January 26, 2015
Pinterest/Munchies
We the Weeds take invasive plants from disastrous to delicious with crafty cocktails.
Does the battle against unrelenting weeds growing in your garden drive you to want to drink?
We have a solution to your problem, (unless your problem is that you have a drinking problem. Then, it may help to read this.)
For the rest of you who enjoy an alcoholic beverage - or a few - those pesky plants may be just the right ingredient, according to Philadelphia-based artists/botanists Kaitlin Pomerantz and Zya Levy, creators of We The Weeds, "a botanical arts and outreach project aimed at expanding knowledge of the wild plants of Philadelphia."
“You can tell people about invasive plants, but without a sensible, tactile experience there’s a layer of separation,” adding, “Who doesn’t love to enjoy a fine drink?”
“Invasive plants are a response to our way of living. They’re not bad plants that marched across the country to get us,” Levy told Aaron Kase, who was lucky enough to cover We the Weeds’ invasive cocktail crafting event for Munchies.
The event, held last month at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, featured two invasive plant-infused cocktails:
“The Native,” a pink vodka-based cocktail infused with hawthorn berry and staghorn sumac fruit—two aggressive naturally growing plants from the Northeast – creating a sweet flavor with hints of sour, according to Kase, and “The Foreigner," which centers around bourbon and the perilla leaf, a mint that migrated to the US from East Asia.
