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.)