permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

Margaret says:

"It seems like such a waste if this can be used as 
forage or even a human food. It looks like it would feed a lot of cows or 
sheep if it is a forage. I have never lived where this stuff grows but I 
have read a bit about it. Why isn't it being fed to livestock or used for 
biofuel or something useful. I have to work, really work to grow enough 
forage for my livestock. This is too easy."

Unfortunately, I have of necessity become something of a kudzu expert. 

1. Why isn't it being fed to livestock? A starving goat would probably eat 
some. Otherwise, for reasons known only to them, it is not popular with 
grazers.

2. Why isn't it used for biofuel? Its habit is a huge tangle of vines. It's 
hard to harvest efficiently and bulky. It doesn't compress well. One ton of 
harvested kudzu would represent an awful lot of work, and would require ten 
trailer loads to transport.

3. Does it have any virtue whatsoever? Yes, it was originally established 
here to stabilize steep slopes-- which it does very well. Unfortunately the 
stabilized slopes then become useless for anything but supporting 
Carboniferous 
proportions of rampant kudzu.

An infusion of the leaves in tea is said by the Japanese to be a good cure 
for alcoholism. Of course, their kudzu very likely has alkaloids in different 
proportion than ours.

The starch in the root mills very fine, and is a useful flour for art 
projects, like potato printing. It is also nutritious and can be used like 
any 
ordinary flour. Digging up the roots requires prodigious energy though-- like 
digging turnips if the turnip roots were five feet long, with their nether 
ends 
tangled up in China. There are easier ways to feed your pigs, although they 
would 
probably like it.

Final positive trait: In August they have a very pretty little flower, that 
smells exactly like grape soda. A cluster of them looks a lot like wisteria.

My suggestion: if you do not presently have kudzu on your property, get down 
on the ground and kiss it. Under no circumstances try to see if you can grow 
just a little bit of it. That would be like trying to start a little prairie 
fire on a breezy day.

Michael