why is dandelion tea so costly?

we spent sunday packed in the crowds of the aroma festival... after our third cup of $1-tasters, we were already quite coffeed out...
out of the corner of my eye i spotted hari hari chai's dandelion root tea/coffee - and a small pack cost $18! (while the other chai was $4.50)...
i couldn't help but wonder... dandelions are classified as weeds?! why is dandelion tea so dear?
i went and DIYed some myself... i did my research... found out that there are no poisonous lookalike... there are however lookalikes eg cat's ear (also a weed, which is apparently more common) in the backyard...
dandelions are set apart from the other lookalikes by their non-hairy leaves with sharp-tooth corners... they are also single flower per rosette of basal leaves unlike the cat's ear which has branching flowers...
i dug up about a 4L icecream tub full of roots and leaves, about 10+ plants (with pretty small roots)... the hard work was washing and loosening the soil on the root and the subsequent trimming...

then, it was time for thier roasting (at 100 degrees celcius to begin with then 150)... i also roasted some barley (first rinsed and drained) at the same time, so not to waste the electricity...

dandelion roots looked abit like ginseng...

and the barley...

the roasting lasted for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours (with the 1st hour at 100 degrees)

the oven door was left ajar for steam to escape in the first hour with a chopstick

after the roasted roots / barley turned golden brown and filling the room with "coffee" aroma, it was time to grind... i used my food processor...

10 plants worth of root resulted in about 1 -2 tbsp full of dandelion root powder!

now i know why they are so costly in the shops!!!

the barley yield was much better... i was able to fill an old nesquick jar with my homemade barley powder...

and now the taste test...

dandelion root in strainer + hot water...

and a golden brew... i could certainly taste the slight bitterness... the taste did not justify all the hard work! so i'll be buying my dendelion root tea from now on... (or just make barley tea - cos it was less work and the tast wan't bad at all!)

is pumpkin really 9c/kg?

my workmate stunned me today by telling me that pumpkin was reduced to 9c/kg at aldi! then i had a peek at macrowhole foods after work and the organic version was also at a bargain price of $1.49/kg (that was what normally non organic pumpkins would cost)...

has there been a bumper pumpkin harvest this year unbeknown to me? and why is that my veg patch only yielded 5 pumpkins this season (from out of 1/2 dozen pumpkin plants?!)

no matter what, i remain proud of my organically home grown pumpkins...

they are not big, but looks lovely in their individual asymmetry...

they were cooked into cubes...

added in soups (apparently good for the health of mucous membranes if prepared in the form of a warmingly nourishing chinese soup containing black eye peas, dried red dates, pumpkin, lean pork meat)

they were also mashed and housed into ravioli - yum, but too rich for mcduck

tis' the season of eating

the past couple of weeks i have been too busy to take care of the veggie patches and consequently, some lives have been lost to an army of caterpillars and pests... lucky the season has been abit wet of late and not many have succumbed to the biggest drought of the century...

the caterpillars have been quick on the tomatoes, so i am forced to pick them early and let them blush under the warm sunrays on the window seal

the potato patch have nearly died down too... so i started digging and surprisingly found quite a few earthy knobs...

after vigourous scrubbing, they too gleam in the sunlight... although they look like new potatoes, in definition they are not quite (only the other day i found out that new potatoes are the ones that are dugged up before the potatoe plants have withered away - and the skin are much thinner)

the x mas eve meal preperation started with prawn peeling...

and why waste the prawn shells?! (in true bargain hunter spirit... i recycled the prawn shells)

i boiled the shells in alittle water... blended them and then squeezed the juices out in my trusty muslin bag...

then i boiled to reduce the liquid, before that i poured on it a good several hundred mLs of olive oil... as it reduces, the essence of the prawns are trapped beneath the oily surface... towards the end, there would be little hissing, crackling noises from the oil... and then one would know the liquid has been all but gone and the flavoursome prawn oil ready to be harvested...

liquid gold!

yum! dripped on soups or alittle on salads or bread and of course on fragrant rice!... and the bottom heavy sediment is the gold - when mixed with rice and abit of soy and sugar... yum! it's like shrimp paste but without the smell...

so i served melon (rockmelon) soup with prawns, prawn oil and a sprinkle of sea salt as our x'mas eve dinner starter

onto the next course... it was time to chop some onions and have a good cry... i tried the lighting a match and candle trick, but my tears were still streaming... i saw on tele the other day that chewing gum is as good as wearing goggles in onion tears prevention - yet to give that a try...

a kilo of chicken livers (even the butcher was surprised)... it was for the pate coating our xmas beef wellington...

after snipping off the sinew, i browned the onions and garlic and sauteed the livers and added the cream... then used my foodprocessor again...

pate! and lots of it...

the piece of steak was warming up on the bench

after coating it with the pate and mushroom mix i covered it with puffed pastry and a good eggwash...

