Japanese Knotweed & Serviceberry Crumble

*This is a guest post by Mary Angelini. Mary is passionate cook and foodie. She spends much of her free time studying cook books, dreaming up recipes, and, of course, cooking delicious foods. She is starting a small food business centered around using locally sourced ingredients—selling at local markets and providing custom-made nutritious loca meals to busy families. She lives on a suburban homestead with her family in Clarkston, MI.*

This dish pairs the almost rhubarb-like tangy qualities of Japanese knotweed with the rich and sweet qualities of serviceberries, a fantastic wild fruit. If you haven't got your own frozen foraged serviceberries, you can always use frozen blueberries—or frozen wild blueberries, which would be all the better! Serve it hot with a nice local vanilla ice cream, homemade whipped cream, or my favorite, tangy yogurt...

Japanese Knotweed & Serviceberry Crumble

What You Need:

2 cups frozen serviceberries
2 cups knotweed stalks cut into thick coins
1/2 cup all-purpose flour + 2 tbsps
1/2 cup whole oats
1/2 cup brown sugar + 4 tbsps
1/4 cup butter
pinch of baking soda
pinch of baking powder
pinch of salt
cinnamon to taste
1 tsp pure vanilla
Pinch of ground cardamom

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


• Cut the butter into the flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla,
  cardamom and cinnamon until it forms a crumbly mixture.


• Sprinkle half of this crumb mixture on the bottom of a greased 9 x 9 pan.


• Mix the frozen serviceberries with the 4 tbsps of brown sugar and the 2 tbsps of flour until
  well mixed and coated with the sugar and flour.


• Spread the serviceberries and knotweed in the pan and place the remaining crumb over the top.


• Bake 40 minutes or until lightly browned on top and bubbly.