If you can't lick it, eat it! I have a lot of Japanese knotweed growing in my yard. It grows in the wetter areas and kind of looks like bamboo with big heart-shaped leaves and lacy white flowers. It grows to be 7 feet tall, towering way over me.

Oregon has knotweed listed as an invasive plant species, and it really takes over in the yard. At first we tried to cut it all down, but that's really messy as the stalks have lots of juice and kind of explode when the weed whacker hits them! Then I found an article that said the knotweed was nutritious, and though I didn't think it tasted all that great, I feed it to my goats and they love it.

I saw recipes for soups and salads for knotweed, but since I learned how to make jelly in 4H, I thought I would give it a try. It made a very pretty peach color and has citrus kind of flavor.

The knotweed is said to have lots of vitamins A and C. It's grown in Japan for something called resveratrol which is supposed to have anti-aging properties. My goats have no wrinkles, so maybe that's true!