Black Locust and Japanese Knotweed Crackers!
Once in a while, I will invite a friend over for dinner to try one of my kitchen experiments.
He will usually say, ‘So this is one of those things that no one else in the world is having?’. Yep, he’s probably right. Half the fun of foraging is trying new recipes, and this cracker/cookie is just one of those basic dehydrator cracker recipes worked for me. Apparently for my friend, too! He took a baggie of crackers home, something that may or may not happen with other dishes I serve.
This time, our foraging took us upward for Black locust flowers.
Black Locust trees grow tall, sometimes up to 100 feet! You have to find young trees with lower branches in order to harvest. I harvested two bags full of clusters, plenty enough to prepare several ways. Black locust flowers are delicious by themselves, with a crunchy texture and somewhat sweet with a pea flavor. I love eating them straight from the bunch as a fresh snack. Many times, when the cluster is in bloom, the tip of the cluster will still have a few slightly unopened buds. These unopened buds are delicious in a stirfry with fresh spring onions and julienned carrots. The blossoms are delicious in a salad with a raspberry or strawberry vinagrette. The blossoms also make delicious tea, full of nutrients and antioxidants. I froze several sandwich bags’ full to use after the blossom season is over.
Wild food is always a hunt. Don’t be afraid to experiment. That’s what I did with this cracker! I had a basic raw dehydrated cracker recipe with congealed flax and chia seeds. So the addition of nuts and seeds and the wild edibles was perfect for a wild snack.
NOTE: As always, be positive in your plant identification when foraging and cooking with wild foods!
These recipes use Japanese Knotweed, an extreme invasive. It can be spread from even one leaf or any
small scrap of the plant. When handling knotweed, put any scraps, leaves, etc in a large stock pot and boil approximately 30 minutes to kill the plant. Do not compost.
Black Locust and Japanese Knotweed Dehydrator Crackers
2 cups fresh Black Locust flowers, shucked from stem
1 cup chopped Japanese Knotweed
½ cup dried apple pieces
1 cup Japanese knotweed syrup (recipe below)
½ cup flax seed
½ cup chia seeds
1 cup flax meal (Bob’s Red Mill brand or grind your own, recipe below)
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup finely chopped pecans, almonds or walnuts
¼ cup roasted pumpkin seeds
¼ cup shelled sunflower seeds
Cracker Topping:
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon clove
3 tablespoons flax meal
In a food processor, puree black locust flowers and Japanese knotweed with the Japanese knotweed syrup until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the flax and chia seeds, mix well. Let sit 30 minutes to congeal.
Add salt, flax meal, pumpkin and sunflower seeds and nuts, mix well. If the mixture is too dry, add a little more knotweed syrup or water. Spread onto dehydrator trays lined with leather sheets or parchment paper. Don’t use wax paper, it will stick to the back of the cracker. The mixture should be about 1/8” thick.
Mix together brown sugar, cinnamon, clove and remaining flax meal. Sprinkle onto cracker mixture.
Dehydrate on low, about 105 degrees, for 18 hours. Turn the sheet of crackers over about halfway through and allow to dehydrate both sides. Allow to dehydrate completely. Break up crackers into 2” pieces/squares. Store in an airtight container.
Substitutions:
Black locust flowers – honeysuckle blossoms, rose petals, apple blossoms, or any other edible flower petal
Pecans – walnuts, peanuts, or mixed nuts
The sprinkled mix is optional.
Japanese Knotweed Syrup
4 cups chopped Japanese knotweed stalks, preferably from stalks less than 12” tall
1 quart filtered water (tapped birch water or flower tea may be used)
1 cinnamon stick
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ascorbic acid
Place the knotweed in a saucepan, add water. Simmer the knotweed for about 30 minutes and turn off heat. Let the liquid sit for 8 hours or overnight.
Drain the liquid off with a wire mesh sieve and return to saucepan. Reserve knotweed. Add sugar, simmer mixture for 20 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Add ascorbic acid. Allow to cool and pour into a jar with a cap.
For a thicker syrup, allow mixture to reduce for about 30 minutes. Store in fridge tightly sealed.
This syrup can be used as any flavored sweetener in tea, coffee, yogurt, oatmeal, etc. Use to flavor soda water or ginger bug for a carbonated beverage.
Substitutions for Japanese knotweed: Knotweed has somewhat of a rhubarb taste. If you don’t have this invasive in your area, you can use pineapple juice to make the syrup. Other fruit can be used to make syrup as well.
Use the leftover knotweed mash from the knotweed syrup recipe, to make knotweed applesauce or fruit leathers:
Knotweed Applesauce
Chop a couple apples of your favorite variety into a saucepan. Add some of the knotweed syrup, about a half cup to one cup. Simmer apples until soft. Add strained knotweed mash to applesauce, simmer until smooth or use an emersion blender to smooth. Delicious over ice cream or with cookies.
Knotweed Fruit Leather
Let applesauce cool. If its thin, add about half to one cup of chia seeds to thicken. Let sit for about 15 minutes to congeal. Spread on leather sheets on the dehydrator trays. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 18 hours or until dry. Turn over leathers about half way through to dry on the other side.
Stirfry Black Locust Blossoms and Garden Greens
4-8 strips bacon, reserving half the fat
1 quart washed chopped garden and wild greens – Kale, turnip, beet greens, chard, tendergreen, daikon or radish greens with dandelion greens, chickweed, etc
1-2 cups black locust blossoms
4 eggs
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic
Add any of the following options:
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1 small carrot, julienned or diced
½ c sliced mushrooms
Fry bacon in a cast iron skillet. Pour off part of the bacon drippings, reserving a couple tablespoons in the pan. Add any of the optional ingredients you plan to have (carrots, etc). Let saute for a couple minutes to carmelize. Add washed greens to pan, folding into the bacon grease to coat the greens. Add a couple teaspoons water to the pan and let the greens simmer with the lid on the pan, stirring every couple minutes. When greens are tender, add black locust blossoms and saute for about two minutes, stirring. When blossoms are almost translucent, crack eggs into pan. Let them cook for a minute, then with the spatula, break the yolks and begin scrambling eggs with greens. Continue flipping and sauteeing until eggs are done. Salt and pepper to taste.
