Common Milkweed

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is a food source that gives several edible parts during different times of the year. This year, we made an effort to try almost all of them. Milkweed grows in open fields and meadows, roadsides, along forest edges and near river bottoms. It is found in eastern North America, except for the deep south. It will grow in dense colonies, sometimes filling a field with green stalks. Milkweed is commonly known as a food source for the Monarch Butterfly caterpillar.

Dogbane vs. milkweed, look for the hairs under magnification

Common milkweed is a tall perennial herb that rarely branches, an important identifying characteristic to differentiate milkweed from dogbane, a poisonous look alike. The leaves grow in opposite pairs along the stalk with short stems. They are elongated ovals, veined and thick. The stalk and undersides of the leaves are covered with fine hairs that can be viewed under magnification, another important characteristic. The flower bud clusters appear in spring, looking a bit like bunches of broccoli. Once the flowers open, they can range from white to pink or purple, many times a combination of colors. From each flower cluster, only 1-4 pods will eventually appear in mid-summer. The pod are teardrop shaped, green, and usually bumpy or covered in soft green spikes. The pods will grow to 5 inches long when mature and contain seeds and silk that helps the seeds "fly" to their next destination. All parts of the plant will exude a white, milky latex sap if broken.

We had read about a bitterness associated with the plant and the sap, and possible poisonous characteristics of the sap. We also read some strongly worded arguments about the non-bitterness of milkweed. Most people who have actually gone out and really tried milkweed seem to agree that it is not bitter, and does not need to be boiled in 3 changes of water to make it safe to eat. We decided to go a safe middle route, and boiled our milkweed once for about 8 minutes. All parts we tried after a initial boiling-the shoots, flower buds, and pods-were very tasty and not bitter at all. I will admit that once we used the boiled parts in a recipe and the milkweed was cooked again, it tasted even better. Milkweed is a wonderful addition to recipes as a vegetable, it's flavor resembles green beans.

In the spring, we went to open areas that we knew had milkweed growing in them last year. Sometimes you can find the dead, dry stalks from last year. The shoots are best picked when they are 6-12 inches tall. At that stage their leaves are still partially closed along the stems. They are tender and can be gathered without a knife by pinching the stalks off. We boiled them and ate most of them plain with a pat of butter and a shake of salt. These are great spring vegetables.

Next come the flower bud clusters. We picked them when the clusters were still fairly tight, the stems of the flowers will elongate and the cluster will become much looser and floppier right before the flowers open. At this stage, the flower bud clusters look like broccoli. We boiled them about 8 minutes and tasted them with butter and a bit of salt. Again, they tasted a bit like green beans, only with a more velvety texture. Then we cooked them in a quiche and in soups, and they tasted even better. We did not try the open flowers, although they are edible.

The pods came very early this year with all of the rain in the spring and high heat this summer. Pods on different plants are all in different stages of readiness, so we can go out for multiple harvests. The pods we are gathering to eat are actually immature, the insides are completely white and the outside green shell is still tender. We picked pods between 1-3 inches long. Robert boiled them for 5 minutes, and some were popping open. We tried them plain, but the flavor was greatly improved when we then chopped and stir-fried them with soy sauce. I also took the boiled pods, split them along their seam, removed the white pre-silk, and stuffed them with a cream cheese, jalapeno and red onion mixture and baked them topped with breadcrumbs. I stuffed some other pods with buttered basmati rice mixed with the cooked pre-silk, and baked those in a yellow pepper sauce. The pods make another fantastic wild vegetable.

Foraging Report 07/24/2010

The extreme heat this summer has affected the ripening season of gardens, farms, and wild edibles. Orchards picking peaches in July? It has been berry crazy around here, and by that I mean wineberries and blackberries. It has been so awfully hot, we have not made it out to look for wild blueberries or huckleberries since the wineberries and blackberries are easier to gather in quantity than the much smaller blueberries.


