I've sure harvested, washed, cooked, and eaten a lot of poke in my life, but never had to use a tub big enough to bathe in, so I never heard of it causing itching.
When I was doing gas leakage surveys in 1993 along the Pennsylvania/New York border, I found lots of people had poke in their flower beds around their houses as an ornamental plant. But in asking around, I never found anyone up there who had ever eaten any.
[img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] Er.... we don't know how to post pictures. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] BUT.... we bought a digital camera! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] And one of these days we'll try to figure out how it works! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I think the feature that i like best about that breakfast booth is the elevation. Way before we cut the first piece of material I had in mind to jack up the booth so I could slide in and out easier and so when i was sitting there I could more easily see what was going on both in the kitchen and in adjacent areas. We have a half-wall behind one bench of the booth that separates the kitchen from the dining room and beyond that the living room. One of our favorite mexican restaurants has the booths on six-inch risers and I have always like that setup. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
CJDave
My dad encountered northern city folk who moved into the rural south and planted okra at his suggestion but ate the tender young leaves because they didn't know they were supposed to eat the pods. He said he felt a little funny having to tell them the part everyone else eats.
I took my wife to the emergency room after she ate a green salad made with raw poke salat. I was going to cook it and had it washed and waiting in the refrigerator. She didn't know any better. Now she does and avoids it in any form.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
I'm from the North. What is poke salat. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Are you kidding, Egon, or do you really not know what it is. You can read a little bit about it here. Their recipe says they first boiled it one or two miniutes. We boiled it a bit longer the first time, but otherwise, that's the recipe we used, too; boil it, use a little bacon and maybe a bit of salt and pepper for seasonint. Personally, with almost any of the greens, poke, spinach, turnip, etc., I like to add about a teaspoon of vinegar to a helping of greens on my plate. Plain vinegar will do, if that's all you have, but I prefer the juice from the pickles and like either sweet or dill.
OK, Egon, I just know you are just baiting me but... Google aside...
Poke salat (not salad) phytolacca americana is a wild vegetable, a leafy green like Kohlrabi or mustard, turnip or spinich.
The tender young leaves are best. Young poke without any hint of purple makes an excellent dish of greens similar to spinach. It is best collected early in the spring when plants are young and growing fast (no purple.) Don't cut the stems too close to the root and avoid the root. It must be parboiled and then drained well and rinsed at least once (more for more mature greens.)
Then there are lots of ways to finish it off. A good one is to put it in a skillet and fry in butter or bacon drippings. It's a meal fit for a king. Just boiling another time and eating the greens like spinach is OK too.
Health conscious eaters may want to use nonfat pepper jack cheese (comes in individually wrapped slices) and layer cheese and greens alternately using well drained cooked greens. A blast in the microwave to melt the cheese and shazam, poke greens in spicy cheese sauce. Tasty but lo cal and no trans fats no saturated fats just good eating side dish.
I do not know the northern range of the plant grown outside. I do not cultivate it but gather it wild. It seems to prefer soil around the margins of a brush pile and doesn't grow wild just anywhere.
Some folks grow it as an ornamental as it is nice looking and has pretty berries. Folks use the berries for jam and some make wine and the root is used in folk medicine but if you don't know what you are doing or have a reliable recipe I wouldn't experiment.
My parents and grand parents just used it as greens.
Oh, and by the way, Egon... don't you recall the popular song about Poke Salat Annie who gathered up her mess of greens in a tote sack?
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Poke salat (not salad)
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Yeah, but since salat is German for salad and some of us old country boys never learned German, we just called it poke salad. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
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Don't cut the stems too close to the root
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We never did any cutting at all; just pinched the leaves off at the base of each leaf.
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It seems to prefer soil around the margins of a brush pile
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And around old barns for some reason.
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Folks use the berries for jam and some make wine and the root is used in folk medicine
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Now that's news to me. I never heard of anyone using the berries or the roots for anything. As a kid, we were told they were poisonous, but in later life, I've read that birds eat the berries.
Bird, Yes indeed, birds eat the berries, encapsulate the seeds in little fertilizer packets and dispense them far and wide which spreads the poke salat all over but it grows best in certain soil conditions. I never looked into the ph or any thing that promotes good poke, just take it where I find it and I have some very productive brush piles that are little poke gardens mixed with blackberries.
A PhD biologist buddy of mine says that over time the brush pile's beneficial effect on poke will fade as whatever the particular circumstances are that favors poke are transitory and will not last forever. His comment is based on his personal observation over the years as he is a woodsy type and spends time gathering natural foods and fishing.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
No, I didnt Google before asking Pat. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
It does not grow up here.
I'm starting to think this forum consists of hungry people always interested in food and cooking!! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
I have never heard of it Bird and really do not think it grows up here.
Eating wise the closest I've come to it would be Kale mixed with bacon.
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