An excellent alternative to honey is dandelion or daisy honey. Production is very easy, but can be a bit time consuming. You have to go out into the meadow or garden and pick lots of dandelion and daisy flowers. But in the spring, when all the flowers are blooming, the greenery is thickening, and the sun is warm again after the winter, the picking process is really fun. You can even get the kids involved. It won\’t last long, but their help will be useful. At least 400 dandelion flowers or 3 pint jars of daisies need to be picked.
There are many recipes for making these honeys. And there are many opinions about whether honey is healthy. In fact, most recipes state that it must be boiled for hours to thicken. Thus, any health benefits are cooked away, and overheating sugar can release carcinogens.
For this reason, I have modified the recipe somewhat. Since I don\’t boil it, it produces a syrup rather than honey, but that\’s fine. On the contrary, it can be used in salads, or mixed with yogurt or cottage cheese. The taste of dandelion honey is reminiscent of bee honey. Therefore, when baking gingerbread cookies, you can save the expensive real honey and replace it with dandelion honey. I feel that by not boiling the syrup for a long time, the health benefits are preserved.
Dandelionis excellent for upset stomachs, regulates digestion, and boosts metabolism. It also acts against urinary tract stones.
Daisieshave anti-inflammatory and healing properties, strengthen the liver and gallbladder, and purify the blood. Improves urinary tract and kidney problems. Helps with constipation and coughs.
Both are rich in vitamin C and have a syrupy consistency, making them suitable for use in teas to prevent colds.
Basic recipe: [23
400 dandelion flowers or 3 one-pint jars .
1 liter of water.
1 kg sugar
Preparation steps:
When I pick the flowers, I pick the beetles in the meadow or garden, and then just carefully rinse the flowers with water so that all the pollen is not washed away.
For daisy honey, boil a liter of water, add the flowers, and add sliced lemons with the peels and seeds removed. To enhance the flavor, also add lemon balm leaves. Leave it to stand until the next day. Then strain through cheesecloth, squeeze the flowers well, add sugar and cook until the sugar dissolves. The resulting honey is placed in a clean jar. I like to store it in the refrigerator.
Place the dandelion flowersin a liter of cold water and bring to a boil. When the water begins to boil, set aside and infuse until the next day. Then strain and squeeze again, add sugar and dissolve. Dandelion honey tastes like bee honey, so add nothing else.
To make the honey a little thicker. Bring to a boil and set aside. Allow it to cool and then bring it to a boil again. This process makes the honey a little thicker without losing any of its valuable medicinal properties
.
Delightfully delicious.