mercredi 18 avril 2007

Dandelions are not weeds... But they can make you wee-wee My favourite books on plants, "Familiar Wild Flowers", were published a century ago - I've owned them for a quarter of that time and would request them as the reading matter to take with me if I were ever on the BBC Radio's "Desert Island Discs." As a set of eight volumes they are generally more readable, informative and enjoyable than most modern references I have found on the subject, put together. For example, in the introduction to that most commonplace of herbs, the Dandelion, the author F. Edward Hulme refers to another tome of the time as stating, "It is vain to describe an herb so well known." And the unnamed author is also berated for his dismissal of the Woodbine as, "It is a plant so common that every one who hath eyes knows it, and he that hath none cannot read a description if I should write it." One has to smile at the dismissiveness! But it is just the kind of statement to make me want to know more by finding it and photographing it... throughout it's life-cycle. And there lies the rub... there is so much to photograph and only a certain amount time to do it... even if you can keep track of the life-cycles of a good number of those examples, that is. The Dandelion is easy to keep track of because it is seemingly everywhere... and sometimes in both it's best states of showiness at the same time... as is seen in the photo above taken two days ago on a mid-morning cycle ride along a quiet lane bordering the river Claise. The river flood meadow was a carpet of Dandelions... and what made the picture (for me) even better was an old, abandoned Citroen H-type van, the camion-cousin to the venerable 2CV "deux chevaux" (disparagingly dubbed the "tin snail" by several English motoring journalists who probably loved the oddity enough at one time to own one) whose suspension was designed so that a if basket of eggs were placed on the front seat the car could be driven across a ploughed field and none would break. The seats of the original 2CVs - those with only one headlight - were canvas stretched between two bent metal tubes. Somewhere I have read anecdotal evidence that also involved the farmer driving to market with his wife next to him and a pig in the back... but if enacting that scenario where would the basket of eggs have been placed? Today, and two afternoons later, whilst cycling long the same lane I noticed the dandelions had mostly gone to seed... so I took more shots with a longer 135mm Nikkor lens to compress the scene... and at different aperture settings to have more, then less, depth-of-field. Arriving in town a few minutes later I learnt something new... and, as is often the case, it came in a roundabout way. I called in at the épicerie for some cheese, yoghourt and a perfect baby cauliflower not much bigger than a fist - which was about all I could fit into my small back-pack as I was carrying the 135mm tele as well as the D200 and 12-24mm extra-wide lens (thank goodness I don't have to carry extra rolls of film and a stack of filters having gone digital!). Bruno, the propriétaire, seeing the sac more or less filled with camera stuff asked what I had been taking photographs of... and I tried to relate everything I knew about what most people recognise only as a yellow-headed weed... all in French, of course. I rattled off the Latin name on a hopeful assumption it was close to the French name... but Taraxacum dens-leonis didn't ring a bell - which puzzled me as the English name Dandelion comes from the shape of the petal which is similar to a lion's tooth... and which in French is dents-de-lion. After uttering the flower's name in monosyllables whilst pointing to my own teeth followed by a big cat growling noise I tried describing how the yellow head turns to a fragile white ball which children blow to disperse a thousand seeds and so apparently tell the time. Anyway, the gesticulations finally got me there... and Bruno said, "Mais oui, Piss-en-lit." To which I almost responded to with "I beg-your-pardon? Wee-wee in the bed!" I think he really knew what I was talking about from the start... but wanted to see how difficult I could make the foreign conversation for myself to the amusement of the other customers! Eventually it dawned... I have seen pissenlit packaged for sale as a salad-leaf in larger supermarkets in the city. The French grow Dandelions as a commercial crop, Bruno saying that one would only see it in the cities because everyone in rural areas would pick it themselves for free. Doing a bit of research later I read that since Elizabethan times kitchen gardens of most country houses in England would have cultivated a couple of rows of dandelions for salads. Here in France it is normal to serve pissenlit with chives, garlic, parsley and an olive oil / lemon juice dressing. When dandelion leaves lose their tenderness they can be sautéed with onions (I also add chopped leeks) in oil, plus garlic, toasted sesame seeds and seasoning... or it could be worth trying "Wildman" Steve Brill's recipe which includes carrots from his acclaimed book "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not-So-Wild) Places". Steve is a trip... his experiences foraging for Dandelions, being arrested for doing just that in central Park, tried in court, and what followed are even funnier because they are true! "Pissenlit", incidentally, refers to the curative power of dandelion in making someone pee... I got that much from Bruno, but again from Steve Brill's site there is more, "The modern French name for this plant is pissenlit (lit means bed) because the root and leaf tea act on the kidneys as a gentle diuretic, improving the way they cleanse the blood and recycle nutrients. Unlike pharmaceuticals diuretics, this doesn't leach potassium, a vital mineral, from the body. Improved general health and clear skin result from improved kidney function. One man I spoke to even claims he avoided surgery for urinary stones by using dandelion root tea alone." And... "The leaves are more nutritious than anything you can buy. They're higher in beta-carotene than carrots. The iron and calcium content is phenomenal, greater than spinach. You also get vitamins B-1, B-2, B-5, B-6, B-12, C, E, P, and D, biotin, inositol, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc by using a tasty, free vegetable that grows on virtually every lawn. The root contains the sugar inulin, plus many medicinal substances." [Sugar inulin is a fructan present in the roots of various composite plants - dandelion root's inulin is a sugar that doesn't elicit the rapid production of insulin, as refined sugars do. It helps mature-onset diabetes, and I used it as part of a holistic regime for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)]. Which just goes to show there's more to this remarkable plant that gardeners give so little credit for. The Dandelion Clock Art Print Hennessy, William... 20 in. x 24 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed   Mounted 10:58:11 PM    comment []