Duckweed

In my continued search for high protein foods to add to my Stores, I ran across another unique piece of information. A common pond plant, known as duckweed, is currently being researched and is quickly moving into the position of our newest “superfood”. It’s packed with protein, far more by volume than almost ANY other protein source, doubles in volume every 24 hours (making it very plentiful), and can be eaten fresh alone, added to other foods such as salads or sandwiches, or dried and made into a powder to be sprinkled on eggs or any other food to add extra protein. It also can be fed to ducks, as it’s name suggests.

I was fascinated! Since we have a backyard pond, I did more research. Turns out, it won’t work on our pond, which has a waterfall. It doesn’t like moving water. But it will grow in any nutrient-rich standing water. It reproduces asexually, like cloning, so it typically doesn’t seed. Some studies seem to indicate that, while it dies off at first frost, some particles drop to the bottom of the water and “hibernate”, waking up by the warmer temperatures and increased hours of sunlight in the Spring. If so, it will begin a growing cycle again each year and will be unnecessary to repurchase.

First, though, let’s investigate duckweed further. It has been reported (as I stated earlier, many studies are being done on duckweed by American universities, so this info isn’t just rumor) that duckweed contains 20-30% of protein and the type of protein it produces contains essential amino acids. If grown under optimal conditions, it can contain as much as 40% protein. It is currently being cultivated widely in Thailand and Laos and growing in popularity in other Asian countries. It is now being seen as a potential solution for hunger in financially-repressed areas.

There are lots of videos on YouTube about this topic. Farmers are beginning to grow it to feed their chickens to aid in sustainability. I saw a video of an Asian women with several blue plastic containers filled with water and each one full of duckweed. I watched another video where a farmer used cinder blocks about 2 high to outline an area, covered the area with heavy plastic, then added another row of cinder blocks to hold the plastic in place. He filled the plastic “pool” with filtered rainwater (I suspect tap water has too much fluoride to create a healthy environment for duckweed) and introduced a couple of duckweed plants. He now has sufficient growth that his duckweed covers the entire surface of his shallow man-made pool. Every second day, he skims about half the duckweed off the surface and feeds it to his chickens. Within 2 days, the surface of his pond is full again. He commented in his video that, if the growth began to stunt, he could add nutrients back into the water by pouring in compost tea, the nutrient-rich runoff from a compost pile. He said he has not yet dehydrated his duckweed, only uses it for chicken feed, but he’s added several other ways to grow the duckweed (a galvanized vat, another handmade pond fed by rainwater) and is hoping to accumulate enough to feed his chickens AND use for human consumption.

I found this video particularly interesting, because I think it would be relatively easy and inexpensive to create this type of pond. Another thought would be to purchase several buckets and/or round rubber vats that can be placed in the yard in inconspicuous places and seeded with a few duckweed plants. In addition to providing food for my ducks when I can no longer purchase duck feed (the ducks, in turn, produce eggs and are a meat source), I can harvest, dehydrate, and pulverize it into a powder that I can then store in well-sealed jars with an oxygen absorber. This would be a very cheap way to put up additional protein now for use in an emergency.

My daughter and I were talking about this yesterday and she voiced a concern about mosquitos in those vats of still water, so I took back to the Internet. Apparently, because duckweed multiplies so rapidly and covers the water surface easily, it doesn’t allow for mosquito larvae to hatch.

My son suggested that, if we’re thinking of going this route, why not grow algae which is another widely-publicized protein source. I haven’t researched algae, but I’d be afraid of non-edible algae being introduced because we don’t have a controlled environment. And it would be difficult for me to know the difference. Plus, the idea of slimy algae just doesn’t really appeal to me. Tiny aquatic plants that can be eaten like sprouts seems much more appetizing.

We’re thinking about building a small pond using cinder blocks that I already have and trying our hand at growing duckweed. We can see if our ducks will take to it, harvest and dehydrate what we can for our Stores, get a feel for how easy or difficult this is, and test the hibernation process. It seems to be a lot cheaper than trying to purchase large quantities of my son’s protein powder that he drinks in water daily. I’m hoping to be able to build a small vat this summer and purchase a few plants so we can test out the effectiveness of growing duckweed for additional protein.