heads are eagerly awaiting their journey into winedom.

OK, for 16 cups of dandelions you need 2 gallons of water. Boil the water without the dandelions in it. You're going to need to have the dandelions in water sit for 2 days in a non-metal container. Last time we did it in a ceramic container, but we don't have a ceramic container this big. So we're going with glass. Of course, you don't want to pour boiling hot water into most glass containers! So we mixed the dandelions into the boiling water and took it off the heat. Once it cooled, we transferred this into the glass container and put saran wrap on top to seal it.

Day 2 - stirring
Dandelion Wine Recipe

Dandelion Wine 2003 Main Page
Dandelion Wine 2000 Main Page
Winemaking Instructions