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FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Milkweed Flowers

 

edible milkweed minnesota

Note: This post only covers milkweed flowers. I’ve collected all of my knowledge on milkweed into a mother guide for you that covers all the edible parts in my Guide to Milkweed. 

Nothing makes a beautiful Midwestern landscape pop quite like the deep purple milkweed flowers of the summer. They also make gardens look great, and will attract bees and butterflies, like the monarch, whose relationship with milkweed is probably the most known, and polarizing.

For this post, I’m referring only to common milkweed: Asclepias syriaca. Eating other milkweed flowers could make you sick, as one of my line cooks found out eating yellow milkweed flowers.

Milkweed Flowers and cordial (1 of 5)

Touching back on polarization, I’m a forager, so I’m interested in eating things. Milkweed is one of the plants that if I post something about, I expect the floodgates to open from people saying that I shouldn’t touch it, and that I’m doing a disservice to the monarch butterfly, and it’s basically going to be all my fault if they are one day extinct.

Edible Milkweed Buds

Milkweed buds, eventually these will become flowers.

However, milkweed has been used as a food for a very long time, and we still have butterflies. Also, milkweed harvesting that could take away food for butterflies I would consider as cutting the shoots. As well, milkweed reproduces not only above ground via seeds through the pods, but also below the ground through rhizomes, so some of the milkweed harvesting nazi’s arguments are on some shaky ground.

Milkweed Flower Sorbet

Milkweed cordial spun into sorbet, it needs to be cut with something to not be overly sweet. I like buttermilk.

Sam Thayer has a great motto about foraging and the conservation and appreciation plants. I’m paraphrasing, but it goes something like this:

People who harvest parts of milkweed to eat aren’t going to be the ones to kill off the monarchs. The poeple who value milkweed as a food source will be the people most vested in preserving paces where milkweed grows, not destroying habitat, which is the real killer of milkweed, and the monarchs.

My favorite field of milkweed flowers. Hoodie courtesy of Rush Order Tees.

So that being said, if you’re worried about the butterflies, maybe just don’t cut every single flower cluster from every plant in your patch. The flowers go a long way too, just a sprinkle onto a salad or a dish is all you need.

Cooking / Eating 

Milkweed flowers are unique for a couple reasons:

  • They smell even better than they taste
  • They have a long shelf life, longer than any other flower I’ve had. Fresh flowers can last for weeks under refrigeration
  • They’ll color liquids (like alcohol or sugar solutions) a deep magenta
Halibut With White Bean Puree, Chickweed, Milkweed, and Flowers

Milkweed flowers make a great garnish, especially for dishes with milkweed, like this halibut.

What do you exactly do with the flowers? Can you actually cook them? Can you eat them raw? 

Like most other flowers sans day lilies, you won’t exactly want to cook them, in my opinion.

When I use milkweed flowers, generally I’m just going to sprinkle them on a salad, or an entree, typically fish. There is one way you can harvest their scent though, that I’ve tried. Like other flowers, milkweed has a strong, wonderfully sweet smell.

Cooking will destroy that scent, but their are some mediums that will absorb it, especially water, alcohol, and sugar based infusions. I have never had a problem serving raw sprinkles of milkweed flowers to guests at restaurants, or eating them myself in small amounts.

Milkweed Flower Cordial

This was taken after 2 days, the color will get even richer as it goes on.

Recipes 

My favorite thing to do, besides sprinkling these on things, is to make a deep colored, sweet or sweet and sour infusion, I use it to make drinks, flavor sorbet and ice cream bases, or, maybe my favorite: drizzle over fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream when using the shrub base that includes vinegar.

Milkweed Flower Cordial 

A recipe to use to flavor drinks and desserts like ice cream, sorbet, etc.

Milkweed Flower Shrub 

A vinegar based recipe, primarily for drinks, but also great drizzled over ice cream and fresh berries. Honey can be substitued for the sugar.

More 

Forager’s Guide to Milkweed

Milkweed Flowers and cordial (1 of 5)

Related

Previous Post: « Pan Roasted Chicken Breast with Duxelles Sauce
Next Post: Milkweed Flower Cordial »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Robert

    May 18, 2021 at 6:10 pm

    5 stars
    Good article thanks, I will also subscribe have a great day 🙂

    Reply
  2. Maria

    July 2, 2021 at 8:30 pm

    5 stars
    Can I sue it for a perfume?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      July 4, 2021 at 11:56 am

      Probably.

      Reply
  3. 4Winner Sports

    August 24, 2021 at 1:37 am

    Good article thanks, Thank you for sharing

    Reply
  4. Clifton Christon

    July 1, 2022 at 11:45 am

    I pick the green buds plus a few leaves before they flower, and boil them with salt pork and add chicken broth .

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Eat Milkweed, Help Save the Monarchs says:
    June 11, 2019 at 7:27 am

    […] can be eaten just like any edible flower.  This is a really creative and detailed guide on cooking milkweed flowers, along with sorbet, cordial and a number of other fun […]

    Reply
  2. Common Milkweed and Its Many Uses - Think Outside The Lawn says:
    August 28, 2020 at 7:56 am

    […] Milkweed Flowers […]

    Reply

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with @jesseroes TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with 
@jesseroesler and crew @campwandawega
📸 @misterberndt 

#staffmeal #brisket #meatsweats #naptime
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