The Christian Homesteading Movement
(Page 6 of 8)
March/April 1971
By Hal Smith
RECYCLING TIN CANS
RELATED CONTENT
From planning your home to laying out garden beds, long-time homesteader Steve Maxwell offers advic...
Whether you have 40 rural acres or an urban container garden, everyone can discover the art of home...
Heritage breeds are a great option for those with a small acreage. The breeds are hardy and versati...
The Good Life as lived by one young family in the British Columbia Kootenay Mountains....
For many land-hungry homesteaders, Alaska has always been the "last frontier": the one area where p...
Save any tin cans you come across to enrich the soil with iron. Burn them in a hot fire, flatten and then bury them in the garden or three feet apart around trees at the drip line.
THE USES OF MILKWEED
Many of our readers will recall that during the Second World War milkweed was "domesticated" and planted as a field crop for its downy seed-carrying floss for use in mattresses, pillows and life jackets. This wasn't a new discovery—the pioneers were familiar with the virtues of milkweed a hundred years ago...
Milkweed is a very familiar plant, establishing itself in city and suburban weed patches, along country roadsides and in the fields. Its sticky milky sap is well known, although there are related plants with milky juice that are dangerous. The leaves of milkweed are opposite each other on the stalk, and are smooth, oval and thick.
All parts of the milkweed are edible. Young shoots that appear in late May and early June can be used like asparagus, although they won't taste like asparagus. All parts of the plant have the same—"milkweed" is the only word for it—flavor. It's a bit different from anything else you've eaten, so it takes two or three meals to develop a liking for it. But most people do like it.
The next parts ready to eat are the tender top leaves and the unbloomed green flower heads. These are ready to pick at the end of June through July, and have the appearance and texture of broccoli.
When the flowers bloom dull red-purple, you can try your hand at making sugar or syrup from them. We haven't tried this yet, but it is said some people have met with varying success. Gather the flowers in the morning dew and boil them in water. And let us know how it comes out!
In August gather the tender seed pods. They resemble okra.
The shoots, leaves, green flowers, and pod are all prepared the same way. Boil two pots of water. Boil the milkweed in the first pot for one minute or more and dump off the water; then do the same in the second pot. Butter and salt or cream them.
And there's more. Milkweed "milk" is one of the many cures for warts that may—or may not—work for you. It did for me! Just apply the juice to the warts.
The roots, steeped in boiling hot water like tea, help relieve coughs, fevers, and nasal catarrh; drunk cold, this extract helps relieve an aching back and irritation in the genito-urinary tract.
Last, I understand that the seed floss can be spun into thread and woven into cloth. This is something we will try some day and let you know how it turns out.
Milkweed is a plant worth putting in the garden if none grows wild in your area. I'll be happy to mail a few seeds this fall to anyone who sends in a stamped envelope.—RLJ Fahey.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 | 6 |
7 |
8 |
Next >>
