Dandelion Greens. 4.12.17

Good time for dandelion greens.  High in calcium, iron, minerals, and multiple vitamins.  I save the biggest plants for my salad raised bed.  Excellent, hardy, very early perennial vegetable.  Dandelions have been culinary and herbal stables for centuries in many countries.  It's too bad they are not better accepted here.  We like them in Spring salads.  The chickens love eating them any time.

This plant was in the yard.  It was so lush, I intend to dig it up and transplant to my perennial vegetable bed.

Eggs and Dandelions. 3.31.16

Eggs from our chickens.  Left is after feeding dandelions.  3.31.16

For the past 4 days, I've been digging a big bucket of dandelions every day and feeding them to the chickens.

Maybe it's my imagination, but the yolk on the left looks more deeply colored, compared to the other two.  The one on the left was laid today, the two on the right were laid 3 days ago.  Since the hens are free range, the 2 eggs on the right probably contain some yard weed nutrients, but not as much.  Their yard is mostly grass, almost no weeds due to their feeding and scratching.

The hens like the dandelions and eat a pile down to nothing in an afternoon.  We have enough dandelions for many more buckets of feed.  Feeding dandelion greens may also slightly decrease the cost of feed, depending on whether the greens replace some of the feed grain.  In my yard, they are totally organic, no pesticides or herbicides at all.