Harvest Your Dandelions!

Step 4: Processing the Blossoms

Once you've picked 8-10 cups of blossoms it's time to begin the tedious processing. To process the blossom you must remove the petals from the green portions. The petals have all that flavor you are looking for, while the green leafy portions will have an undesirable bitter taste. There are a couple ways of doing this: you can pull the petals out by hand, or cut them off with scissors. If you pull them by hand you will get fewer green portions making for a better colored & flavored "broth." If you don't have all day to spend pulling petals (like me) then you can cut them with scissors like so...

`First rinse them under cold water, (remove dirt and/or bugs), the blossoms will close up a bit which is actually helpful. 
`Pinch together the ends of the petals with one hand
`Cut the "butt" of the blossom off with scissors
`Now remove any large remaining pieces of green 
`Throw the petals into a quart jar.
`Repeat this process until you have a full quart of yellow petals.

If your like me you'll get a little sloppy about removing the greens as time goes on. (it can take quite awhile)