Those who knew and remember the late Mollie Harris of The Archers fame, who lived in Eynsham, will no doubt recall her excitement as the middle of April approached. This was the time she began in earnest gathering ingredients for her home-made wines from the countryside.

Most years, dandelions are in bud towards the end of March and breaking out into glorious yellow flowers within the first week of April. She saw St George’s Day, April 23, as the optimum time for picking dandelions and could often be seen heading down the country roads that led out of the village carrying a couple of buckets during mid-April.

The amazing thing about dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) is that every part of the plant is useful: root, leaves and flowers. Considered a great tonic when the flowers are immersed in boiling water to produce a fragrant tea, it’s also used to treat rheumatic problems. The dandelion gets its name from the French dent de lion, which means lion’s tooth, referring to the deeply-toothed green leaves which really do resemble a lion’s tooth.

The roots actually make a rather passable coffee, which sustained people during the war years when coffee beans were scarce.

It’s the thick-leafed variety of this robust weed that is best for making salads. The young leaves are best, as the older leaves are inclined to taste very bitter. If plants are covered with a plant pot during early spring they will remain tender and light in colour and a perfect addition to a mixed leaf salad. Leaves must be harvested before the flowers come into bloom and to avoid the salad becoming too bitter, it’s best to add just one quarter of dandelion leaves to three- quarters of assorted leaves.

The leaves can also be used in a stir fry. They can be tossed into a soup to great effect too (See recipe opposite). The French add the leaves to a small pan of bacon cubes and cook until they have wilted. When flavoured with a little vinegar and garlic croutons this combination makes an excellent side dish.

All these ideas are excellent ways of using up a prolific weed, but do remember not to harvest dandelions that have been sprayed with weed killer or are gathered at the side of the road and so contaminated with petrol fumes. Rather do as Mollie Harris did which was to find herself a meadow where dandelions were flowering in abundance and just sit down with her buckets and a sharp knife and harvest them on a warm day.

For the right amount of flowers for a gallon of wine, she would pick enough flower heads to fill a gallon container, taking care to remove the little green collar round the flower head by holding the head upside down and cutting off the green part, with the flowers dropping into the bucket. Back home she then poured a gallon of boiling water over the flower heads, covered the bucket with a cloth and left it undisturbed for two days.

She then tipped this mix into a large saucepan, added the grated rind of three large oranges, placed the pan over heat and brought to the boil, allowing it to bubble steadily for at least ten minutes. When the liquid had cooled a little, Mollie strained it into a clean bucket, to which three pounds of sugar had been added, along with the juice of the oranges. The mix was then stirred until the sugar dissolved. When the wine had cooled, she stirred in the yeast and left the bucket covered with a cloth for four days. Her last job was to strain it off into a sterilized demijohn. Having fixed an airlock, this was stored in a dark place until the wine had stopped working and had settled ready to drink. This takes six months, sometimes more. It makes a lovely golden-coloured sweet wine.