Dandelions and Civilization: A Forgotten History

Lovely video from The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered on YouTube. The video explores the long history between humans and dandelions. While dandelions are now often looked at as a pesky weed, they long ago served as an essential food source for humans in the ancient world.

The video, and this time of year in general, remind me of my favorite Ray Bradbury novel, Dandelion Wine. The book is thick with wonder and nostalgia for childhood summers, which Bradbury distills throughout the book with his extended metaphor of dandelion wine:

“And there, row upon row, with the soft gleam of flowers opened at morning, with the light of this June sun glowing through a faint skin of dust, would stand the dandelion wine. Peer through it at the wintry day – the snow melted to grass, the trees were reinhabitated with bird, leaf, and blossoms like a continent of butterflies breathing on the wind. And peering through, color sky from iron to blue.

Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in”

― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine


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