35min in an 210 degrees celcius oven (according to various books) was not enough - it was quite rare in the middle... if i could do it again it would be 45 min...

and next time instead of a 1kg slab, i'll be getting a slender roll ( but this time around the butcher ran out of tenderloin fillet, so i had to get scotch fillet instead)...

by the time we consumed a piece of the BW, our stomachs were exploding - must be the filling pate layer... must make it thinner next time...

and look at our "tree" and abundance of pressies on x'mas day!

(organic) cafe LF

cafe longford finally has its very own espresso machine! it has taken us 9 months of price checking, unsuccessful ebaying... after using the freebie 3.5 bar machine for several months, the chance came (for a real bargain) to get the ever popular paul bassett EM6910... it sure is noisy! (OHS wise, best to use ear muffs while operating - to dampen the piercing hissing when frothing milk)... and back to the topic of bargains - it was bought at myer during the myer and american express promotion... all in all, it was bought for $530 (such a bargain price is achieved after the rebate $50 myer vouchers from AE, $50 off advertised by myer, an extra 10% off from myer for myer card holders (saving another $60) and a bonus $30 car wash voucher)... usually it retails for $699 and is not seen discounted for less than $650 anywhere else... to add to the bonus, there is a freebie DVD and freebie 1 1/2-hour barista course for one...
the freebie course was bagged by mcduck and the resident chef of LF cafe could only practise her skills quietly at home... it took litres and litres of whole milk and soy milk to achieve the 1st batch of foamy cappuccino...
... now that i have figured out the art of steam wand positioning (just under the surface of the milk) and have improved on the technique of "chasing the froth" (the rise of the wand with the rising foam)... the coffees made by cafe LF is pretty consistent...
the best economical and healthy is made with a single shot of espresso with a portion of 1/2 whole milk and 1/2 home made soy milk... home made soy milk will give the drink its sweetness while the (50%) whole milk gives it creaminess without being too sickeningly filling and fatty, should one be using 100% whole milk... and of course it is cheaper too with home made soy milk! - yep! true spirit of a bargain hunter shines...

although i must say... cafe LF doesn't skim on the quality of coffee... for a similar price to vittoria beans bought at coles, i would rather get freshly roasted beans from forsyth at the end of willoughby rd, and grind as necessary - it makes all the diff!

the veggie patch is producing organic veg for food too (as above)... the yield is quite minimal and it doesn't help when one has to share the goodies with a growing population of caterpillars! just as vasilli says, squashed caterpillars are the best deterrent for other mother moths and baby caterpillars... so my fingers have been busy squeezing green slim out of plump wriggling worms

and at the same time saying a pray for each worm that looses its life for its cause (of being organic pest control)... at the cooking front, the home made salted eggs (from the mooncake fest) have finally matured... 1 or 2 has become overly matured and had to be thrown out... these golden, gleaming salted egg yolks have been wrapped into pretty presents of glutionus rice dumplings... each yolk is divided into several bit and each was accompanied by red dates, chinese mushrooms, fatty pork, mung bean etc etc and covered in glutionus rice and bamboo leaves...

now they are in the freezer, ready for an emergency din din...

life on the patch

the "nursery" is looking well... some of these have been transferred to the nodig garden patches... survival rate has been less than expected though (due to the post rain hot weather last week)...

savoy cabbages are hard to grow! and loved by catepillars!!! they have been holding big feasts in the hearts of cabbages until thery were interrupted today by my fingers (squishing them into oblivion) and my "white oil" (choking them to death)...

the lower patch broccolis are doing pretty good and the 1st sign of food!

the potatoes are hardy! they are growing wild (the foilage)... one only hopes that the tubers below would be prolific as well... what a bonus to have lovely flowers as well

little tomatoes are popping up... when will they brighten up the place with their red hue?

veg out organically

another day, another day of harvest... this time i dug up several root veg...
knobbly carrots and a ball of beetroot, several pea pods and basil & beetroot leaves

a bit of scrubbing , slicing and dicing later...

with a dash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil... pinch of salt and pepper... a fresh sping salad!

what's for dindin at cafe LF?

at cafe LF, the following delish items have been recently served...
fresh organic veggies from our v own veggie patch 1...
turned into aromatic savoy cabbage & butter beans tomato stew...
... also stir-fry snow peas, radish, corn & german sausage & garlic pumpkin laced with almond and radish- leaves

for dessert... a second batch of homemade GTRB bing -pei mooncake...