Task 9: Dandelion Wine

Like most people, I have a million dandelions in my yard.  Unlike most people, I look at them and think, now what can I do with all of those?  Admittedly, the first time I made dandelion fritters; it did not go well and I would never recommend it to anyone.  On I go trying to figure out what to do with all of those darn dandelions. 

This time I decided to try something a little different.  This time I am making dandelion wine.  Even if it does not go well I received all the things I need to make wine out of the whole deal for my birthday this year.  Admittedly, in a year when we pop open that first jar if it does not taste good, I am not doing it again.  There is a reason there are not a lot of people making dandelion wine out there; it is too much darn work.

For starters, you have to pick 2 quarts worth of dandelions (for the recipe we used).  This does not include the green part.  Nope - for dandelion wine, you just use all those little flowers.  This means that after you have picked all of them, you have to separate the flower from the rest of the plant.  After doing this your fingers are this wonderful yellow color that takes days to wash out.  Then you take all of those little flowers and let them steep into a dandelion tea for two days.  After that, you boil them up with a few ingredients, which varies depending on which recipe you are using.  All include orange peels and sugar. 

Once you have achieved the optimal mix, you let it ferment for 6 weeks.  It takes a few days for you to get used to the random bubbling sound that occasionally echoes though the house.  Now, I just view it as my wine happily fermenting away into perfection.  At the end of 6 weeks, we will bottle up our wine and let it sit for a year.  In a year I will let you know how it turned out.  Sorry, if my impatient self has to wait, so do you.