You can eat them if (a) the species of milkweed is common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), (b) if you pick them when they're immature (under two inches), and (c) if you blanch them (put them in boiling water for two minutes) before you go on to fry them. If you do all those things, they are very tasty... but milkweed is toxic, and some milkweed (species that aren't common milkweed) are VERY toxic, so you need to be careful.

The sumac tea is great! And staghorn sumac isn't poison at all ;-) (Unlike the aptly named poison sumac--which fortunately looks completely different, white berries instead of red)