Can Do Bamboo

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By Daphne Lewis

Despite its image as an exotic ornamental, bamboo can be grown as a farm crop in much of the United States. It adapts well in the South from Virginia to Florida and along the Gulf Coast to Texas, on the West Coast with summer watering, and in Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Unlike truly non-native farm crops such as sugar beet, wheat, asparagus and kiwi, two species of bamboo are in fact indigenous to the Southeastern U.S.: river cane (Arundinaria gigantea) and switch cane (Arundinaria tecta). Still, you'd have to search far and wide to find bamboo in commercial production in this country.

Much of what is grown here is in the hands of bamboo lovers (we call ourselves bambuseros) who grow the plant as an ornamental in the above states, as well as in harsher climates such as those of New England, the mid-Atlantic region and the Midwest.

It's not that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) didn't try. Recognizing the potential particularly of Asian bamboos as a commercial crop, the USDA, between 1890 and 1960, paid plant explorers to find, select and import farmable bamboos. But while the agency succeeded in establishing these bamboos at its tropical and temperate research sites in Puerto Rico, Georgia and California, it failed in its ultimate goal of introducing bamboo to American agriculture. U.S. farmers did not plant bamboo then and few more are planting it now, despite its enormous potential as a food and fiber crop.

But times they are a-changin'. With other novel farm products such as kiwi, exotic mushrooms and ginseng all accepted by the American public, perhaps the day has come, at long last, for bamboo to be as well.

A budding bamboo shoot

WHY GROW BAMBOO?

Good Eating

Fresh bamboo shoots are a specialty perennial crop. Delicious and nutritious, they're low in fat and high in water and fiber. Locally grown shoots (a rarity in this country) are scooped up by upscale Asian or vegetarian restaurants and at farmers' markets.

Sun Yen Paul, a friend from mainland China, recalls how her grandmother created tasty dishes by stir-frying fresh shoots with pork fat or savory chicken, allowing the bamboo to absorb the flavor of the meat. For a lighter cuisine, Paul suggests stir-frying shoots with other fresh vegetables such as mushrooms, onions, garlic and carrots, in a dark, full-bodied sesame oil. Season with soy sauce and ginger and serve over steaming rice.

Some bamboo varieties produce shoots that have an acrid taste when raw, especially if the sun has hit them. Cooking often solves the problem. For more resistant varieties, try parboiling peeled and sliced shoots for a few minutes before adding them to your favorite recipes. The boiling time will vary, depending on the degree of acridity and size of your shoot slices.

Versatile Poles

Bamboo poles are strong, lightweight and endlessly useful around the farm or homestead. I have sold them for purposes ranging from training sheepdogs to building fences, even for counting seals in Alaska (wildlife biologists used the poles to hold off the mother seals so they could check the pups).