You can’t easily kill it with poison or even by hacking it to pieces. But have you tried eating it on an oatcake with a bit of Sussex cheese?
Japanese knotweed spells doom for many gardeners. The fast-growing invasive plant can strangle a garden in weeks.
Now Brighton chef Olivia Reed has come up with another way of dealing with the pest. Her plan, in short, is to eat it. The chef from Brighton’s Terre a Terre restaurant worked with academic Dr Paul Beckett to create a range of dishes. Paul got in touch with Olivia via her Twitter feed and he suggested that the restaurant should try some recipes. “I said when it’s in season do drop some by. We did some research and we weren’t that surprised. It’s local and we like to forage.” said Olivia. She came up with several recipes including knotweed and shallot jelly, served with Sussex Slipcote cheese on an oatcake and knotweed compote; knotweed with ginger, raspberries, sugar and vanilla.
“You wouldn’t identify it because it isn’t an identifiable flavour. The wonder of it is that you can use it for sweet or savoury,” said Olivia. The knotweed tastes similar to a lemony rhubarb.
Olivia worked with Dr Paul Beckett from Phlorum Limited, an environmental consultancy based at the University of Sussex, to create the dishes. He served up a knotweed crumble to guests at a recent dinner party and asked them to guess what it was made from. Read the full story here.
Tags: japanese knotweed, knotweed crumble, Olivia Reed, Paul Beckett, Phlorum, terre a terre
