Pass the Awesome! An experiment about life and the way it moves me |
I meant to write about this about a month ago, but no matter
for those of you who don't know, Kudzu is a vine native to China and japan. The name Kudzu comes from the Japanese word kuzu, which means vine. So much like the term chai tea( chai means tea), saying kudzu vine is almost like saying vine vine. Anyway, It was brought to the U.S. for ornamental purposes and planted threw out the south as a means of erosion control. Oddly, it grow much better In the southern United States than it does where it is native. The now wide spread vine can grow up to a foot a day during its growing season. Most people consider it a weed, and it covers hillsides everywhere down south. So much so that is often called the vine that ate the south. I recently found out a few things about kudzu. I like it personally. apparently Not only is it good to eat by livestock, but people can it as well. We can eat the leaves, young and old, cooked or uncooked. We can eat the young shoots as well, though obviously not the woody vines. The flowers are good to eat as well, but not the seeds or "beans". The roots can utilized as well, but they need to be cooked... not to terribly difficult! Kudzu can also be used a medicine. It can be used to treat a variety of ailments including diarrhea, and headaches. It also oddly enough helps suppress and control alcoholism, while helping regenerate liver tissues. Nifty huh? We have millions of acres of the stuff, but the U.S. government has declared it a noxious weed. I personally don't consider a fast growing food crop that takes care of itself and can be taken as a medicine a weed. It just needs to be harvested. Package it up and send it off as food. Don't spray it!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
CategoriesArchives
July 2015
|