Rules for Poke Salad Eating

Triquetra

Triquetra

Joined
Mar 7, 2002
Messages
759
I've got poke salad sprouting up everywhere. I remember when I was young we would pick the shoots in the spring and that you couldn't eat the berries but that is about all. Any poke experts around here? Can you eat the fall sprouts too? Is it just the sprouts that are edible or the new growth on the larger plant also or is the whole thing edible but just too bitter? What about the roots? I'd like to pick and try some of this fall growth is it's edible. Around here I think you could live on this stuff at certain times of the year.
 
I'll be 100% honest with ya, I was a little scared to open this thread up.:eek: Not knowing what in the hell "poke salad" is, I was a little Leary;):D Seems as though I could use an education here.
 
You can eat the berries cooked. The roots contain the highest concentration of the poison. If there is red showing on the plant don't eat it.
There is more information at wilderness-survival.net. Go to survival use of plants then to appendix b.
 
tarmix101 said:
I'll be 100% honest with ya, I was a little scared to open this thread up.:eek: Not knowing what in the hell "poke salad" is, I was a little Leary;):D Seems as though I could use an education here.
Click to expand...

Yea looking back at the thread title I got a little chuckle.
 
texasboy said:
You can eat the berries cooked. The roots contain the highest concentration of the poison. If there is red showing on the plant don't eat it.
There is more information at wilderness-survival.net. Go to survival use of plants then to appendix b.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll try that link. I didn't think the berries were edible at all.
 
I prefer to just eat the terminals... the top sprigs of youngest leaves. I avoid plants that have red in any of the leaves or showing on the stems. I also parboil them before cooking and eating them. They make a great dish of greasy greens with jowl or fatback. Bacon if you are picky. Spring or fall doesn't matter in my opinion, just the age of the plants. Never heard of eating the berries though. I was always told they poisoned people but not birds? :confused:

Codger
 
I just eat the young leaves and boil once and then change the water and cook until tender. Real good with neckbones, fatback or ham hocks, I like to put a little vinegar or pepper sauce on mine. Never heard of eating the berries, I was always told they were poison. Chris
 
Just for the record. It's Poke Salat, not Poke Salad.
 
Either will do. Salet is German for salad. It is pokeweed, but it sounds better if you call it salad. More exotic if you call it salet.
 
Met an herbalist last weekend. He has been fooling with natural herbs for 65 years.

He says that swallowing one berry per day (don't chew, just swallow one), for 10 days will clense the blood. He said you need to do this once per year.

Hell, he was around 80 and looked 50, and had more spring in his step that I did.

Might be something to this stuff.

Robert
 
tarmix101 said:
I'll be 100% honest with ya, I was a little scared to open this thread up.:eek: Not knowing what in the hell "poke salad" is, I was a little Leary;):D Seems as though I could use an education here.
Click to expand...

You Never heard the Joe White song Poke salad Annie??

If some of y'all never been down sout too much,
I'm gonna tell you a little about this so that you'll
Understand what I'm talkin' about ...
Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods,
And in the field ... looks somethin like a turnip green,
And everybody calls it poke salad ... poke salad;
Used to know a girl lived down there and she'd go out
In the evenings and pick her a mess of it, carry it
Home and cook it for supper, cause that's about all they
Had to eat, but they did all right.


Down in Lou'siana, where the alligators grow so mean,
There lived a girl that I swear to the world,
Made the alligators look tame,
Poke Salad Annie, Poke Salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame, cause her
Mama was a workin on the chain gang
(a mean, vicious woman)

Every day 'fore suppertime, she'd go down by the truck patch,
And pick her a mess o' poke salad and carry it home in a tote sack,
Poke Salad Annie, The gators got your granny,
Everybody said it was a shame, cause her
Mama was a workin on the chain gang
(a wretched, spiteful, straight razor totin' woman,
Lord have mercy, pick me a mess of it)

there's more but I thought that would give y'all the idea.

here's a link if you wanna hear it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvadc0BOuE
 
Damn good song...and down hear in the south, poke salad is pretty common. Almost like a wilted lettuce salad with hot bacon grease. Yum...good stuff.
 
Deerslayer71 said:
You Never heard the Joe White song Poke salad Annie??

If some of y'all never been down sout too much,
I'm gonna tell you a little about this so that you'll
Understand what I'm talkin' about ...
Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods,
And in the field ... looks somethin like a turnip green,
And everybody calls it poke salad ... poke salad;
Used to know a girl lived down there and she'd go out
In the evenings and pick her a mess of it, carry it
Home and cook it for supper, cause that's about all they
Had to eat, but they did all right.


Down in Lou'siana, where the alligators grow so mean,
There lived a girl that I swear to the world,
Made the alligators look tame,
Poke Salad Annie, Poke Salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame, cause her
Mama was a workin on the chain gang
(a mean, vicious woman)


Every day 'fore suppertime, she'd go down by the truck patch,
And pick her a mess o' poke salad and carry it home in a tote sack,
Poke Salad Annie, The gators got your granny,
Everybody said it was a shame, cause her
Mama was a workin on the chain gang
(a wretched, spiteful, straight razor totin' woman,
Lord have mercy, pick me a mess of it)

there's more but I thought that would give y'all the idea.

here's a link if you wanna hear it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvadc0BOuE
Click to expand...

No my friend... I have not. I was born and raised in the NW (Washington State) I had no idea what "Poke Salad" was until now.

I am learning though:thumbup:;):D
 
And if you cut the stalks and spread them around the yard it drives the voles.(wood rats) out of your lawn. However, I always thought that bunches of poke week laying around the yard looks as messy as a few vole burrows.
 
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