More Information About Kudzu and Kudzu Soap

Anyone who’s visited the South during Summer months has been awe-struck by those incredible vines that go on for miles and miles, covering everything in its path. “It grows on you,” Southerners say, laughingly saying that the only way to keep it from growing inside your house is to keep your windows closed at night.

This incredible fast growing vine is called Kudzu, and believe it or not, Kudzu is NOT native to the Southeastern US. It is estimated that Kudzu now covers over seven million acres of the deep South. Lots of people are working hard to get rid of it, and lots of people are trying to figure out what to do with it

Kudzu came to the United States in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Countries were invited to celebrate the 100th birthday of the U.S.A The Japanese government built a beautiful garden filled with plants from Japan. American gardeners were quite enamored with the large leaves of the vine as well as the sweet-smelling kudzu flowers.

When a Florida nursery discovered that animals would eat Kudzu, its use for forage was promoted in the 1920s and kudzu plants were sold through the mail. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Soil Conservation Service promoted kudzu for erosion control. Farmers were paid as much as eight dollars an acre as incentive to plant their fields with Kudzu vines in the 1940s. Kudzu was called ‘the miracle vine.’

And what a miracle it was! The hot, humid climate of the Southeastern U.S. is perfect for kudzu. The vines grow as much as a foot per day during summer months, climbing everything in sight from trees, to power poles, even covering buildings and anything else the vines come in contact with. Under ideal conditions kudzu vines can grow sixty feet each year

While they help may indeed prevent erosion, the vines also prevent trees from getting sunlight, which can destroy forest. Some herbicides used to try to kill Kudzu have actually been found to make it grown better, while others have no negative effect. Some researchers have had to repeat herbicide treatments for as long as ten years to kill the Kudzu vine. The USDA finally declared kudzu to be a weed in 1972!

So if you can’t beat it, do something with it!

Goats can graze kudzu, limiting it from spreading further while producing milk and wool products.

Some Basket makers have found that the rubber-like, curly vines are excellent for decorative basket styles. Nancy Basket of Walhalla, South Carolina, makes paper from kudzu which she uses in colorful collages. Her designs vary from geometric shapes to images of rural life and Native American themes. Many locals make a kudzu blossom jelly during canning season, others use kudzu leaves in quiche and other dishes, while some people bale kudzu hay for cows.

Current research at Harvard Medical School has even identified a drug that can be extracted from kudzu root may help in the treatment of alcoholism. The drug is based on a 2,000 year old Chinese herbal medicine.

And of course, you know what we do with it! We make a Kudzu Soap that celebrates that wonderful bright fragrance that the little purple flowers exude – a bright, cheerful grape fragrance. Our Blue Ridge Parkway rangers give us a ‘thumbs up’ on the accuracy of our fragrance concoction, and since they have to struggle with those !#$&*@# Vines all the time, I figure they know what they’re talking about!