HERB - Peddler's Dandelion recipe

[Gaylin Walli]

Friends,

As promised, here is the recipe that I tasted last week or so.
I've had a lot of bad dandelion wine. This tasted darned good,
even young. I don't remember exactly when the batch was started
and she doesn't say in her notes, but it was last year when we
picked the flowers and I suspect that was sometime around May,
based on flowering times where we were picking. An additional
note that she hasn't included: we packed the dandelion heads
lightly into the measuring container we were gathering them
with. They weren't crushed flat, but neither were they simply
dropped in.

I'm not familiar with the e-mail address she gives, so if anyone
needs to speak with her directly and the address doesn't work,
I'll be happy to pass along the messages.

-- Jasmine, jasmine at infoengine.com

(PS: For the record, I reformatted the text of the instructions
she sent because the text all ran together in the original. The
text itself hasn't changed.)



Peddler's Dandelion Wine

Passed on by Baroness Ygraine the Herbalist
Canton of Brackedelve, Middle Kingdom
February 17, 1999
ygraine at cwix.com

Needed for 5 gallon batch:

5 lbs. Raisins
17 lbs. (or 3 gallons) Sugar
10 Oranges - no seeds, chopped up rinds ok
10 Lemons - no seeds, chopped up rinds ok
1 packet active dry yeast (I used Cote Des Blancs)
5 quarts dandelion flowers, no stems, green around flower ok
6-7 gallons water

Instructions:

(1) Pour 2 gallons boiling water over flowers in container.
(2) Let sit 30 hours.
(3) Remove flowers and add rest of stuff including rest of boiling water.
(4) When cool enough, add yeast and cover.  Let sit for 15 days.
(5) Rack over to carboy and let sit for 60 days.
(6) Rack over to temp carboy then bottle.  Best after 1.5 years.

5/7/98 - I actually got 8 gallons, one full carboy and one half
full, which didn't seem to be affected much by the extra air.
I actually didn't bottle until 2/9/99.  The wine was quite strong
(estimate 14-15%) just how I like it and tasted great even with
another 9 months to go, although the ingredients still could be
tasted distinctly and needed more time to meld and the dandelion
taste to mellow.
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