Japanese Knotweed Recipe - Knotweed Squares

Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) is a wonderful wild edible, but a horrible invasive species. It came originally from Asia, and has spread to the US from the UK as an ornamental plant for it's pretty white flower sprays in summer and fall. It spreads mainly through rhizomes underground, but the seeds have "wings" to better ride the winds. Japanese knotweed looks like a red-speckled asparagus in it's early stages in the spring, but the leaves quickly unfurl and the smooth, hollow stems grow very tall. There are several very distinct identifiers, including the jointed stem which looks like bamboo, a membranous sheath at each of the stem joints, and leaves that are broad with an oddly straight base and a pointy tip. Japanese knotweed will grow just about anywhere, next to water, on the side of the road and railroad tracks, anywhere there is ample sunlight. It will also grow in just about any type of soil, so it easily excludes native vegetation. The thick layer of decomposing dry stems will outmulch all competitors.


This is our first year of Japanese knotweed. We found a few poking up in late March, and they are really growing at a fast rate now. What we cut down one day is ready again in two more days. The flavor of the raw knotweed is similar to rhubarb, with a slightly green flavor. We have been cutting shoots about 8" tall. We have started a small batch of wine and made a dessert bar recipe with the peeled, chopped shoots.



Japanese knotweed is known by other names like Mexican bamboo, Japanese fleece flower and crimson beauty. It also has several different Latin names--Polygonum cuspidatum, Fallopia japonica, or Reynoutria japonica.

Knotweed Squares makes 1-11"x7" pan

crust:
1 c. flour
1 c. confectioners sugar
6 T cold butter


filling:
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3 c. packed, peeled, and chopped Japanese knotweed stalks



1. Heat the oven to 350°. Grease a 11"x7" pan.
2. Put crust ingredients into a food processor and pulse to coarse crumbs. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and bake for 12 minutes.
3. For the filling, whisk all ingredients together except for the knotweed pieces. Stir in the knotweed, and spread the mixture over the hot crust.
4. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

Black Walnuts

Wow, is it spring already? Back to foraging and letterboxing, it has been a long and lazy winter. We are looking forward to adding some more plants to our foraging knowledge. We are looking forward to trying Japanese Knotweed, common Milkweed, more greens in spring, and more roots. Nettles are just starting to appear, and we have a planter of them in the house that we forced last month. It was nice to get some fresh nettles for soup. The tiny patch of ramps we have planted behind our porch is also starting to appear, a good sign that they will be available in the wild soon. We are actively watching several patches of the Japanese Knotweed. This will be our first experiences with this plant. We are planning on eating it steamed, in a pie, and making a jam with it.


We have had some black walnuts (Juglans nigra) drying all winter, and on a nice sunny day we took them outside to crack open. There is a tree next to our house, and we picked up a bucketful last autumn. The tree is identified by greyish-brown, deeply furrowed bark. The leaves are compound, made up of many smaller lance-shaped leaflets, arranged alternately along a stem.




The nuts are inside a thick green husk that must be removed, and is often infested with worms. You should wear gloves to remove the husk, as it will stain everything it touches. Inside is the deeply furrowed nutshell. It is best to wash the nuts and scrub them with a wire brush at this point to remove any leftover husk. The nuts are easier to remove from the shell after they have aged and dried awhile. Robert used the backside of an axe to crack them open and picked out the meat. Gillian ate the nutmeat almost as fast as it was shelled! The flavor is different from commercial walnuts, and black walnuts have a very high oil content. The nutmeats can be added to recipes, eaten raw, made into nut butter, or boiled to obtain the walnut oil. We just ate them raw as a treat.

Ramps Recipe - Caramelized Wild Leek and Garlic Jam

 

Commercial product vs. My version

There is a product made by Stonewall Kitchens that we have adored for years--Roasted Garlic Onion Jam. Just slightly sweet, and wonderfully savory, it tastes superb on some fresh bread with a wedge of brie, or on a roast beef sandwich with dijon. I have made mini roast beef sandwiches as appetizers, and they were a big hit. The only drawback is the price--nearly eight dollars for a 13 oz. jar.

We wondered if we could make some, since we started doing jellies of our own. I tried to search many sites online for a good recipe, but somehow, onions, garlic, vinegar and sugar did not sound like I would make what we wanted. The flavor is complex, spicy, with just a touch of vinegar. We finally found one recipe to try, and the results are very, very good. Next time we may use less basalmic and add some apple cider vinegar, and try to get more caramelization on the ramps and garlic. It is also supposed to be tasty on game meats, making them less "gamey".

We dig the ramps in late September, pulling up the fat bulbs by looking for the dead flower and seed stalks on the forest floor. They are washed well, and sliced like leeks before being cooked with some regular sweet onions.



