If you’d like to watch a video of the Knotweed eating cows and see more of our farm check out this video!

When we bought our home we had big dreams.

Now six years later, our dreams have largely come to fruition.

Yet, sometimes all I see are the weeds. I look around and see all the hard work still to be done. I’m exhausted.

Most of us want the “Homestead” life because we feel called to it. The garden, the animals…nature. We want to grow food, to nurture animals; in this we find fruitful purpose. It’s beautiful. It’s also brutal.

Knotweed is an invasive weed. A ten foot tall weed. One that will break through concrete, and take over your whole property. We’ve been battling it since day one.

Herbicide treatment needs to be injected into each stem, or sprayed to coat each leaf for two to three years to make any headway…not only can I not physically or financially do this to thousands of plants in a inaccessible ravine, where it largely grows; I’m also not willing to poison our creek that runs through that area and into the Chehalis river.

Knotweed wasn’t a plant I was familiar with until moving to the country.

So I set about to learn as much as I could about this impressive plant, and what I learned changed my perspective. Although we live in Washington State, and are known for having a lot of rain, we don’t typically get much for 3 months a year. During this time our grass hardly grows. For the last two years we’ve had unusually dry summers and our pasture went dormant. Nothing green…well except for the Knotweed!

Our cows were able to eat all Summer when most people had to feed hay. I was able to keep our cows off the struggling pasture to prevent it being eaten to the dirt, and instead they helped control the Knotweed from spreading. Each year during the driest parts of the year they graze (browse?) the Knotweed which is a high protein forage for them. I love knowing that our animals are able to turn what would otherwise be a weed, into something good. Our cows are able to live completely off of this for months, costing us nothing and helping the environment.

During droughts many bees have a harder time finding flowers. We don’t personally keep bees, but our neighbors do and their bees cover the Knotweed during August. I keep meaning to ask my neighbors what Knotweed honey tastes like :)