today's forage.....

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today's forage.....
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wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 07 8:26 pm Post subject: today's forage.....

japanese knotweed! hooray! first time I found it young enough to eat, every patch I know has been decimated by those noxious weed eradication people with no entry signs foot baths and wire fences.. what on earth do they use chemical wise??? ....
my harvest which I'm not eating till I've checked out the safety of it came from a patch treated last year or possibly 2005.... how risky is it to eat do you think?? the shoots I picked looked very healthy and other weeds in the area were also growing well.
also in the basket some delicious, tiny but very sweet ox eye daisy leaves, tender dock leaves for my pickled wild veg project, an abundance of jack by the hedge, ground elder and some ground ivy to dry for tea.
ahhh, the foraging life is a good one!

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 07 9:22 pm Post subject:
I usually figure that if the knotweed wasn't killed off, or if it looks healthy, its probably okay. Usually gets attacked with glyphosate I believe, so if its up and healthy it should be okay. I'll go and see if I can forage some knotweed this weekend

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 07 9:42 pm Post subject:

cab wrote:

I'll go and see if I can forage some knotweed this weekend

I know where there's some, and with a newly extended range courtesy of Bellway Homes

Mat S

Joined: 07 Nov 2004
Posts: 282
Location: Leicester

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 07 11:44 pm Post subject:
Watch out for it's laxative effect. I ate a generous helping last year and spent much of the next day running to the small room. Luckily I wasn't at work that day.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:33 am Post subject:

Jamanda wrote:

cab wrote:

I'll go and see if I can forage some knotweed this weekend

I know where there's some, and with a newly extended range courtesy of Bellway Homes

Then make the Environment Agency (as I assume it should be those guys), whoever spread the stuff broke the law and should be pelted with rotten eggs.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:34 am Post subject:

Mat S wrote:

Watch out for it's laxative effect. I ate a generous helping last year and spent much of the next day running to the small room. Luckily I wasn't at work that day.

Rather like rhubarb.

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:38 am Post subject:

cab wrote:

Jamanda wrote:

cab wrote:

I'll go and see if I can forage some knotweed this weekend

I know where there's some, and with a newly extended range courtesy of Bellway Homes

Then make the Environment Agency (as I assume it should be those guys), whoever spread the stuff broke the law and should be pelted with rotten eggs.

Everyone who should be alerted has been. The response has been a half hearted spraying with glycophosphate, missing half of it, and not going any where that would involve stepping over or under anything.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:45 am Post subject:

Jamanda wrote:

Bloody irritating! Especially around your end of the country where it spreads so badly (does spread here, but its nothing like so savage).

Local papers interested do you think?

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:48 am Post subject:
I'm confused: bellway homes the baddies because they caused knotweed to spread? or sprayed it dead?? enviroment agency spreading chemicals should be pelted with eggs?? explain please!!

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:52 am Post subject:

cab wrote:

Jamanda wrote:

Bloody irritating! Especially around your end of the country where it spreads so badly (does spread here, but its nothing like so savage).

Local papers interested do you think?

Maybe. I've just been seconded onto to the committee dealing with the care of the Commons. I haven't actually attended a meeting yet. I know they are aware of it and have had lots of trouble with the housing contractors working adjacent running roughshod over their obligations. Knotweed is only one issue out of many.

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 8:55 am Post subject:

wildfoodie wrote:

I'm confused: bellway homes the baddies because they caused
knotweed to spread? or sprayed it dead?? enviroment agency spreading chemicals should be pelted with eggs??
explain please!!

Bellway homes baddies for causing it to spread, after it had been pointed out to them. Just ignored the law and took machinery in. Then made a halfassed job of carrying out the instructions to undo the damage they caused.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 9:01 am Post subject:

wildfoodie wrote:

I'm confused: bellway homes the baddies because they caused
knotweed to spread? or sprayed it dead?? enviroment agency spreading chemicals should be pelted with eggs??
explain please!!

Japanese knotweed, last time I looked for stats, covered half of one percent of Britains land area. Whereas in Cambridge it can be a spreading, troublesome weed, because we're so arid and have a wierd limey/clayish soil it only spreads a bit. In, say, the South West it can spread like a rocket - it can grow inches per day, and spread outwards several metres a year. Its found across pretty near all of the country now (I've found it on Lewis, I've found it on the coast of East Anglia, on the banks of the Clyde, in North Wales, on the Cornish coast, its spread all over the place).

If it decides to grow near your house then unchecked it'll take walls down, sometimes finding cracks in the foundations to grow up through and appearing indoors behind furniture. To kill it, you either need to dig every last scrap out (an inch of stem, all of which being meristematic, will sometimes be enough to get it growing again). Doesn't sound too bad, but the roots spread down and out seemingly as far as you can dig. So to eraricate it you either have to spray and keep spraying (problematic and nasty), cut the stems and pour high concentration glypohosate down the holes (doesn't always work even then), spray 'smart' (do it in autumn and repeatedly in spring, then autumn again), cover in black polythene a much greater ground area than has visible plant, or strip the soil down to geology and burn it. Even then it has been known to come back.

Unsurprisingly, the estimated cost of eradication is in the billions.

Technically, transporting it (even stuff home to cook) is illegal. Spreading it and replanting it is definitely illegal, and it is meant to be the duty of people who are moving soil about to make sure they don't do it. Aren't many prosecutions though (I don't recall any!).

While the environment agency spraying herbicides sounds bad, its usually better than leacing knotweed unchecked. Personally, I think we should encourage people to eat it to death.

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 10:10 am Post subject:

thanks cab and jamanda... food for thought... having picked it I'm now going to add all the cut off bits to the burn pile ( not the compost bin!)
last night I was entertaining some subversive thoughts about planting some on my side of a neighbours fence (neighbour has a big russian vine imo THAT should be an illegal planting) and sitting back to watch the Battle of the Noxious Spreading Weeds, but now I have visions of it invading said neighbours house walls, leading to prosecution and fines so I won't be doing that!

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 10:21 am Post subject:
I wouldn't put it on your burn pile. I'd burn it ...NOW. If you have put any in your compost, don't use that compost. It is evil! Now - can you eat Himalayan balsam Cab?

wildfoodie

Joined: 05 Apr 2005
Posts: 2169

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 07 10:30 am Post subject:

Quote:

can you eat Himalayan balsam

allegedly, yes, tho not tried it personally
see:
https://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Impatiens+glandulifera

the burn pile is ready for burning - tonight! and its in a weed burner not on the ground. - I might microwave the jk offcuts before burning for good measure. and no I haven't put any on the compost pile...

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