Knotweed, A Delicious Pest

There's only one plant I can think of that is as annoying to people as dandelions, and that's Japanese Knotweed. This bamboo-like plant has become very successful in many parts of the US, to the degree that it's being labelled as "invasive." Indeed, it is, but that's not a bad thing, if only people would realize just how useful this pest is. And it's good for you too! You can just imagine my delight to learn I have a HUGE crop of it available to me down by the creek. It just sort of showed up, and hopefully it's here to stay.

It really is a pretty plant when you take the time to look. Green, speckled with burgundy, large oval leaves, and lovely little, creamy white flowers in late summer.

While the roots are troublesome, damaging foundations, roads, flood defenses, paving and the like, the flowers are sometime prized by beekeepers as an important source of nectar. Knotweed flowers at a time when little else blooms. The honey produced from knotweed is similar to buckwheat honey, though not quite as strong.

Knotweed Cobbler

Ingredients:
4 cups knotweed, sliced into rings
3/4 cup sweetener (optional but recommended)

1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup coarse pecan/nut flour
3 tbsp butter, melted
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Start by cooking down your knotweed in a pot over medium heat. You don't need to add water since knotweed contains enough on its own. Just put it in the pot, add your sweetener, and stir it occasionally until it cooks down into a compote.

Add your compote to a buttered baking dish. In a separate bowl mix together your coconut, nut flour, melted butter, cinnamon and nutmeg. It should stick together in a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle this over your knotweed mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

This dessert is wonderful served warm with a side of vanilla ice cream, but I found it to be just as tasty served cold all by itself.

Japanese knotweed is quickly becoming one of my favorite foods. It's a plant that tastes sweet like fruit, it's abundant, it's good for you, and it grows quickly- as much as 3 to 4 meters in a matter of weeks. Rest assured, there will be more recipes with knotweed in the future. How much more I'll get this season with the deep freeze is unknown, but at least I have yet another crop to look forward to each spring.

Knotweed has found itself a plant of interest to the healthfood industry as well, being a fantastic source of resveratrol. In fact it's packed with a lot of good stuff, including vitamins A and C, phosphorus, zinc, potassium and manganese. I was surprised to find that most resveratrol supplements are actually made from Japanese knotweed.

More importantly (to me anyways) is that you can eat it! The young shoots are tender and flavorful, tasting a bit like mild rhubarb. The flavor of the raw shoots reminds me more of starfruit- crisp, juicy, just a little bit tart. It makes a lovely snack, though eating too much can aggravate gout, arthritis and kidney stones. I'm not entirely sure how much is too much, however. I can't stop snacking on it. It's delicious! As much as I love eating it raw, my supply was more than I could consume, so I opted to cook some of it for cobbler, and canned the extra for future desserts.