Dandelion Jam

By Mel Evans

We love making Dandelion Jam in the woods in the Spring! Its delicious on Dandelion Fritters or spread on crumpets toasted on the fire.

Its very easy to make and the main ingredient is (you guessed it!) Dandelions! If you want to make Dandelion Jam your first job is to collect some Dandelions and snip off the petals with scissors. You need around two cups of petals

The green stalk is bitter and should be discarded.

Dandelions are an important source of food for Bees so it is important not to pick them all. Foraging etiquette suggests picking one in twenty. Sometimes we combine this activity with making pine cone bumble bees in order to reinforce this point. You can see how we make a bumble bee from a pine cone here.

Once the petals are prepared they should be covered with two cups of boiling water. This mixture needs to be left until cold and then the petals can be strained out. You then put this in a sauce pan and add four cups of sugar, the juice of a lemon and a sachet of pectin. This should be heated gently until the sugar has dissolved and then brought to a rolling boil. The mixture should be boiled for 15-20 minutes and then put into sterilised jars. You might need to tweak the method depending on the type of pectin you have, but there should be instructions on the box. Pectin can be bought easily in supermarkets and is usually found near the sugar.

The method uses this brand of pectin. I bought this in Waitrose.

The finished jam can be enjoyed in many ways, but if you would like to try it with Dandelion fritters you simply make a tempura batter, dip whole flowers in and fry in a little oil.

Tempura Batter can be made with 50 g corn flour, 75 g plain flour, 5 g baking powder and sparkling water.