If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!

Well, Spring came on suddenly here on the East coast. After some torrential rains at the end of March, we're suddenly seeing temperatures in the 70's. I had forgotten all about Japanese Knotweed until, at the edge of the woods on a rocky hillside, I saw some little green shoots poking up at the base of last years' dried up stems.  JK is an invasionary species that grows fast and shades out a lot of native plants. It generally gets chopped down in a losing battle to control it. However in the early Spring, the little pencil thin green shoots are delicious!  I grabbed a big handful and took them home. There I stripped off the larger leaves, trimmed the bottoms and rinsed them. Then I threw them in a hot pan with some olive oil and salt. After just two minutes they were bright green and tender, with a little hint of citrus, a lot like asparagus with lemon.

So hurry up and get your Japanese Knotweed now! It will probably be only a week before the stems are hollow stringy tubes that turn to goo when you cook them.