I affectionately refer to my dad as a hippie. He loves to watch birds, attended the march on Washington for Nixon’s inauguration, and knows how to harvest weeds from the woods and eat them. Need I say more?
This aforementioned pie is actually Japanese Knotweed Pie and I absolutely love it.
It’s not quite as scary when you grow up with this, but trying to convince others to try a pie made with weeds harvested along a New Jersey highway is not an easy task.
So what exactly is Japanese Knotweed?
Facts about Japanese Knotweed (thank you Wikipedia and odd factoids learned in my childhood):
– It is not only delicious (similar to rhubarb), it is used in Chinese Medicine to produce resveratrol (same thing they extract from red grapes and they say is so good for you in red wine… used in Chinese medicine for anti-aging, may have some effect in lowering blood sugar in humans) and as a nutritional supplement to regulate bowel motility (and who doesn’t need some good ol’ bowel motility?)
– The flowers are used in beekeeping for making honey
– It helps desensitize from allergies since it contains low doses of local polen
(Note: None of the above facts have been proven by anyone of any note)
Dad made it this season with berries, and I approve! It’s a base of basically whipped cream, condensed milk, and lemonade along with the knotweed in a graham cracker crust. The recipe will remain a family secret (sorry folks) so you have to be in the right spot at the right time around April to get a bite.
Of course, being handed a pie this delicious a few weeks into Weight Watchers was not easy… but I ate it 2 points at a time (1/16th of the pie… not bad when you figure out that’s about half a normal slice). Delish!
Can’t wait for next April!
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