Living in Kudzu Country

If you don't live in the South, you may not know about Kudzu. It's a wildly rambling vine that covers everything in its path. Stand in one spot too long and you would be covered with it. Actually it's a beautiful vine, but wild, wild wild. Here, where I live in the mountains of North Carolina, it completely encases huge trees...covers entire valleys. It dies down in winter and comes blazing back the very next year. People brought it here from Japan back in the 30's to help stop erosion, especially where they were cutting away hills to build new roads. It stops erosion alright! No one has come up with anything useful to do with Kudzu. Some people make jelly from the beautiful little Kudzu flowers. I've heard that people make baskets with the brittle vines. And I know a woman who uses the leaves to make paper. She dyes the paper...cuts it into various shapes and creates quilt-like wall hangings. But there's still a lot of Kudzu left if you've got any ideas. And I think it is moving north like the fire ants and the armadillos.