milkweed! flowers, fiber, twine

[asakiyume]

This year I'm mainly growing milkweed. Milkweed for flowers, milkweed with the garlic and other vegetables:





In part that's for pollinators and monarch butterflies, but it's also in large part for the super strong, super beautiful **fibers* that milkweed produces. I realized I can put that chambira fiber knowledge to work here with my own, local fibers. I used to have a goal of trying to spin the fibers... in spite of the fact that I've never spun anything. But in the Amazon, they're not spinning the chambira fibers, they're making twine--well I can do that! There are a thousand videos on Youtube of people turning milkweed fibers into twine.

Here are the dried stalks from last year.



And here's some of the fiber:



You separate the fibers from the inner pith, and you end up with long ribbons. They're not pure white like those fibers in the last picture, I think because of the mildew and weathering from being outside. I'm going to experiment with processing fresher stems. The ribbons remind me so much of the chambira palm fibers!



And here it is as twine! I have several little bits of twine now. Next two projects: (1) dyeing it with the madder I've got growing in the yard and (2) making bracelets!

Comments

[ranunculus]

I have a love-hate relationship with milkweed. It is a deadly poison to horses so I spray it when it grows in those fields, but the stuff in my creeks, a native not-quite-so-poison version that isn't growing in the horse pastures is lovely. Local Native Americans used it extensively for fiber. It's nickname is "Indian Hemp".
Your string looks nice and even. Bet it is really strong.

[asakiyume]

Whoa, I had no idea it was poisonous to horses! Yikes. Just goes to show, things always come with downsides. It *is* really strong.

[ranunculus]

Poisonous to all kinds of critters, in fact Monarch Butterflies eat it and become poison to predators - that is why they are poison, and a darn good strategy for survival!

[asakiyume]

Oh yeah--now that you mention it, I do recall learning that fact. I didn't put two and two together.

We humans can eat it, though: I've cooked the immature pods like okra.

[ranunculus]

I had to look up "eating milkweed pods". It looked to me like the milkweed that was being picked by that forager was the "Showy Milkweed" which is less poisonous to stock than some of the others. Most of what we have on the Ranch is California Narrow Leaf milkweed and Twin Leaf milkweed, both of which are very poisonous. I the same milkweed family we have Dogbane, which has "cardiac glycosides" which increase heart rate and will kill animals within 6 to 12 hours of ingestion. All of which makes me pretty hesitant to think of eating anything from that family!
Of course tomatoes were introduced to England strictly as an ornamental because they were in the nightshade family. No one in England ate tomatoes for almost a hundred years after introduction from the Americas on the basis that they must be poison. Dahlias were the opposite; they were introduced as a food crop and turned into an ornamental. This fall I want to try eating a dahlia tuber...
Ok, sorry, I got carried away. I'll stop with the trivia.

[asakiyume]

Hahaha, no worries, I love this stuff. I was big into foraging for a while, not so much now. We have dogbane here in the East too.

What we have most commonly where I am is Asclepias syriaca, common milkweed. The directions for cooking I've used involve (1) using only immature pods (which in any case you'd want to do if you didn't want a mouthful of silk), (2) blanching them first, and then (3) frying them. So those things probably help. But I'm not trying to persuade you to try them! Sounds like the milkweed out West is more toxic, and anyway, they're not THAT good ;-)

It's interesting how many things people eat are either somewhat poisonous if eaten in excess (sorrels, chard, spinach), poisonous if not prepared properly (cassava), poisonous at certain times of year or stages of development (pokeweed past the sprout stage), or have parts that are poisonous (rhubarb).

I *didn't* know that about dahlias! I look forward to hearing how they taste, if you try them.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Yeah, here they sell "edible dahlia tubers" that are supposed to be better than the ornamental variety but they are apparently still not that good. :P

Food fashion is a funny thing, and I spent quite a bit of money in the past trying out "exotic" things that a) just aren't that good, b) don't grow as well as they are purported to, c) take too much effort to grow/harvest/cook. I think it is good to diversify one's food sources but sticking to mostly tried and true staples is not pretty smart, too. :D

[asakiyume]

Yeah, exactly! I do like having the foraging knowledge, but it’s not the case that there’s a delicious food source that people have been overlooking—or, well, some foraged food is delicious, but when it’s delicious, it’s usually hard to obtain in some way, and that’s why it’s ended up not commonly consumed.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Bingo! :D

[amaebi]

Most things with that white latex sap are poisonous. Maybe all.

