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

PUBLISHED by The Cambridge Chronicle

Cambridge —If you have a backyard, you’ve probably pulled annoying, bamboo-like weeds out of the soil before, but you may not know those weeds can make a tasty meal.

This past weekend, Gallery 263 held an Iron “Forage” Chef cook-off to showcase original recipes featuring this antioxidant-rich weed called knotgrass. The point? To celebrate the spirit of “foraging,” or searching for wild edible plants, said David Craft, Gallery 263 co-director.


Japanese knotgrass, possibly brought to America by Frederick Olmsted, is an abundant plant in New England that tastes crunchy and sour, like rhubarb, said Craft. Despite Cambridge’s efforts to kill this plant with pesticides, it grows plentifully along the Charles River and the Minuteman bike trail, he said.

“I love foraging this particular plant,” said Craft. “I was hoping to create a little of a buzz … I would like to see some creative people see different ways to make it.”

Craft said he usually stir-fries knotgrass, and there are few recipes for the plant on the Internet. Knotgrass can be harvested for about two more weeks before it gets too big to eat—the plant can grow to be eight feel tall in one summer, he said.

Craft would like to hold a contest each month featuring different plants, such as milkweed, he said.

Craft, who is a vegan, found out about foraging from a course offered at the Cambridge Center of Adult Education last year, he said. He did not take the course but wanted to find out more, so he began reading foraging books and learning to identify edible plants.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Craft. “It puts you directly in touch with the earth, something modern man is not too attached to.”

People may not like the idea of foraging in a city because of surrounding pollution or other contaminants, but common sense shows which plants are wild and untouched by pesticides, Craft said. Cities are a good place to begin foraging because they have fewer species to distinguish than a forest, he said.

Contestants picked up their knotgrass from the gallery at 263 Pearl St. on Saturday between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. They had until 5 p.m. Sunday to create a recipe and enter the contest, which will be judged by Craft and the gallery’s co-director Annie Newbold.

“One of our missions find creative ways to get people into the art space,” said Craft. “Music, art and film are obvious choices. This is a little bit of a stretch, but creativity includes cooking. It’s a big passion of mine.”

The winner of the first Iron “Forage” Chef? Eli Saltzman, an 11-year-old from the neighborhood. His recipe was Japanese knotweed puff pastries.