Allotments 4 All

Following on from the Japanese Knotweed thread I have just been reading that Bindweed is edible too!!!  You can steam and eat the leaves and roots.  However it is also used medicinally as a purgative so probably not good idea to eat too much!  ;)

At least now if anyone mentions the acres of it on my lottie I can tell them it is a food crop.....

It's high in vitamin C too apparently.

Last summer I was grazing the horse I ride in hand and he was happily munching through strings of bind weed, almost sucking it up like spaghetti. I think I should suggest to his owner that he's rented out for allotment clearing!

Not too certain that I'd take any manure from that horse's yard though! :)

Oh dear. I do (of course!)  ??? :-\

Hi Justy,
              Bindweed growing wild may be ok for human consumption but I would think twice about eating any from an allotment.

It has probably had a kinds of weedkiller and herbisides
thrown at it over the years.

                                                     PREMTAL

don't worry - wouldn't dream of eating it.  Spent a happy hour yesterday killing baby bindweed plants!  My lottie neighbours must have thought I had gone mad muttering "got you you b**ger!" every few minutes.

Don't know how anyone can eat the roots though coz as soon as I try to find any they disappear 20ft underground   ;D

Does anyone know if bindweed can propogate itself from top growth in a compost heap? ie if I chop down a load of mixed nettles, bindweed, ground elder and cow parsley from the garden and pop it on the heap - will that cause a weed problem later?

Thanks,
Sarah.

Yes! Weed tops in seed will germinate and pieces of couch grass will grow in a heap.

What is bindweed supposed to taste like? Has anyone tried it yet?

Bindweed won't propagate from topgrowth unless there are seeds in it, but I've put rots into my compost bins and found them alive a year later. It's really hard to kill; there's a patch by my currants that I was pulling all last year, and I thought I'd finished it. Some of it's come up again, after 18 months since it was last allowed to develop any topgrowth at all!