Why? Because the foot-a-night vine grows so dense in summer, it’s nearly impossible to dig out the roots. Or, put another way,

1 pick axe + 12 inches of super-fine topsoil + 1,000,000 feet of thick kudzu vines
= 2 hours of frustration + 5,204 chigger bites

In short, we won’t be digging our own kudzu roots. I did manage to harvest enough root (one root, really) to soak it into vodka. We’ll give it 30 days to check out the flavor and color characteristics. (Three days in, the vodka has developed some pleasant licorice and earthy notes and turned a light-purple/brown.)

We’ve got a source lined up for local kudzu root: Kudzu Cow Farm in Rutherfordton. And we’ve harvested enough leaves and flowers to do some experimentation in the coming months. So we’ll still chronicle the kudzu…once we get our roots. I’ll probably get them on the next trip to Asheville, which is always a welcome excursion.

For now, there’s a ton of Southern goodness out there that we’re working with: scuppernong, sweet potatoes, paw paws, and more.

We leave you with this awesome email from Bret Bolton of Irving, TX. Bret recently shared his experience brewing with kudzu:

While I was living in Goldsboro, NC I became re-fascinated by the vine. I consider myself a southern boy (born in Forth Worth, and now living in the house my great-grandfather converted from a farm shack in the 20′s in a suburb of Dallas), but we don’t have kudzu this far west.   When I was a kid, I used to see it on road trips, and hear all the great stories from my grandparents, and even then, it held some sort of interest.

I had just read Stephen Buhner’s “Sacred and Herbal Healing Brews”, and I’m not sure if that set me off on kudzu or not, but while I was in NC, I made a mental note to brew with kudzu one day.    Skip ahead past a divorce and my subsequent move back to Texas from NC, and my then fiance (now wife of 7 years) and I were thinking of names for a record store to open here (we came to our senses and didn’t do it) she came up with the name ‘Kudzu Records’ and it all came back in an instant.

That very weekend, I made a long coffee-inspired drive southeast from DFW and grabbed several bags of the vine and got things started.   I brewed a simple porter and did the ‘before then unthinkable’ .  The results were surprisingly good, and definitely worth repeating. When I dry-hopped the beer with Cascade, I added a full ounce of dried kudzu leaves.  I didn’t have any trouble with any vegetable overtones, but maybe I didn’t use enough.  To be honest, there was only slightly noticeable, it was more of a “what is that hop?” or “what is that spice?” and guesses were made but (as you’d expect) nobody could come up with it.

Again, we’ll resume the series once we get those roots. For now, we raise our pints to Bret and all the other mad scientist homebrewers out there who are pushing the boundaries of beer.

Next up: digging for kudzu root; frying leaves.

[tylr-slidr userID="" groupID=""]http://www.flickr.com/photos/popthecap/sets/72157622143082851/[/tylr-slidr]

The Kudzu Chronicles: Volunteering in Rutherfordton from Fullsteam Brewery on Vimeo.

Henry and Edith Edwards are, respectively, the Kudzu King and Queen of North Carolina. So in our mission to learn about all things kudzu, it made perfect sense to call them back up and see about meeting them, learning all there is to know about the root, leaf, and flower of this misunderstood plant.

My timing was impeccable. Why? Because Mr. Edwards needed some help moving bales of kudzu onto a truck, and he figured this here city slicker might be willing to help him out.

And he was correct. It sounded like just the ticket: getting away from brewery planning and spreadsheets to take a three-hour drive to The Kudzu Cow Farm in Rutherfordton.

My wife and daughters and I left at 7am, arriving just after 10am. Immediately I was put to work — as in, immediately. I said to Carolyn, “Hold on — they need me to do something. I’ll be right back.” And the next thing I knew, I was in the back of a trailer hauling bales of two-year-old kuzdu for three hours straight.

I was able to grab a few shots of the process toward the end of the project. I’m sorry that the film doesn’t offer much in the way of a cogent narrative, but suffice to say, I learned a lot about kudzu and enjoyed meeting one of North Carolina’s great treasures, the Edwards family.

If you don’t see the video within this post, you can check it out here: http://www.vimeo.com/6322847

Many thanks to the Edwards family for their hospitality, education, and passion for this misunderstood vine. Here’s to your continued great health.

MORE

• video featuring Henry and Edith Edwards and other kudzu experts
• article on eating kudzu
• feature on Henry Edwards harvesting kudzu

We continue our exploration into the possibility of kudzu beer. Today, it’s all about the flowers. Check out the video and pass the link along if you feel led!

Next up: a trip to Rutherfordton, where I learn from the kudzu experts.

Trivia time…who’s the band featured in the beginning of the video? Post it if you know it!

Kudzu is amazing! It’s a weed, but according to the Internets, it can do (and cure) just about anything! Here are the top five claims about kudzu as found on the series of tubes:

1. It’s a “weed that whacks binge drinking!”

2. It can make women’s ta-tas bigger! (Clearly this will be the most clicked link)

3. Is it tasteless, so you can

“easily administer [it] to someone without his/her knowledge (ex. teenager with alcohol problem). Just open 2 capsules and put contents into a soup, cereal, or any cooked meal!” [source]

4. It can be made into an artsy tomato red bean paste dessert that no one will ever eat!

5. It cures the following:

• “…headache with a feeling of heaviness in the head,
• fever,
• dryness of mouth,
• bitter taste in the mouth, (us: blend it into a double IPA?)
• blisters in the mouth,
• canker sores,
• swollen gums,
• bad breath,
• dry and uncomfortable feeling in the throat, (cue “The Office” reference)
• bloodshot eyes,
• pain during urination,
• drunkenness and hangover, (yea yea tell us something we don’t know),
• fever and headache,
• stiffness and soreness in the neck,
• inadequate eruption of measles,
• diarrhea,
• dysentery,
• hypertension,
• angina pectoris,
• migraine,
• sudden deafness,
• diabetes,
• nasal sinusitis,
• urticaria (otherwise known as hives),
• psoriasis, and
• itching.

[source]

I SAID SUDDEN DEAFNESS!

* Disclaimer: this is all in fun. Even though I found these uses for kudzu on the Internet, Fullsteam is not claiming any health benefits associated with the vine. In fact, we’re kind of making fun of all of these examples — except for perhaps the scientific controlled study cited in #1, which is truly interesting and may have some real-world uses.

Oh, and we’d totally eat the red bean tomato aspic.