Milkweed pods

Milkweed is one of the most useful plants that we have been blessed with.  Beginning in May, the shoots appear, heralding the spring.  If I encounter a large enough patch, I’ll carefully harvest a few by slicing off the tender tops.  I’m careful to only select from those that are about 10 inches or less, as the taller plants begin to get tougher and as they develop a red blush, they become somewhat toxic.  The harvested shoots are usual about 6 to 8 inches in length, and have 2 or three pairs of leaves, with a cluster at the top.  I remove all but the very top leaves and put them aside to be used in other dishes.  What remains resembles asparagus.

These tasty shoots are delicious to eat as is or they can be lightly boiled or steamed and serves with butter or your favorite sauce.  I prefer them to asparagus.  One of our recommended recipes for May I call Milkweed Seaweed noodles, in which I shave thin slivers from the stems until I have a bowl of green “noodles”.  I then either steam or blanch them until slightly softened.  I generally make up an Asian style dressing, using soy sauce or tamari, rice vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil and palm sugar, which I pour over the noodles.  Finally, I sprinkle over some toasted sesame seeds and serve.  Try it.  It will become a perennial favorite with your family.

In June the flowers begin to appear.  Before they open they resemble clusters of capers.  If there are enough clusters at this stage, I like to pick a few to use in a variety of dishes from salads to soups to stir fries.  As the flowers open up they become more colorful and really help to brighten up a salad or just about any dish.  They are a perfect snack when you are walking through a meadow and happen upon a patch of milkweed.  However, be careful not to pop a bug in your mouth, as milkweed flowers are very popular with insects, particularly the Monarch butterfly and a little orange and black beetle known as the milkweed bug.  It is quite harmless, and if you are feeling adventurous, quite delicious.

After the flowers fade and drop away, start to look out for the seed pods.  There are generally about  2 or 3 to a plant, particularly in sunny areas.  When they reach about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in length they are ready to be harvested, however, only pick them if there are plenty to be had and always make sure to leave a few to propagate for next year.  The pods only remain edible for a few days before they begin to get tough and stringy. You can tell if they are too ripe without having to pick them.  The edible pods are very firm.  As they become spongy feeling, you’ll know that it is too late.

The pods can be used in many different ways.  They are quite tasty raw, or sliced up and added to salads.  They can be sautéed, battered and deep fried or prepared like you would okra (without being slimy). Another idea you can try is to split them along the seam and remove the insides (immature seeds and silk, then stuff them with grain and chopped vegetables, cover them with cheese and breadcrumbs and bake them in the oven or steam them and drizzle your favorite sauce over them.  There are so many ways that you can prepare them that the only limit is your imagination.

In the Fall, after the plant has begun to die off, it still has its uses.  The stalks can be stripped of their outer layers, which can be used to make twine.  I have made some very strong thread from milkweed, that I used to sew on a button that is still firmly attached several years later.

As if this wasn’t enough, the latex from the plant can be used to remove warts (I’ve done it – it really works).

To watch a video on cooking milkweed  click here

For a recipe for cooking milkweed click here

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Spring is a beautiful season with life blooming all over. Vibrant greens sprouting on the ground, tiny buds on the trees and colorful flowers springing up all over. Did you know that most of the cold tolerant flowers are edible such as pansies, petunias and, oh yea, dandelion? I know, I know, but dandelion is a weed. Well, it’s the give and take of all this beauty around us as with beauty comes the weeds. But to a forager, the beauty is indeed beautiful, but the weeds are even more appealing. The dandelion is one of many examples.

Did you know that every part of the Dandelion plant is edible? Flowers, leaves and root. Dandelion is a rich source of vitamins A, B complex, C, and D, more beta-carotene than carrots and more iron and calcium than spinach as well as tons of potassium, and zinc. Medicinally, the plant is used as a diuretic, producing urine to eliminate toxins from the body, curing mild stomach aches and acts as an inflammatory. Hence the prescription to eat your dandelion greens in spring for a perfect body cleanse as dandelion is a powerful diuretic but does not deplete the body of potassium. The beauty of this plant is now increasing, isn’t it. This is one hearty little plant, ask any frustrated gardner. But here’s another fact, the plants give off a ethylene gas which actually accelerates the ripening process of crops, fruit, shrubs and trees. Try this little trick. Want peaches, tomatoes or avocados you purchase from the market to ripen quickly? Place some dandelion (leaves or flowers) in a paper bag with the fruit on the counter overnight and it will indeed cause the fruit to ripen much more quickly then just putting them in the paper bag alone. Better yet, make an infusion of the leaves and root and water your plants with it as a natural fertilizer.

A grassy field in the heat of summer is quite a lovely site with sunny yellow flowers popping up. Dandelion’s solitary, bright yellow flowers open with the sun in the morning and close in the evening or during overcast, cloudy weather. The deeply notched leaves are shiny and hairless and funnel the rain to the root making the plant very drought tolerant. Collect the flowers from an open field on a sunny day and bring home some sunshine to put into simple syrups or make into dandelion wine.