We managed to stumble across a incredibly large patch of wineberries close to our house this year. We used to take a full day and drive to Redding, Connecticut to the Collis P Huntington State Park where the main trail is lined with wineberry thickets. Pretty much all of Redding is infested with wineberry canes, and you can spot them easily from the car while driving down the winding residential streets. This year we stuck close to home, and probably came away with 8 gallons of berries in 3 picking trips. I froze 8 quart bags of berries to eat in the winter, made 2 batches of jam, 2 sheetpans of fruit leather, and used the remaining juice for popsicles, smoothies, one gallon of peasant wine, and drank some plain for breakfast.



Our regular local blackberry patch which is located on a patch of conservation land was cut in the early spring, so what has proceeded to grow this season has been all first-year canes. There have been no flowers, and no fruit. If the berry patch is not cut in autumn or next spring, the harvest next year should be huge. We did manage to pick in an area that was not as aggressively cut, and still came away with about 4 gallons of fruit. That helped us make 2 batches of jam, 2 sheetpans of fruit leather, popsicles, juice, one gallon of peasant wine, and provided plenty of berries to munch on. The blackberries that grow in this patch appear to be an invasive species, probably Himalayan. The berries are much larger than native species, and the leaf arrangement is different. I think the thorns are much thornier, too. Also in this meadow is dewberry, which is a species of blackberry that grows along prickery vines along the ground as opposed to arching canes. These are very small berries, and hide well under their large leaves.


Also this week, we were able to pick some small milkweed pods for our culinary experimentation. Robert gathered small ones, from 1-3 inches long. We boiled then briefly and tried them plain, then added them to assorted dishes and tried other cooking methods. Very tasty!





Also ripening right now are wild black cherries, choke cherries, elderberries, and sumac berries.

Wineberry Recipe - Wineberry Jam and Wineberry Jelly

We managed to pick a very good amount of ripe wineberries in a short amount of time this past Sunday. I think it was about 2 gallons. We will return to this new spot in a few more days to pick again! What did we do with that amount of berries? Jam! Or was it jelly? We used a favorite kitchen toy called the Roma Food Strainer and Sauce Maker that we purched last year to process tomatoes and foraged berries and fruits. We also bought the berry screen, and it removes about 95% of the seeds from a wineberry or blackberry. What we get is a thick, pulpy juice.

I then followed the instructions on the package of low-sugar Sure*Jell for raspberries for making cooked jam. We had so much pulpy juice (about 12 cups), that we made a second batch of jelly, following the instructions on the package of low-sugar Sure*Jell for cooked jelly.

Both batches jelled just fine. The jelly recipe is a bit sweeter, and I think I prefer the tartness of the jam recipe. I just wasn't sure which recipe to use, since we deseeded the berries, but did not clarify the juice for a true jelly. Either way, the jelly/jam is cloudy and thick, but seedless, tart and sweet at the same time with a brilliant red color.

Wineberry Jam makes 7 cups

5 c. seedless wineberry pulp/juice
4 c. sugar
1 package low-sugar Sure*Jell pectin

1. Mix the pectin with 1/4 c. of the sugar and whisk into the pulp in a large saucepot.
2. Bring the pulp and pectin mix to a rolling boil, and add all of the sugar at once. Bring back to a rolling boil and cook 1 minute.
3. Remove from the heat, skim off the foam and ladel the hot jam into sterilized jars.
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Cloudy Wineberry Jelly makes 6 cups

4 1/2 c. seedless wineberry pulp/juice
3 c. sugar
1 box low-sugar Sure*Jell pectin

1. Mix the pectin with 1/4 c. sugar and wisk into the pulp/juice in a large saucepot
2. Bring the pulp/pectin mixture to a rolling boil and add all of the sugar at once. Return the mixture to a rolling boil for one minute.
3. Remove the jelly from the heat, skim the foam from the top, and ladle into sterilized jars.

