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!

[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]

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.

[asakiyume]

You and me both!

[sartorias]

Those are handsome plants!

[yamamanama]

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

[adore]

That's a lovely project! :D

[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]

And they're humming with life!

[asakiyume]

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

[asakiyume]

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

[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 :-)

[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!

[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.

[minoanmiss]

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

[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.

[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]

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