Dandelion curls

I was asked to write a piece about wildflowers. I found myself writing about my grandma teaching me to make dandelion curls at the stream behind her restaurant on the day she taught me how to make dandelion jelly with the flowers. She told me that my Great-Great Aunt had taught her to make dandelion curls back at the farm she grew up on. And somehow that solidified dandelions as important. Both women are gone now. Great-Great-Aunt died when I was 15 and she was 106. Grandma passed away at 90 a few years ago.

I’m trying to get some of the pink variety to sprout in my yard. It takes a LOT to make jelly.

It’s funny these things that make the mundane so important.

I set out to write about the “real” wildflowers of that area; the ones I spent more of my childhood picking and arranging into bouquets for grandma. The lupines, bluebells, wild roses, et cetera.   But here I am filling a page about dandelions. 😉