This is a plant that gives and gives and gives some more. In the fall, the roots are ready to harvest as they have grown significantly during spring and summer giving life to the plant that will now start to go dormant for the long winter months. Harvest the roots of the plant with a little elbow grease, as the tap roots are fleshy and can be up to 10” long, and make delicious dandelion coffee! Dry the roots well and grind in a coffee grinder. Keep them in your winter storage medicinal cabinet as the roots store potassium and calcium, which are very valuable in curing a number of disorders and illnesses including constipation, inflammatory skin conditions, joint pain, eczema, liver dysfunction and conditions such as hepatitis and jaundice. 

So this year, instead of trying to get rid of what most people believe is a “problem” why not harvest them and enjoy the benefits?

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However, this has been a very unusual year, and many plants are appearing a month or more earlier than usual.  So along side the spring flowers you will find many species that normally don’t appear until May or June.  Consequently, this is one of the most lush Aprils I can recall since moving to New York over 30 years ago.  In fact, it has been one of the earliest and most abundant foraging seasons.  I was able to photograph flowers throughout January and February, that simply shouldn’t have been there.

Thanks to the recent rains and warm days we are seeing wonderful displays of flowers, so if you have the opportunity, take some walks in the woods and fields.  You never know what you will come across.

I have included pictures of some of the plants one would usually expect to find in April.

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Dandelions are part of the Composiate family of plants. These plants cover Asters and Sunflowers.

I love  looking at dandelions-  When they pop up all over a field I get very excited.  I know that there will be dandelion tinctures, oils, fritters and if I am feeling ambitious, Dandelion wine, in my future.  Brigitte Mars, an herbalist and writer, knew so many things to do with dandelions (both edible and medicinally) that  she was able to fill up a book.

According to the web site , Wildflowers-and-Weeds.com, here is what can be said about the Compositae family that the dandelion falls under:

“The uniqueness of the Aster or Sunflower family is that what first seems to be a single large flower is actually a composite of many smaller flowers. Look closely at a sunflower in bloom, and you can see that there are hundreds of little flowers growing on a disk, each producing just one seed. Each “disk flower” has 5 tiny petals fused together, plus 5 stamens fused around a pistil with antennae-like stigmas. Look closely at the big “petals” that ring the outside of the flower head, and you will see that each petal is also a flower, called a “ray flower”, with its petals fused together and hanging to one side. Plants of the Aster family will have either disk flowers or ray flowers, or both. When the seeds are ripe and fall away, you are left with a pitted disk that looks strikingly like a little garden plot where all the tiny flowers were planted.”

Dandelion leaves can be a bit bitter especially after they flower.  They are great added to a salad, cook like spinach with garlic and oil or made into a pesto.  The bitter is supposed to be good for digestion and something that our ancestors regularly incorporated into their diets.

I like to make a salve with dandelion flower oil-  I find it nourishing and healing for my very dry skin.  Dandelion teas are good as a diuretic without depleting you of calcium.  The Rockland Forager is particularly fond of dandelion root ‘coffee’, a recipe we will make available soon.

One of the truly great things about dandelion is that it is readily available, you can collect it without worrying about depleting the supply.  It is a great plant to research, study the plant and learn about .  It is one of the great plants to adopt in the beginning of your plant journey.

I hope this inspires you to go forth and adopt a dandelion before they blow away.

Elana Fine

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Now that it’s April, many familiar old friends are starting to stick their heads through the leaves to greet the Spring.  The skunk cabbage leaves are beginning to unfurl into their familiar, yet exotic rosettes.  Even more exotic are the flowers of the skunk cabbage .  They are large, and quite beautiful, yet they are rarely appreciated or even noticed.

The main reason that these beautiful blossoms are often overlooked, is that they start to appear in the winter, often popping up through the snow.   Wherever there are swampy woodland areas there are likely to be skunk cabbage flowers throughout the marsh.  They look like colorful pixies ears, often displaying a range of colors from red to yellow and green.

If you want to enjoy these remarkable blossoms, you’ll need to put on a good pair of boots and hike into the woods at a time when there is seemingly nothing happening and look very carefully in those boggy areas that you may otherwise avoid.  The leafless pod like flowers may be hard to spot at first, but once you recognize one emerging from the mud or moss, you’ll begin to notice many.  They vary in size, shape and color, each with its own personality.

You’ll find them growing until mid March when the leaves begin to open and the flowers decay back into the swamp.

Skunk cabbage is what is known as a thermogenic plant.  It can adjust its own body temperature, such that it could be unto 50 degrees warmer than its surroundings.  This allows it to send out its somewhat fetid (skunk like) aroma on cold days, to attract flies that seek the warmth of the encompassing spathe that makes up the outside of the flower.  They will often pass the night in the warm interior, inadvertently gathering pollen along the way, which they carry to the next flower they visit.

If you peek inside the enveloping fleshy spathe you will find a spadix, a ball like cluster of flower parts that produce the pollen and the pea sized seeds.  Toward the end of March, this is often all that remains of the flower.  By mid April, they are shriveled, black nubs that are hidden by the unfurling leaves.

If you start to look in the woods during the next couple of weeks, you may see the last of the flowers besides the emerging clusters of leaves.  Even if you’ve missed the flowers this season, you’ll know to get out there next February with a camera and capture some of these little works of art.

 

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Popular and botanical names

Lists of common uses

Heavy duty laminated cards

39 of the most common edible and medicinal plants in North East USA

click here to purchase your own set of Field Cards 

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