diff --git a/qa.gemspec b/qa.gemspec
index 5c755ab3..906de6de 100644
--- a/qa.gemspec
+++ b/qa.gemspec
@@ -30,7 +30,15 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.add_development_dependency 'rails', '!=5.2.0', '!=5.2.1', '!=5.2.2'
   s.add_development_dependency 'byebug'
   s.add_development_dependency 'engine_cart', '~> 2.0'
-  s.add_development_dependency 'linkeddata'
+
+  # Not sure why these RDF-related gems are only being listed as development dependencies
+  # not general runtime dependencies...
+  # ... maybe meant to be optional dependencies only if you are using related
+  # func? See also the "meta" gem `linkeddata` which includes all of these deps.
+  s.add_development_dependency 'rdf-n3'
+  s.add_development_dependency 'rdf-rdfxml'
+  s.add_development_dependency 'json-ld'
+
   s.add_development_dependency 'pry'
   s.add_development_dependency 'pry-byebug'
   s.add_development_dependency 'rspec-rails'
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 46cbd8fb..bc7b469c 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
-require 'linkeddata'
+#require 'linkeddata'
+
+# Not sure why these RDF-related gems are only being used in CI and not general
+# dependencies... maybe meant to be optional dependencies?
+require 'rdf/n3'
+require 'rdf/rdfxml'
+require 'json/ld'
+
 require 'json'
 require 'engine_cart'
 require 'byebug' unless ENV['TRAVIS']
diff --git a/spec/test_app_templates/Gemfile.extra b/spec/test_app_templates/Gemfile.extra
index ac306458..220d6cc5 100644
--- a/spec/test_app_templates/Gemfile.extra
+++ b/spec/test_app_templates/Gemfile.extra
@@ -11,15 +11,6 @@ group :development do
   #
   if ENV['RAILS_VERSION'] && Gem::Version.new(ENV['RAILS_VERSION']) < Gem::Version.new("6.1")
     gem 'psych', '< 4'
-
-    # Some versions of linkeddata dependency depend on yaml-ld gem... yaml-ld 0.0.1
-    # has a dependency on psych 4.x specifically, conflicting with above, bundler
-    # seems to be having trouble resolving to yaml-ld 0.0.2 on it's own.
-    # We don't actually depend on yaml-ld at all ourselves, just trying
-    # to help bundler resolve a tree that works.
-    #
-    # https://github.com/ruby-rdf/linkeddata/issues/16#issuecomment-1239912981
-    gem 'yaml-ld', ">= 0.0.2"
   end
 
   if ENV['RAILS_VERSION'] =~ /^6\.1\./ && ENV['RUBY_VERSION'] =~ /^3\.1\./