Wineberries

Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius) is one of my favorite berries of the year. The flavor is complex, sweet-tart, almost more of an adult berry. It can also be called a Japanese raspberry and jewelberry. Around southern New England, they ripen in mid to late July, but this year we are seeing them early due to a mild spring and the current heat wave

The long canes of the wineberry are covered with reddish purple hairs and thorns. Wineberry thickets are easy to identify even from a distance or a moving car due to the overall reddish coloration of the canes, flower bunches, calyxes, and fruits. The canes will grow up to 10 feet long, and will re-root themselves when they arch over to touch the ground. The leaves are alternate and have 3 parts, each part toothed, usually lobed, and with a pointed tip. The undersides of the papery leaves are silvery-white. Late in spring, inconspicuous white flowers appear in clusters. After the flower passes, the red, hairy calyx lobes will close over the immature berry until it is ready to ripen.

The fruit is thimble shaped, and a yellowish receptacle is left behind on the plant when the berry is picked. The berries are bright red when mature, juicy, and very delicate. They appear glass-like, and have a slightly sticky texture. These berries are fantastic eaten raw, mixed into cereals or granola, or served with yogurt. We have made a brilliantly colored peasant wine with them, and some fantastic seedless jams. We also lay them out in single layers on a sheet pan in the freezer until frozen, then bag the frozen berries for storage all winter. The leaves may be dried to make tisane like other species of raspberries.

Wineberries are considered an invasive species in America, originally coming from eastern Asia and Japan. It was brought to America to breed with raspberries, but escaped into the wild. It grows mainly in the eastern areas of the country, from Canada to North Carolina and west to Michigan. It prefers sunlight and disturbed areas, and grows well along the edges of roads and open fields. Wineberry thickets can crowd out native species, but also provide food and shelter for wildlife.

Foraging Report 07/11/10

The weather has been unbearably hot this past week in the Northeast. We spent plenty of time indoors and at the beach. We only dared to go outside for a bit in the late evenings or early mornings. The hot weather and early spring has forced some wild foods to ripen earlier than expected, so we have been out scouting a lot these two weeks.


While searching for a place to put a new letterboxing series, I suggested an area I was only partially familiar with in Colchester. We did not plant the series since we became totally distracted by the old farm apple trees and American chestnut trees we found. Robert climbed one tree and picked a few green apples to juice, and we will return later in the autumn to gather apples and chestnuts. The American chestnut trees were in bloom, and I noticed the trees by noticing the the old chestnut burrs from last year on the ground. We have a letterbox planted in Waterford for an American chestnut, Foraging American Chestnut.



We observed some staghorn sumacs that were ripening, along with smooth sumacs in flower, and some dwarf sumacs without either. The three varieties in this area have very distinct ripening seasons. Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) has a narrow cluster of berries that ripen in early summer, and a very hairy stem. Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) ripens next, with looser clusters of berries, along with a smooth, hairless stem. The dwarf sumac (Rhus copallina) has the smallest berry cluster, and the midribs between the leaflets are winged. They also ripen later than the other species, usually in August. The only blue diamond letterbox we have so far is the Foraging Sumac box planted in Lebanon near a small stand of smooth sumac.


The hot weather has ripened berries about 2 weeks earlier than expected this year. Black raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) have mostly finished for the season. Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius) are exploding in abundance right now. Early this morning before it got too hot, we went out to a new area I ran across last year to pick, and I suppose we came away with 2 gallons easily. This area is completely taken over by the berry canes, and we had to bushwack through the thicket. Even then, I suppose we only picked in 20% of the area, and we will return in a couple more days for some more berries. These ones are destined for jam! One of the latest berries of the season, blackberries (Rubus alllegheniensis) is also pinking up, and we were able to pick a few tart, black berries. Our usual patch had been cut down early this spring, so we need to find a new spot to gather the bucketloads we usually pick.You can look for two of our berry letterboxes, Foraging Black Raspberry in Norwich, and Foraging Wineberry in Moodus.


Milkweed pods are starting to grow, although most are still only 1/4" long. We will pick them when they reach about and inch or two, and try them boiled. We also went "city foraging" by looking for plums from the ornamental plum trees the city plants along sidewalks and in parking lots. We found our first chokecherry tree, and will keep an eye on it to gather cherries later this summer. We also spied a few wapato plants, although the location is less than ideal to pick from. I suppose we will just observe the plants, watch for blooms, and do some more searching to find a better source. Robert also gathered up some more garlic mustard seeds to use as a spice.


