Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

Family: Apocynaceae | Edibility: Edible (3/5)

One of the most bountiful and delicious gourmet wild vegetables in North America when harvested at proper growth stages: shoots, flower buds, and young pods.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Shoots, Flowers, Fruit

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Late Summer, Spring, Winter

Flavor & Culinary Uses

Young shoots taste like sweet asparagus; tight flower buds taste like broccoli; firm young pods taste like okra and green beans. — Spring shoots boiled 5 minutes and tossed with butter and sea salt; Unopened flower buds steamed like wild broccoli rabe; Young firm pods (under 2 inches) stewed in soups or battered and pan fried; Flower clusters infused into pink sweet wild cordial

Habitat & North American Range

Sunny meadows, prairie remnants, roadsides, pastures, and old fields. (Zone 3, Zone 4, Zone 5, Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8, Zone 9)