Today (April 21) is Earth Day, and  I’ve been thinking a lot about dandelions lately. That’s partly because I recently finished reading Hannah Holmes’ Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn (Bloomsbury, 2005). I was attracted by the cute squirrel on the book’s cover, but as I read I also learned terms like “Freedom Lawn,” and “grass-farming” — I haven’t checked recent numbers, but back when the book was published we Americans spent more money on growing grass than on any other crop. Dandelions are an important food source for pollinators and other wild creatures; they are also entirely edible for humans, not to mention nutritious and allegedly delicious. I just happened across a Facebook video the other morning demonstrating how to prepare dandelion heads for cooking (and quickly found recipes online, like this one). So while I personally may not take to foraging the stuff growing wild in my back yard, I do firmly believe that dandelions are targets of a lot more hate than they actually deserve. And I happen to think they’re beautiful.

Busy aphids in my yard