Meeting 12: Knotweed Pulp / Play

"Some plants become weeds simply by virtue of their success…"

— Monty Don

Last year when blending knotweed for pulp in late April we discovered a soft fiber on the bottom of the blender. We attempted to recreate this scenario with freshly harvested Japanese knotweed.

LB collected fresh Japanese knotweed sprouts that were about 12-18 inches long. We had a big freeze after the knotweed first popped up in late March and this year the knotweed is a bit behind last year’s growth rate. We separated the speckled epidermis (outer layer) from the celery like inside and the leaves. We then cut the separated inner and outer knotweed stems into approximately 2 inch pieces.

Next we blended up our outer and inner samples and found they created similar, if not identical, pulps at this early stage of growth. We did not find any left over fibers stuck on the bottom of the vitamix this go around. The green color was so vibrant!

The water left over from the strained pulp was smooth and felt lovely to touch. Further research on the resveratrol content of this liquid would be interesting to see if we could use this papermaking co-product in homemade skincare products. Even without external testing this could be an interesting addition to creams and lotions.

See you in the weeds,

x Nica