Coming in to Sonairte today it would have been hard to miss the Springtime. Dandelions and primroses are appearing all along the roadside – the primroses on the banks at Julianstown and Duleek are particularly good. And both primroses and dandelions are good on the dinner table. The Romans (and others since) boiled primrose leaves but I’m not wild about those. I am wild about candied primrose blossoms though, especially since we used to make them to decorate the Simnel cake for Easter when I was a child.

And dandelions are wonderful. I like to turn a bucket upside down over a strong plant to exclude the light so that the new leaves grow as pale and delicious as those pointed buds of chicory we pay such a lot for at the supermarket. In fact dandelions and chicory are relatives and recipes for one always work for the other. Even if you don’t blanch the leaves this way they are great in a stir fry and the roots can be dug and sliced thinly for the stir fry as well. Or dried, ground, and used as a coffee substitute. They don’t taste like coffee at all to my mind but they do make a nice drink.

As for dandelion flowers, they take me back to my childhood and Grandad’s dandelion wine, made on St George’s day, April 23rd, when they are usually at their best. Grandad’s version was fortified – he added a bottle of brandy to the barrel when it had finished fermenting. I don’t do that but it is still pretty special, carrying the honey scent of spring deep into the winter.

Just one word of caution – don’t pick from the roadside because of pollution levels, and don’t pick primroses from the wild – even though they may seem plentiful they won’t be if you keep picking them. So grow some in your own garden. Keep splitting the plants and let them seed around and in a couple of years a single plant will begin to take over the lawn if you have the sense to keep the lawnmower off.