OUTLOOK, Sask. – Imagine dandelions grown in perfect rows, harvested
like potatoes and sold as an alternative to coffee.
Far from fiction, Wanda Wolf said buyers are calling her Phippen,
Sask., marketing company daily for dandelion leaves, roots and seeds.
She received inquiries for 10,000 pounds just days before speaking at a
field day July 11 at the Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification
Centre in Outlook.
This year’s drought and flooding in Saskatchewan have left some fields
unseeded and full of the weeds, Wolf said.
Read Also
Stock dogs show off herding skills at Ag in Motion
Stock dogs draw a crowd at Ag in Motion. Border collies and other herding breeds are well known for the work they do on the farm.
Dandelions are one of the hot items for her Lonewolf Herb Resource this
year, as well as stinging nettle, milk thistle, burdock, valerian,
marshmallow root and red clover. She works with about 400 suppliers.
Some pick from the wild while others are organic and commercial farmers.
Her own foray into medicinal herbs began seven years ago as a certified
organic grower, producing echinacea, St. John’s wort, feverfew and
Siberian mother’s wort in rotation on a 30 acre farm.
The difficulties finding buyers led her into marketing for herself and
others. She received funding from the Saskatchewan Agriculture
Development Fund to research internet marketing as a way to sell herbs
more efficiently. This led to the development of a website for growers.
Wolf said access to the website is an important way to assure good
returns to small producers.
She said the common weeds are used alone or in combination with others
for skin care and menopause therapy, among other uses.
“Dandelions have medicinal health benefits that are way past lettuce,
spinach and vegetables.”
Dandelion flowers are used to make wine, while the leaves are
freeze-dried, or dried and encapsulated. Dandelion coffee made from
roasted and ground roots is the hottest market now, Wolf said.
Seeds can be sold to other growers looking to get into the crop. She
said one retailer sells them for $284 a kilogram.
Wolf suggested harvesting dandelions with a potato digger, and then
washing and drying them. The Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute
is helping her develop portable equipment for that purpose.
“Right now it’s makeshift, farmers are using what they have.”
While most Saskatchewan dandelions are now sold as raw product, Wolf
said processing could be done in the province to increase returns to
producers.
She and three partners are developing a line of products called From
the Earth Naturally, for which they plan to buy various raw products
from growers within the year.
“There’s some money to be made in raw product, but money is in finished
product.”
Buyers are paying about $5 a pound for dandelions. Returns to producers
will improve as production costs decrease, she said.
She said most dandelions used to come from Bulgaria, but that source
has dried up.
“It’s an opportunity for Canada to start to work with it.”
Demand stems from an increasingly health-conscious, “pro-maintenance”
population.
“Rather than waiting till it happens, they’re trying to prevent it,”
Wolf said.
The biggest challenge is people’s attitude toward dandelion as a weed.
She conceded that weed specialists, inspectors and rural municipalities
will need assurances about strict controls on how it is grown.
Wolf suggested cutting flowers before they go to seed or planting in
the middle of fields to allay concerns.
She hopes to see field trials on dandelions next year at the
Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Development Centre.
Wolf is actively involved with the Saskatchewan Herb and Spice
Association and sought help from various organizations, such as the
Saskatchewan Nutraceutical Network and Agriculture Canada.
Jazeem Wahab, a horticultural crops agronomist with Agriculture Canada,
has worked extensively with herbs such as echinacea and St. John’s
wort.
Most growers devote a half-acre to one acre to these crops, and find
that most of them, such as stinging nettle, feverfew and St. John’s
wort, do better under irrigation.
They require specialized harvesting equipment, such as planters used by
market gardeners or forage equipment.
“It is a bit of work,” he said. “It needs intensive looking after.”
Wahab cautioned growers who are considering dandelions or herbs to look
first at the economics and markets.
“It is a growth opportunity, but you have to be fairly careful.”
He advised getting familiar with one or two of the crops and developing
marketing experience and contacts. He said the market is small, and
used ginseng as an example, where markets and prices bottomed out after
too many farmers started growing it.
“You don’t want to flood the market.”
