Milkweed Preparation Greetings Leda et al: The following concerns the preparation of all Milkweed parts by boiling before use in any recipe. It is the method I use which I got from Euell Gibbons "Stalking the Wild Asparagus". IDENTIFICATION: COMMON MILKWEED-(Asclepias syriaca) Milkweed is easily identified. The syriaca is the commonest and most widespread of the Milkweeds. It is the one with the stout stalks, large leaves, rounded umbels of sweet scented, greenish purple flowers and a warty seed pod which splits down the side when mature releasing the light seeds, each with its streamer of silk which allows it to float on the wind to a new location. It is found from Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan and south to Georgia and Kansas. EDIBILITY: Its wide distribution , abundance and ease of procurement could make the milkweed an important wild vegetable if more people knew the secrets of processing its products into palatable food. Milkweed has not one, but four, very good vegetables, and has a possible fifth as food. The young shoots up to six inches high, make a very passable veget- able to serve like asparagus; The newly opened leaves can be served like spinach; the unopened flower buds are eaten like broccoli; the young pods can be cooked like okra. All of these are only good if properly cooked. The milkweed has a very bitter printciple that seems to permeate every part of the plant. Fortunately this excessively bitter taste is easily removed with boiling water.All four of the milkweed vegetables are prepared by very much the same process, so we only need to describe it once for all of them. The shoots.leaves, buds or pods are put in a pot, covered with BOILING water and placed over a high flame. When they have BOILED one minute, drain, and cover with fresh BOILIMG water and return to the heat. This process is repeated at least three times, then the vegetable is simmered for about 15 minutes to make it tender (except the buds which only require 5 minutes) and then seasoned to taste. WARNING: Do NOT cover with COLD water and bring to a boil as this will cause the bitter principle to become fixed in the cooked product. The young SHOOTS are only good in the spring when they are only 8 inches high or less. Washed, bundled together with a string, like asparagus and given the BOILING water treatment, they can be served plain, with salt and butter or covered with a cream sauce and served with toast. While milkweed is easily identified, the young shoots have a look-alike in the young shoots of Dogbane(Apocynum androsaemifolium) both plants have a milky juice,the Dogbane leaves are slightly narrower and more pointed than milkweed and the dogbane stems are smaller in diameter and more fibrous than milkweed. When the two plants mature there is no similarity as bogbane branches and milkweed doesent and the dogbane pods are longer and much thinner than the milkweed pods.While not deadly poisonous the dogbane can cause severe illness. So be careful out there. BTW, I was fortunate in being able to find and photograph two young shoots of milkweed and dogbane growing side by side and am able to use the slide to make the point when lecturing on edible plants. The young LEAVES can be gathered over a slightly longer season than can the shoot. Take only the tender top leaves before the plants start forming flower buds.Milkweed leaves can be mixed with other greens if given the BOILING water process first. I prefer the BUDS to any other milkweed products. Gather the buds while they are still young and in tight clusters.They will appear dull and slightly wooly but as soon as they are covered with BOILING water they will become bright green and make an attractive vegetable to look at as well as taste. After the BOILING water treatment, simmer the buds for about five minutes, then season with salt and butter. The other milkweed product I like is the young PODS, but they must be gathered at the right stage. If the pod has become tough and elastic to pressure it is inedible. The hard young  pods should be cooked a little bit longer than other milkweed products. When gathered at the right stage and cooked properly, the developing seeds and silk inside the pod cook up into a soft and delicate masswhich is delicious. You can freeze a supply of the buds and the pods for off season use, These are put through the usual three changes of BOILING water, then quickly and thoroughly cooled in cold water, drained, packed in plastic bags or other suitable containers and placed in the freezer. When used they are placed still frozen, in very little boiling water and cooked for 10 to 15 minutes, seasoned and served. Quite a few years ago(at my age I lose track of time) I was asked by the Churchville Nature Center to conduct a wild food buffet for their first nature exposition. Fortunately I had a good supply of frozen milkweed pods so that a lot of people were able to try one pod each. There are persistant rumors that the French in Canada made brown sugar from the copius nectar secreted by the blossoms of milkweed but the exact process seems to have been lost. This concludes the the material on the edibility of milkweed.Some of the material is from Euell Gibbons book "Stalking th Wild Asparagus" and some from my actual experience. I have eaten all the milkweed products except the brown sugar made from the flowers, Bright blessings, grandfather. SAVE OUR PLANET, DESTROY ALL LAWNMOWERS. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Grandfather Thanks for posting all the great milkweed information.  I just wanted to make sure to point out again to all the newer people this one particular point about cooking milkweed... WARNING: Do NOT cover with COLD water and bring to a boil as this will cause the bitter principle to become fixed in the cooked product. The latex in milkweed will set and harden and will be impossible to remove if you place your milkweed in cold water.  To take that one step further I wont put milkweed in the fridge before processing it.  It is really a simple process to boil this 2-3 times before eating and I want to say...milkweed flower buds are fantastic.  My personal favorite product of the whole plant. With a light cheese sauce they remind you of broccoli.  Yum. Just don't boil this to death.  I place my milkweed in one pot with a second pot boiling water on the side.  As the milkweed pot reaches a boil and boils for a minute or two I drain it off and add the second pot of water....doing this at least twice.  The end result is easily frozen for later and milkweed plant parts are great mixed into soups and stews or other recipes. Melana Hiatt ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ << Many thanks for posting the information on processing milkweed. I noticed  when I was copying the recipe that he mentions the need for preboiling,  but doesn't give any details.  >> Details are: Place milkweed stalks, buds or young fruits in boiling water, or pour boiling water over them, bring back to boil and cook for 2 minutes. Drain, cover with another change of boiling water. Bring back to boil and cook 2 more minutes. Drain, cover with boiling water a third time, boil for 3  minutes, drain, salt, pepper, butter and serve. I have a friend who does only two changes of 3 minutes each, and that seems to be OK also.  Sam Thayer claims not to have to boil those from Wisconsin at all--that they are a different variety from those here in Ohio-- but when he served his milkweed dish at the National Wild Food Assn Conference last September, some people reported that it made them sick.  What we are dealing with here is poisonous alkaloids in the white milky juice which are heat labile if suddenly exposed to boiling water.  If you put them in cold water and boil it up, it fixes the alkaloid instead of destroying it.  You must plunge them into BOILING water (or pour it over them).  I prepared a batch once which seemed fine, but one of my friends got deathly ill after eating them.  When questioned, he said that they were bitter. I had told them all that if they tasted even the slightest bitterness, they should spit it out and rinse out their mouth, but he didn't, and over the next several days wished he was dead several times.  With milkweed, there must be absoultely no bitterness in the final product. Hope this helps.  One of my pet peeves is reading in the media that you can eat milkweeds, followed by a description which says you don't have to do anything special to them. Some people even report success eating them raw. To me this is totally irresponsible, especially when you are teaching.  If you want to do it to yourself, that is your problem. But don't do it to others. Peter Gail.