Caramelized Wild Leek and Garlic Jam

makes about 8 one cup jars



4 whole heads garlic
1 tsp olive oil
4 c. chopped ramps
2 c. chopped sweet onions
2 oz. butter
3/4 c. cider vinegar
1/2 c. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. basalmic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp ground mustard seed
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
6 c. sugar
1 (3 oz.) package liquid pectin



1. Without separating the cloves, chop off the tops of the garlic heads. Wrap them in foil, drizzle with the olive oil, and roast at 425° for 35 minutes, until browned. Cool.

2. In a large heavy bottomed pot, sautée the ramps and onions in butter until soft and lightly browned.

3. Squeeze the roasted garlic into the pot with the ramps, and add vinegars, lemon juice, mustard, salt, pepper, ginger, and cloves.

4. Bring to a rolling boil, and add the sugar. Return to a rolling boil, and cook 3 minutes stirring constantly.

5. Add the pectin and boil 1 minute longer, stirring constantly.

6. Remove the pot from the heat and let stand for 3 minutes. Skim the foam off the top. Pour into hot, sterilized jars, and seal. Process is water bath for 10 minutes.

Letterboxing in Barbados, December 2009

We took our family holiday to Barbados this year. We were excited to see there were 12 boxes listed as active on the island, some singles and most planted by people from Canada who moved to the island. I tried to map them out beforehand, since we would be in an area we had never been before, and having a hard enough time with the driving on the left side of the road. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any of the boxes! I am not sure what the planters were using for a box, but nothing was left. Some boxes were 5 years old, some a bit more than one year old. We were able to find the locations, and they seemed like obvious hiding spots to a letterboxer. It is too bad we could not find any boxes!

We carved and planted 9 boxes to leave on the island. Robert and I wanted to continue our theme of foraging wild edibles, and the tropical climate provided us with many new plants and foods that we obviously can't find in Connecticut.

Our series of 6 boxes, Welchman Hall Gully Series, is planted at Welchman Hall Gully, in St Thomas Parish, in the interior of the island. I corresponded with the owner, Debra Branker, before we came to Barbados. I explained letterboxing and asked for permission to plant in the Gully. She was incredibly enthusiastic, and even helped us with ideas for the edible plants and fruits we would carve. The 6 boxes were planted along the .75 mile paved path in the tropical forest. We carved the icon for the Gully, mangoes, cacao, hog plum, breadfruit, and avocado. There is one logbook for the series. There is a charge to enter the Gully, but it is worth it even if you are not boxing.


The other three boxes are planted along the east coast of Barbados. Foraging Coconuts is located in Bathsheba in the Soup Bowl. We loved this area for it's unusual rock formations, rugged beach covered in lovely beach glass, and tide pools for dipping into. The surf is much too rough here to swim, but there are several tide pools from ankle deep to chest deep, each filled with fish, crabs, and pretty sea creatures like urchins and anemones. Gillian enjoyed searching the rocky beach for seed pods, rocks and glass.

Foraging Barbados Cherry is located at the East Point Lighthouse. It seems the Bajans have not figured out that lighthouses make great tourist attractions, since the original lighthouse and master's quarters are in ruins and unsafe to enter. There is a modern contraption here to warn ships of the rocky waters. I was unable to identify and acerola trees in the wild since they were neither flowering nor fruiting in December. This seemed like a good landmark, so I found a rock wall to hide the box in instead. There is no beach here, and no access to the water due to the extreme rock formations.


The final box is located at what I think is Ginger Beach. It is labelled on some maps, but not others. There is no public access sign, just an unpaved, rough parking area and concrete steps down to this gem of a beach. On the cliffs above are several private residences, no hotels or resorts. This beach has rough surf, but wonderful sand, a deeply shaded area with trees, a swing hidden among the trees, some private stairwells, a monolithic stone at the water's edge, and a mysterious cave and tunnel to the next beach over. In the shaded area, we found a fig tree and some green monkeys stopped by to check us out as Gillian went swinging. Foraging Bearded Fig is hidden here, although we later came to find that the edibility of this fig is questionable. This beach was completely deserted, and so peaceful, easily my favorite on the island.


We are really hoping someone tries to find the boxes. We tried to hide them well, and used watertight boxes, hoping they last awhile. I did manage to make some LTCs of the stamps before we left, so at least I remember what our carves look like. We did get to eat some breadfruit, drank some Barbados cherry juice, and had enough coconuts and coconut water to last until next December.

Western PA

Robert had a few extra days off this week, so we decided to take a family road trip. I researched western Pennsylvania, since it looked big, was full of state forests for letterboxing, and didn't seem too far from eastern Connecticut. Big it was, forested but nearly boxless, and 8 hours of straight driving is too far for a 4 year-old to sit in a car seat.



Perhaps there are different laws here in Connecticut regarding state forests, but the state forests in Pennsylvania are ugly. They are sprinkled with houses, railroads, dilapidated buildings, and mini oil derricks! It was also hunting season, so pickups with gun racks were in abundance on the side of the road. We picked up 4 boxes total, over three days, two of them in large towns. Only two, sad, little, lonely boxes out in the woods. I forget sometimes how spoiled we are in Connecticut. I did see some partridge berries on the ground, along with something my family calls princess pines. We used to gather them when I was a kid to make holiday wreaths.



