POKE or POLK

When our largest back yard tree was blown down, allowing sunlight to reach below, the weeds began to grow. One weed fast gaining a foothold is poke. This weed, when young in springtime, is good to cook like any spring green; and when fall comes it yields bunches of dark purple to black berries which can be used to make wine.

Short spring poke weed.

Berries on the fall plant. Most have not matured yet. Notice that stems of the older plant are redish.

Here is the recipe that neighbor Bob Cox sent me for boiled poke.

I picked some from your yard yesterday afternoon, cooked them and ate most.  I am not dead Yet!  They were delicious, without the second water change.
 
I rinsed them 3 times, gave them a diluted bleach bath, boiled them like raw spinach, and ate with balsamic vinegar.  Delicious!

The poke is said to be mildly toxic. A few raw leaves can be eaten once each spring to cleanse your system. The purpose of the triple rinsing and twice cooking is to remove the purgative and/or diuretic. I think many cooks would use a little fat, salt and pepper to cook the poke.

I have not found directions how to make the wine. You would need a pure juice; the pulp, skins, and seeds would need to be carefully strained out, without crushing; since the harmful agents are there, not in the juice. Then the juice would need to ferment for several days, until any sugar had turned to alcohol; just as you would make any wine. The wine is said to be good for arthritis. One experimenter said the result caused frequent trips to the outhouse.

If you search a cooking web site you will find most of the information under poke, some under the spelling polk.

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