[asakiyume]

For varying values of poisonous! But yes.

[squirrelitude]

I know dogbane (Apocynum) as "Indian Hemp", but that's common names for you. :-)

In my experience, dogbane is *really* good for this, much better than Common Milkweed at least. Very sturdy fibers. But with milkweed you can sometimes get this wonderfully smooth and silky stuff. Not as strong, but quite pretty.

[asakiyume]

"Indian hemp" is a nicer name than "Dogbane" for sure!

We have an awful lot of milkweed and much less dogbane, otherwise I'd definitely try dogbane as well.

[squirrelitude]

I transplanted some dogbane into the back yard two moves and maybe 10 years ago, to the ongoing displeasure of one of the current tenants. (It's quite hard to get rid of.) I should make another attempt to move some to the Somerville Community Path, although the rhizomes are *so* deep. It hasn't worked the last couple times I've tried—the transplants just die. Maybe need to wait until early spring.

[asakiyume]

I'm very tentatively celebrating a (maybe? dare I believe) successful transplant of something else that's notoriously difficult to transplant: sassafras. A tiny seedling. They hate to be disturbed. It looked so very dead after the transplant... but a couple of leaves hung on, and now it has little green spots that look like they want to grow into more leaves. I would adore to have a sassafras tree in my yard.

[squirrelitude]

Oh, how exciting! And a mature sassafras would be an unusual sight, too. Or perhaps I'm just bad at noticing the adult trees, and there are *so many* of the saplings, waiting for their chance at a light gap. :-)

[asakiyume]

They really do like to sapple... But I suppose somewhere there are bigger ones. They must just be shy. (That little group is from a trail nearby.)

[sovay]

And here it is as twine! I have several little bits of twine now.

That's so cool! I look forward to the bracelets.

[asakiyume]

You and me both!

[sartorias]

Those are handsome plants!

[asakiyume]

And they're humming with life!

[yamamanama]

I knew about the butterflies but not about making fibers with it.

[asakiyume]

And really strong, too! I'm looking forward to doing stuff with it.

[rebeccmeister]

Likewise!

So satisfying to grow one's own fiber.

[asakiyume]

Very much so!

[adore]

That's a lovely project! :D

[asakiyume]

Thank you! I've got three chambira-fiber bracelets on right now; hoping to add a milkweed-fiber one at some point!

[or_midnight]

oh, wow, that twine looks so cool! I've grown flax a few times, and it's super labor intensive to turn it into proper spinning fiber, but I bet it would work perfectly for something like this, and with a fraction of the processing. (also, hi! I found your journal in some kind of friend-of-a-friend way clicking around on DW, and I've been reading for a while but this might be the first time I've commented.)

[asakiyume]

That's interesting to know about actual flax--have you actually gotten to the point of being able to spin it? I was watching videos from Old Sturbridge Village on the processing of it, and yeah--it does seem intensive!

The problem with twine is that you can't make cloth with it, of course.....or can you... I wonder if one could knit with it and make clothing that way. Or crochet with it...

--Also hi, welcome! I'll mutualize our situation :-)

[or_midnight]

phew, extremely delayed reply, but I sort of got flax to the point where I could spin it. I didn't grow a kind that was ideal for long fibers, and I also didn't process it the correct/traditional way. I did the whole soaking process to separate the fibers from the stem, then sort of went stem by stem, peeling off the fiber with my fingers, and from there I combed it in tiny little batches. So I wound up with, like, a handful of really beautiful golden fibers that I think, in theory, could have been spun, but by that point I was just like, "I have proved that this could work if I had a million hours to spend on it, experiment complete!!"

But I could definitely skip the combing process and do a coarse version of the stem vs. fiber separation and just work with the pieces like you've done with the milkweed to get some very useful twine!!

