redearslider.com

Al and I have had a war going on. I wanted him to eat some kale, he didn't want to eat it. The leaf had been floating in his tank for two days. On the third day, he started taking little bites off of it and spitting him out, so they floated all over the surface of the water like confetti. I hate it when he does that! Grrr!

Today I was out in the yard doing garden and turtle maintenance, and I saw that more dandelions have come up. Dandelion greens are great nutrition for turtles- high in calcium and vit A, and Al has always liked them when I've bought them at the store. So I tore off some tender leaves, washed them in the hose, and dropped them in the tank.

From deep within the green, um, depths, a Creature rose. It sniffed the leaves once, twice, and then bit. Alas, its first bite was not true, but on the second try it grasped the leaf between it's stripey jaws and dragged it beneath the surface!

Ok, that narrative style is tiring now. But anyway, he did somethig new: instead of just taking bites off of the leaf at the surface, he grabbed the whole leaf and dragged it down underwater. He had a little trouble, it was unwieldy, and he relly did have to wrestle with it a little. He ate it down on the bottom and then came back up for another.

It was all very B-Grade horror movie.

hahahaha too funny... ok will make a note that when dandilions come in my yard to get the leafs off and give to tortuga and see how T likes it.

They are best early in spring. By the time the flowers come out, the leaves taste bitter. They are delicious when young and fresh, though.

Do some websearching if you would like to be able to identify them before the flowers come.

Great description.. mine do that too..

Aside from giving them to my turts (painteds love them, my RES has become a little fussy with them), I think they're great in salads (mine).

For greens like kale, I've noticed that my turts don't much care for the curly edges (goes for chicory as well), probably because they're not tender. But, if I cut a bit of the edges off off, they're eat them more readily (kind of like cutting off the crusts on bread for some people, I guess).

I go back and forth about eating them myself. Sometimes I love them, and then I will get a batch that tastes really bitter and that scares me off for months. The dandelions, they are fickle greens.

B-Grade horror movie huh? Sounds interesting...

new turtle-lover wrote:B-Grade horror movie huh? Sounds interesting...

Imagine an innocent swimmer being dragged to their death by a monster from the deep It was like that.

Dandelions greens (tender shoots preferred), a hard-boiled egg, garlic, black pepper, oil (olive) and vinegar...yummy.