Dandelion Crisis

The irony of this doesn’t escape me, but we’re facing a bit of a dandelion crisis on the homestead. Incredibly, our dandelion “crop” is on the verge of failure.

Michelle recently discovered a weird bug infestation in our garden. An as-yet-unidentified bug moved in to our property and attacked only our dandelions.

As I say, the irony here staggers us. While we and much of Europe regard dandelions as food, the vast majority of Americans consider it a most pernicious weed (see Dandelions). In fact, even as we depend on it for food, we strive to manage it against taking over the garden and surrounding property. But, we want it to grow well enough to provide us with all our dandelion needs during the season. These pesky bugs seem to be giving their all toward depriving us of this!

We’re actually at the point where we don’t have the dandelion greens we expect at this time of year. It’s not the end of the world. Our salad greens, kale, and other wild/feral greens continue to thrive, and make decent replacements for dandelions, but still, we’d be happier to have our full expected range.

Naturally, they’re not scarce elsewhere; dandelions are literally there for the picking all around us. However, far better to get them from our own land, where we know that no one’s using herbicides or other chemicals on them, not to mention dog pee or other undesirable “additives”.

I guess, by the dictates of Murphy’s Law, if you want to rid your property of dandelions, you might consider eating them. Once you learn to depend on them, this weird little bug may come along and destroy your crop, too? Nothing else apparently works, perhaps it’s worth a try!