I think the only reason you couldn't knit or crochet with what you have here would be texture: it might be coarse for a garment that had a lot of skin contact, but it could be awesome for something like a sun hat or sandals/slippers. Anyway, thanks for chatting about fiberarts stuff, I'm mentally putting milkweed on my to-grow list for next year!

[asakiyume]

Good point about the texture! Maybe I won't try knitting it :D ... But a bag made of it would be fun!

[queenoftheskies]

How wonderful!

I remember watching someone separate milkweed fibers when I was very young. So young I don't remember what they were doing with them.

[asakiyume]

oooh, how cool! Maybe they were going to make bracelets. Or maybe they were going to apin them into milkweed thread and from there weave milkweed cloth!

[minoanmiss]

Hooray for twine! But if you wanted to learn about spinning I'm sure you could talk to my roommatr rachelkg

[asakiyume]

Cool! For now I think I'm good with twine--it was never so much the spinning part as using this cool fiber produced from a common plant part. Back when I thought I could maybe prepare it for spinning, my idea was that I would send it to a friend who at that time was big into spinning.[ETA: I am realizing as I read over my entry that I am directly contradicting what I said in the entry, where I said I had the goal of spinning it... I apologize! That was entry shorthand (rather than go into all the details that I just dropped here...)]

But maybe making twine will be my gateway drug! In which case I may come knocking on rachelkg's door ^_^

[mallorys_camera]

Damn! You just reminded me I had intended to plant milkweed this year because I love the Monarch butterflies.

But I totally forgot.

Oh, well. Next year.

Will you bring some of your milkweed twine to our cherry outing? I would like to see it.

[asakiyume]

Sure! I'd love to.

[amaebi]

Brilliant. Magicky.

And also, I love milkweed. I grew up spending a lot of most summer days wandering milkweed fields near my house enjoying insects, and then planned to have a milkweed field myself, when I got to be an adult. (I haven't. But I have some milkweed.) Such rich, complex environment.

[asakiyume]

They really are such rich and complex environments! I like going out there and listening to all the insects too. So many!

When you were wandering milkweed fields, were you playing imaginary games? Thinking over stuff? Being a naturalist and observing? All of the above? Something different?

[amaebi]

I was catching insect for my collection, and that's what I thought of myself as doing, but mostly what I was doing was contemplating the universe through both senses and mental mastication. It was a magic space.

[asakiyume]

wonderful. those times and places are a blessing

[noachoc]

Neat!

[asakiyume]

Heee, I'm glad you think so!

[wayfaringwordhack]

LOVE your fiber experiment. I STILL have the seeds you sent me. I have to prep ground for them and figure out where I want them and even though we have a lot of space, that just always seems like such a hard question!

[asakiyume]

I hope the seeds are still good! When you’re back in France for longer I can send you more<3

[wayfaringwordhack]

After I posted this, I thought of where I could plant them but it means I need to figure out where I want to move the current residents: golden raspberries. :P

[asakiyume]

Maybe you could just mix the milkweed in among the golden raspberries? I feel like maybe they could coexist...

[wayfaringwordhack]

I *could* try that but the raspberries aren't thriving and I would like them to take off better. ;)

[asakiyume]

*nodding* --that makes sense, then. Maybe they'll do better in another spot.

[squirrelitude]

If you need more stalks, I maintain a patch of milkweed that might be somewhat convenient to you. Last year's stems are still there. (I also have a ton of milkweed seedlings to find homes for, and should harvest seed this fall to distribute... or put up a sign asking people to take some.)

[asakiyume]

Thank you! I think I have an eyes-bigger-than-stomach risk here. I'd like to think that I could process all my milkweed and then some--hell, I'd like to make not just bracelets but bags and how about a hammock while I'm at it? ... But I think I'll be lucky to work through what I've got.

[squirrelitude]

I've never ended up doing large amounts. It has always just ended up as a sort of fiddle-toy, a relaxing activity to do sort of mindlessly or while paying attention to something else. But there's so much *potential* there... :-)