We have no wine fermenting at the moment. The Japanese knotweed wine was filtered into a smaller jug, and I wonder if time will improve it. I thought it had a vegetal quality, and was an odd tasting wine. The dandelion wine is also bottled, and is very strong. The black locust wine was made in a much larger quantity (three gallons vs. our normal one gallon), and about half of it has been bottled for longer term storage. The remaining wine has been chilled and imbibed at a young age, and I thought it was not too bad. Hopefully, we can try a few small batches of berry wines, cherry wines, and soon apple wine.





P.S. World Cup is over, back to foraging! Tomorrow: making wineberry jam!

Foraging Report 06/28/2010

School's out, World Cup is on, weather is hot, what else can I say? We have been spending lots of time at the local kid's museums, down at Rocky Neck State Park, at birthday parties, at the movies and in front of the TV.

Our weekly trips to Harkness Park finally yielded 3 bags of linden flowers and bracts to dry for tea. The fragrant flowers smell like honey, and we dry them in paper bags and store them for wintertime tea parties. We were stopped and questioned by several people as to what we were doing, including a pair of elderly Russian ladies out for a stroll. They were happy to see that someone knew what the tree was, and was interested in herbs and plants even in this modern age. The trees are easy to spot from a distance due to their speckled appearance from the lighter colored bracts against the darker green leaves. Lindens are often planted as landscaping trees for their pleasing shape.

White mulberries also ripened, and we picked a few bowls to snack on. They are not as flavorful as the red or black mulberries, and can seem almost watery, but make a good addition to fruit salads, granola, and yogurt. I think they look like a bowl of grubs.

The black raspberries are loving the sun and hot weather, and we often have to compete with birds for the fruit. We don't usually gather these in large quantities, as they can seem especially seedy. We use them fresh in breakfast granola and yogurt. My favorite summer berry, wineberry, is flowering. It is hard to see the small, white flower along the roadside, but we can spot a wineberry bramble patch easily from it's reddish blush. The whole plant is covered in red hairs which may seem soft, but there are still prickers on there too!

We tried some burdock flower stalk. Robert thinks it has an "oaky barrel" flavor, so he curried them. He also is searching for some edible seaweed books. We can gather some seaweed at the shore, like Irish sea moss, sea lettuce and kelp. Most books we can find on the subject are old, and from the British Isles, but we would like to forage some seaweed in Maine in August when we go camping. The garlic mustard is producing plenty of seeds, and they are dry enough to gather and separate from the papery sheaths. Those we add to toasted spices mixtures for curries, and top off breads with their peppery garlic bite.

Cattail Recipe - Cattail Chowder

I really like to make corn chowder, since it can be adapted to a lighter, vegetarian meal for us in the summertime. I ran across a recipe in Russ Cohen's book "Wild Plants I have Known . . .And Eaten" for a similar chowder using the male parts of the flower spike on cattails. It sounded interesting, so I made it, using my method and vegetarian ingredients. This soup is so tasty, Gillian will eat a bowl and a half without hesitation. Robert loves it, and so do I. I don't use heavy cream, and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Cattail Chowder makes about 5-6 servings

4 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced

4 Tbsp flour

2 C. vegetable broth

2 C. low-fat milk

2 C. potatoes, diced

1 celery rib, diced

1/2 C. sweet red pepper, diced

2 C. cattail spike pulp, stripped from the spike

5 bay laurel leaves

salt and pepper

1. Sautée the onion in the butter until it is soft and translucent.

2. Add the flour and stir, cooking about 1 minute.

3. Pour in the vegetable broth and milk, and slowly bring the mixture up to a boil, stirring often.

4. Add the remaining ingredients, and reduce the chowder to a simmer. Cook 10-15 minutes, stirring often, until the potatoes are tender. Remove the bay laurel leaves to serve.