Japanese Knotweed Recipe - Knotweed Jelly

Japanese knotweed Jelly served over yogurt

This recipe took a few tries to get correct, and we are very happy with the final product. One characteristic of the knotweed is that it is not very juicy. Usually when you make jelly, you are using a fruit juice. This is made with more of a knotweed infusion. Through trial and error, I found that I needed to start with a lot of water and even more chopped knotweed than you would think to end up with enough "juice" for the jelly recipe. The color is surprisingly pink, we were expecting green.

Japanese Knotweed Jelly    makes 6- 8oz. jars

4 c. water
8 c. chopped Japanese knotweed stalks, leaves removed

1. Add the water and the chopped knotweed stalks to a large pot. Bring the water up to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool, then hang the stewed knotweed in a jelly bag or in cheesecloth, and allow it to drip for an hour or two. You need to end up with 3 1/4 c. knotweed juice.

3 1/4 c. knotweed juice
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 box Sure-Jell powdered pectin (1.75 oz.)
4 c. sugar

2. Put the knotweed juice, lemon juice, and pectin into a large pot. Bring it up to a rolling boil.
3. Add all the sugar at once. Bring it back up to a rolling boil, and boil 1 minute while stirring constantly.
4. Remove from the heat and ladle it into hot, sterilised jars, cover. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes, cool.