The Score: 45 down, 55 to go

Our fridge is full of baggies containing edible odds and ends we need to cook up. Our front porch hosts a few baskets containing edibles we find in the yard. On our trip to Connecticut this weekend, we weeded Thag's mother's ivy specifically to collect the edible weeds growing in it. We stopped the car to collect on the side of the road. We are busy with edibles and are still having trouble keeping up with all this season has to offer.

So...

31. Morel mushrooms--absolutely divine--5

32. Dryad's saddle mushrooms--pungent and chewy--Thag--4, Ooga--1

33. Cattail rhizome flour--labor intensive to process, but sweet and nutty in flavor--5

34. Mint--no description necessary--5

35. Jewel weed--slightly slimy and a bit limp after all the boiling, but mild in flavor--3

36. Sheep sorrel--sour and lemony--easy to use in a variety of recipes--4

37. Wood sorrel--lovely little heart shaped leaves, tastes very similar to sheep sorrel, easy to find--great salad green--4

38. Clover greens--easy to find, hide well in a salad, tough if old--3

39. Milk weed shoots--easy to gather, should be peeled, cook like green beans, get 'em young--4

40. Thistle stalk--use like celery--deep, yet subtle, in flavor--good in sauces--4

41. Black locust flowers--sweet and fragrant, utterly heavenly--5

42. Thistle petiole--use like thistle stalk, but more work intensive--3

43. Burdock petiole--a pain to process, requires two boilings, gentle flavor, easy to incorporate into any veggie dish like a stir fry--3

44. Sumac shoots--we don't think we did these right--supposed to be sweet and juicy--we found them slightly bitter--until further notice, 2

45. Chickweed greens--easy to find, nice lettucy flavor, can be cooked or eaten raw--4

Milk Weed Shoots

Book after book states that milk weed shoots are not just terribly bitter, but also poisonous unless you boil them in several changes of water until they are a mushy green mass. That is why we were so surprised to find our wise leader, Samuel Thayer, extolling the excellence of milk weed shoots, indeed comparing them favorably to green beans!

Master Thayer has spent some time trying to destroy the lambasting of the lovely milk weed plant. He has even eaten it raw. His theory is one that we have heard again and again in our research on wild edibles. Some “expert” mistakenly reported it inedible unless boiled into oblivion. Subsequent authors repeated this adage more or less verbatim. Secondary resources are always inferior. That being said, if I thought the milkweed plant was poisonous, I probably wouldn’t try it raw.

So we followed our mentor’s advice; he hasn’t been wrong yet…

Our milkweed was a little past prime for shoot collecting, but still snapped crisply in our fingers. We removed the leaves, then peeled some and left others untouched. We boiled them for 20 minutes and served them with a little butter.

Baby Yub Yub loved these. And I must say, she does love a good green bean. Thag and I also gave them a five. A nice firm vegetable to add diversity to all our leafy greens. The peeled shoots were far better than the unpeeled ones, perhaps because of their age and size. We’ll have to try again next year with younger plants, but until then, we’re going to gather more and peel ‘em up.