My first encounter with milkweed — my first encounter as an eater, that is — was at the much-missed New Amsterdam Market. From long-ago afternoons I'd known that its leaves feed the caterpillars of monarch and swallowtail butterflies. But as I learned from the proprietors of Wild Gourmet Food, who would regularly make a five-hour drive from their Vermont foraging grounds to the market's home near the South Street Seaport, milkweed pods can be boiled and eaten whole. (If I recall correctly, they displayed a split pod, shown below, to point out the pale interior; once it shows color, the pod is past eating.) Or the pods can be sautéed, I later learned, after my small supply had been exhausted.
Milkweed recipes came to mind again during a recent stroll in Staten Island. However, even if the pods shown above weren't so spiny — that is, possibly too mature — the setting, by a busy roadside, suggested that I leave them be.
Milkweed pods
Tompkinsville, Staten Island
