Milkweed on the Menu

Lilacs, roses and milkweed blossoms are definitely my favorite flower scents. Milkweed scent is sweet, musky and spicy. The flavor of the unopened buds is broccoli-like but milder and without the cabbage smell or taste.

Pick blossoms when they are still tightly closed. Rinse in cold water to remove any 6-legged critters. Place blossoms in rapidly boiling water for 1-2 minutes or until they turn bright green. Many wild food books will tell you to place them in boiling water for 3 changes to "remove the bitter taste". This is not necessary. Although milkweed blossoms are described as "mildly toxic"  the 1-2 minute boiling water bath removes all toxins.

Use the prepared blossoms in any recipe that calls for broccoli. Steam and serve with your favorite topping, dip in batter and deep fry, stir fry with your favorite veggies, bake in casseroles, add to pasta dishes, and add to any of your favorite Oriental dishes.

Blossoms that have been blanched also freeze well for a taste of summer in the cold winter months.

Milkweed blossoms are all opened? Make jelly! Milkweed jelly is a pretty rose color, slightly "spicy" and delicious.

Flower Jelly

*Recipe works for Queen Anne’s Lace, Milkweed, Red Clover, Elderberry, Carnation, Peony or any other sweet smelling flower that is edible.

Make an infusion by pouring boiling water over a quart jar full of packed, cleaned flower heads. Let stand at least 5 hours or overnight.

Strain or press through a coffee filter. For every 2 ½ cups of infusion, add the juice of a fresh lemon and 1 package of powdered pectin.

Bring infusion to a boil. Add 3 cups sugar and boil hard for 1 minute. Test for “set” by dropping small amount onto cold surface. If it feels like jelly, it’s ready. Humidity may cause a longer cooking time.

If you wish to use honey instead of sugar, add 1 ½ cup at the end of the second boil. Test for set.


See you at the next Truly Wild session on August 27 at 2:00 pm- Heaven Hill.  The menu will include wild dessert items!

Weeds, wonderful WEEDS!

"Weeds" were almost all that was on the menu for the June 25, Truly Wild session. Salad consisted of organic spinach and lettuce from my garden topped with heals all, wood sorrel, sheep sorrel, thistle celery, cattail, wild pansy, daisy leaves, red clover and chickweed. The dressing was local spray-free strawberry vinaigrette. Bread was made from red clover. The stew-soup consisted of lambs quarters, cattail, thistle, burdock, wild carrot, purslane, and whatever else that was growing and handy! The stock base was from free range chicken. The only seasonings added were supplied by "weeds". 4H Truly Wild menbers also made a lambs quarters and cattail stir fry that was served with fresh lambs quarters pasta.

 My favorite quote from a Truly Wild 4H member, " I look at the world from a whole new way now." Cool.

Dandelions, thistle, Queen Anne's Lace, burdock, milkweed, plantain, sorrels, heals all, stinging nettle, lambs quarters, cattail, red clover, and the list goes on.....  We walk on them every day, see them in every field, along the side of the road and most think of them as only unwanted pests. Many were mainstays in the diets of Native Americans. Some of them came here as treasured kitchen garden items and herbal medicines on the Mayflower. Others came with Asian settlers. Look carefully where you walk. You may be walking on the only plant to be declared "holy" by the early Roman Catholic church.

Dandelions- So many commercials showing a cartoon-cute spray bottle sheriff chasing the dandelion bad guy out of town with its roots between its legs. The Sheriff should be chased out of town! That spray bottle contains glyphosphate a chemical that is described as "not violently toxic to people or animals". What does "violently" mean??? "On the other hand, most people react badly to glyphosphate (and other chemicals mixed with it) when ingested or applied to the skin, so you want to avoid any contact with the chemical. "  I guess allowing your toddlers play time on the lawn is out? Don't touch the grass when you retrieve your golf ball.

 Humans cannot digest grass. Dandelions on the other hand have  as much iron as spinach and four times Vitamin A content. An analysis of dandelion shows it to consist of healthy plant protein, good fats and carbohydrates. It also contains a healthy amount of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, and vitamin C. A serving of spring dandelion greens has as much calcium as half a cup of milk. Dandelions are frost, insect and disease resistant. Spring greens, roasted fall-spring roots, and flowers are all ingredients to delicious dishes. Grass is delicious if you happen to be a horse or cow.

If you would like recipes from the last Truly Wild session, email me at: adkshoer@aol.com. I will be happy to share.  Make sure to check the rest of the blog for recipes!

The next Truly Wild session will be July 9th from 2:00pm to 4:30ish. We will meet at Heaven Hill and then travel down the road to the Cornell Maple forest. Milkweed will be one of the items served after the hike. Yum!!!!