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Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
posted
Interesting history but I think I'll take a pass.

quote:
Recently, while visiting me in Brooklyn, my mom’s eyes went twinkly as she noticed all the wild pokeweed growing around the neighborhood. A woolgathering reminiscence of her childhood in Texas spilled forth: cooking and eating the onion-infused greens straight from the pan; her stoic anticipation as her mother added vinegar to the last dregs of poke-broth, knocking it back like a shot of whiskey.

She was surprised to find that my New England–bred boyfriend had never heard of the poisonous, towering perennial weed, with its oblong leaves and magenta berries and stalks. Despite the fact that the kudzu-like Phytolacca americana sprouts up all across North America, poke sallet, a dish made from the plant’s slightly-less-toxic leaves, is a regional thing, popular only to Appalachia and the American South. The leaves must be boiled in water three times to cook out their toxins, and, as aficionados will tell you, it’s well worth the extra effort.

But if pokeweed is so toxic, why did people start eating it in the first place? In a word, poke sallet is survival food.


edited to add: https://getpocket.com/explore/...source=pocket-newtab


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training



 
Posts: 37794 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"I've got morons on my team."

Mitt Romney
Minor Deity
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The stuff grows on my property. It loves hardscrabble places with crappy soil. I used to pull it out, and then decided that it was kind of interesting. Tall and shapely, with shiny black berries, and the birds had a feast. I guess the toxins don't much bother them.
 
Posts: 12513 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Mary Anna
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I've heard of it all my life, and in fact was just having a Facebook chat with an Oklahoma friend whose grandmother used to cook it, but I've never had it.

He said that he wasn't a huge fan, so maybe you have to be hungry and grateful for what you can get.

I'll say that I have been known to drink a shot or two of the pot liquor after I've cooked fresh field peas or turnip greens. So did my mother. It's tasty and I imagine there are a lot of vitamins in it. Our family certainly did use cornbread to soak up the pot liquor when we ate greens or field peas. It's a tasty combo and my Depression-era parents were taught not to waste food.


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Mary Anna Evans
http://www.maryannaevans.com
MaryAnna@ermosworld.com

 
Posts: 15506 | Location: Florida | Registered: 22 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
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Interesting. That stuff grows in the woods all over here. Beautiful, never knew what it was.


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"A mob is a place where people go to get away from their conscience" Atticus Finch

 
Posts: 13525 | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
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I forgot to post the article the snippet came from. Or maybe I accidentally deleted it...

In any event, here it is:

https://getpocket.com/explore/...source=pocket-newtab


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training



 
Posts: 37794 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pinta & the Santa Maria
Has Achieved Nirvana
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Wait, my mind is being blown. Pokewood = poke sallet = poke salad = Poke Salad Annie?

Yeah, I guess I've "heard of it." But I had no clue what it was.
 
Posts: 35367 | Location: West: North and South! | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
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It is beautiful when grown as a specimen.

From what I heard, it is only the very young leaves are edible.

I let one or two grow each year to tall shrubs.


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The earth laughs in flowers

 
Posts: 16320 | Location: north of boston | Registered: 16 May 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
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quote:
Originally posted by Nina:
Pokeweed = poke sallet = poke salad = Poke Salad Annie?
Gators got your Granny!


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 34852 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
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How to harvest and prepare poke

Have seen poke in weedy places all my life.
Never et none.


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Several people have eaten my cooking and survived.

 
Posts: 25677 | Location: Still living at 9000 feet in the High Rockies of Colorado | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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