Sugar…ah, honey, honey…

On 14th January 2016 Ang was talking about sugar, and giving some different tips about sugar and honey. It reminded me that I recently found a pot of golden syrup in the cupboard, that Friend Cathy brought over last year, and I need to buy some porridge oats to make flapjack.

Golden syrup isn’t available here, and while I know it’s possible to make your own, I also know I won’t! So I ask friends to bring it over. Flapjack isn’t the same made with honey, or maple syrup, so golden syrup is a must. I also like it when I have porridge – again, nothing else is quite as good (in my opinion) on porridge than golden syrup.

Ang also gave a recipe for parsley honey, from WW2. I’ve never heard of that, but Friend Alison will often make dandelion jam in the spring/early summer, which has a distinctive, honey-like flavour. I haven’t tried it to make flapjack though, so I don’t know if it would be appropriate for that – but it might be nice on porridge!

This site gives a recipe, if you would like to try it. As dandelions are so proliferate during the spring/summer, and as nobody really seems to like seeing them in their garden, perhaps this is a good way to use them up – and, of course, stop them reproducing, as you use the flowers efore the seeds get dispersed any further!

Of course, dandelions are good for you They have long been used by Native American, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and many European cultures to cure an array of conditions from upset stomachs to liver disease. The roots, leaves, and blossoms have all been eaten fresh, brewed into teas, and even made into a honey-like syrup. Europeans often add the fresh leaves to salads. They are delicious, and very high in vitamin A, vitamin C, and Calcium. So all the more reason to use them!

Fun fact: the French word for dandeluion is pis-en-lit (literally pee in your bed, or wet your bed, because  Dandelions are a diuretic and in fact are as strong as some of the commercial products you can buy. So be warned if you use the leaves in salad!