Velda and Joe: A(nother) Grand Adventure

[April, Ireland] For a green country there are an awful lot of yellow flowers in Ireland. Rapeseed. Buttercups. Narcissus. Gorse. And dandelions. Hundreds of them, thousands, millions.

“We love our dandelions. They are great early pollinators.” That’s what I heard from several of our Irish cousins. They also provide deep soil aeration and are a food source for a variety of wildlife. As a result, we’ve seen fields of dandelions. Robust dandelions. Beautiful dandelions. Dandelions worth photographing and painting.

But there’s more. Dandelion tea is healthy for you. It’s a nutrient-dense source of vitamins A, C, and K as well as folate, calcium and potassium, is a liver tonic and a natural diuretic.  That’s why they are also called “Piss in the Bed,” one cousin told me, or “Pissy-bed,” another added.