If you ask Gillian, she will tell you she loved Pennsylvania. I carefully chose hotels with indoor pools and she got to try out her new inflatable child's travel bed. She was thrilled with the half-inch of snow that had fallen one night, and made the most of our stop at a park to find a box. There was a playscape, a pond, a beach, and geese, and she made a quick fairy house with buttercups that were confused by the unseasonably warm weekend. Robert and I lamented on the money and time we spent, feeling cheated, until we listened to Gillian recount how much fun she had, then we felt better.

Eeeewwww, that Ginkgo smell

This weekend we went out to Harkness Park in Waterford, CT to check on the Ginkgo(Ginkgo biloba) trees. There are 3, two males and one female, and our letterbox, Foraging Ginkgo. The ginkgo tree is unique, in that it is a living fossil. It was thought to be extinct, until some were discovered in China that had been tended by monks. Now it is a popular landscaping tree because of it's beauty, ability to thrive in urban environments, and deep-rooted strength. The leaves are fan shaped, and turn bright yellow in autumn. The shape of the tree is more like a conifer than a deciduous tree. Most nurseries and landscapers only want to plant the male trees, because it is the female tree that produces the fruit, and the fruit smells awful when it is ripe. Worse than awful, the best description I have read described it as "cheesy vomit", and I have to agree. Last year we encountered some Asian women gathering the smelly fruits, and we tried to ask what they were. The communication barrier prevented us from learning too much, and this was before our serious foraging hobby. This year, we hoped to beat the ladies to the trees and harvest some ginkgo nuts to eat, but the trees in Harkness Park were still not ready.


We headed out to Glastonbury, and there found another set of landscaped trees at a shopping plaza, with 3 males and one stinky female tree. Seriously, the entire area smelled bad before we even got to the tree. The ground was littered with the ripe fruits, and gathering was easy. We used gloves, since the fleshy part can cause rashes in some people, and discarded the smelly pulp as we gathered. Once the peachy-orange flesh is removed, the nuts were brought home and washed further. They can be boiled in the shell, or we roasted them at 275° for 30 minutes. Once cracked open, the green nut can be eaten or added to dishes like rice, congee, soups, or they are used as filling for Chinese moon cakes. There are reports of toxicity in children who eat more than 5 nuts per day, so Gillian has been only eating one at a time. The roasted, shelled nuts can be frozen for later use.

Tea, or Tisane

Over the last year, we have been gathering leaves, flowers, and roots and drying them for teas to drink during the winter. One of Robert's favorites is linden(Tilia americana). He is familiar with another species of linden
(Tilia cordata) that grows in Europe. The leaf-like lighter green bract is collected in late spring when the flowers are open, and dried in a dark place to brew a tisane, or herbal tea. The tisane is light yellow-green with floral qualities, lovely sweetened with honey. The flowers contain antioxidants and mucilaginous properties which can reduce inflammation, sooth coughs and sore throats, and relieve anxiety related indigestion. The linden found in America has other medicinal properties found in the wood, leaves, flowers, the nutlets produced after the flowers and the charcoal from burned wood. I believe there is a European specimen at Harkness Park in Waterford, where we were gathering some bracts.

Pine needle tea can be made at any time of year, and we don't bother to gather or dry the needles, they are better fresh. The younger, long needles from white or red pines work best. Grab a handful of the needles and coarsely chop them. Using a basic formula of one part needles to two parts water, add boiling water and steep 15-30 minutes to get a clear tisane that smells like a deep pine forest in winter, so clean and fresh. It can be sweetened. Pine needle tea provides vitamin C, is a cough soother, and can relieve heartburn. You can add the tea to a warm bath for a relaxing soak. Pine needles here in the Eastern US are all safe to make tea from, with the exception of yew.

Another tasty tisane can be made from sassafras(Sassafras albidum). The leaves make a nice tisane, but the roots need to be simmered 20 minutes to make an amber decoction. The roots can be gathered and dried for storage in the winter, when the ground is frozen and you can't dig fresh roots. Sassafras is easily identified by the 3 different leaf shapes that are present on each tree--a three lobed leaf, a two fingered "mitten" leaf, and an oval leaf. When scratched, the bark gives off a pleasant and distinct odor. Sassafras reproduces saplings from a parent tree, and usually there are large amounts of small trees surrounding the parent tree for easy gathering of roots. We just yank the whole sapling from the ground and bring home the root, then dry the shaved root bits in a dark place. The taste of the decoction is root beer-like. The tisane and decoction are used as a blood detoxifier and spring tonic. There are lots of sassafras trees located in Mohegan Park here in Norwich, and we planted a letterbox there, Foraging Sassafras.