I had forgotten all about harvesting Japanese knotweed this spring (photo at right of the mature plant). Happily, my husband's parents remembered my interest  and brought me some today.  My father-in-law has been trying to eradicate a particular stand for about 10 years, and I like to think this bunch helped in that cause.

If I had remembered to look for it, last week -- or even the week before -- would have been a better time to gather it as all the stems above ground would have been edible.  Now I had to pick and choose to get the most tender tops.  The good news is that anything that was picked today will re-sprout and be young and tender.

Up close, the stems are speckled red just like rhubarb, to which it is often compared.  Lightly steamed, it has a very pleasant tartness, not the killer tartness that unsweetened rhubarb has.  Eating it was really quite delightful.  The color of it steamed is an undelightful olive drab, though.  I decided to dress it with some soy sauce and toasted sesame oil in honor of its Japanese heritage. I'll serve it room temperature with dinner tonight.

I've tried peeling and steaming some of the somewhat more thick stems to make a compote like you would with rhubarb. But it's not easy to peel a hollow tube -- which is what the stems are -- and have anything left at the end is a fairly frustrating thing, so I'll keep to the more tender specimens, given how plentiful they are. Next batch I will cook and sweeten like rhubarb, and use on top of ice cream, as knotweed can be used for either savory or sweet.

Altogether a good wild vegetable to eat and I would certainly have it again.  And given its invasive bounty, I like to think I'm contributing something positive to the local ecosystem.

More about eating Japanese knotweed:

All tied up over knotweed: Cambridge [MA] art gallery holds its own version of 'Iron Chef'

Pick your own knotweed shoots

Japanese Knotweed Recipes
Japanese Knotweed (some good photos)

Photo: Courtesy WikiMediaCommons.com