Foraging for food interests me, especially now that I can walk again and know better than to just pick up stuff and nibble. That is terrible, do not do that – or at least call me first so I can watch. Anyway: foraging for food makes a lot of sense to me, so when a guy who used to write for Sadly, No! put up on Facebook a post-thingy about foraging for fake capers that are really pickled dandelion buds, I was hungry for details!

He said the tight buds can be picked, rinsed and quick-pickled. “Hmm,” I said. “Hmm!” The next day, I took a close look at weeds in my tiny, 100% dog-free backyard and found dandelion buds, seen here resting after a thorough rinse and cursory cleaning. Though I’ve pickled beets, onions, cucumbers and peppers, all of those things are much larger and I was working from specific recipes, so I guessed at a brine and dropped in the little flower-things.

These taste nothing like green Tic Tacs.

The funny forager said that a person could go back to the same place the next day and pick more buds, so I tried that out, too. For four days in a row, I picked the backyard clean, tinkered with my pickling liquids and dated the containers. I found that I wanted to leave the buds in brine longer than originally suggested, but for your purposes, Poor Impulsives, a real recipe will help.

My mother asked if I’d like to pick dandelion buds in her backyard. I’m wondering if her street’s run out of kids with lawnmowers.