POKEWEED, POKE SALLET



A common side dish on many dinner tables in the South, but I still had a debate with myself on whether to include it here. But, please read this:

Warning: Eat only the young shoots, when they are 8 inches or less tall, and discard any shoots that have any tinges of red or purple on them. Eat them only after boiling them for 25 or 30 minutes until they are tender, and changing the water at least twice. Do not eat any other part of the plant.

With all that being said, these are actually quite good, tasting a little bit like asparagus. You would think that all that boiling would take away the vitamins, and you would be right. But the vegetable retains the beta carotene, and is still a healthy food. Just don't poison yourselves with them.

This is one of those plants that take time to identify. It is best to find them in the summer months, when they are in flower, and remember where they are so you can find the shoots in early spring. There are a lot of plants like that, so I can't stress enough the necessity to take several walks, at all times of the year, through parks, vacant lots, and old fields, with a guide book, notepad, and preferably a camera.

As a side note, back in the late 60's (while I was home on convalescent leave, if you must know), the hit song Poke Sallet Annie came out. At least, that's what I could clearly hear him singing. But the recording studio, inexplicably, gave it the title Polk Salad Annie. There's a big difference. Sallet means "cooked greens," while salad pretty much implies it was eaten raw. A bunch of people ended up poisoning themselves.

(Why would anyone eat something because of a dumbass 60's song? Well, because the whole 60's decade was brain dead. And if anything, the 70's were worse.)

Anyway, it's a good vegetable, if properly identified and properly cooked. But please, don't kill yourself. Follow the instructions.

Onward and upward,
airforce