eggplant & okra?

[Bird]

Heather, it sounds as if you've seen Poke (also known as Pokeweed and Poke Salat). I've heard the rumors of it being poisonous, and perhaps it is, but I'm skeptical. The link says the whole plant is poisonous, but when I was a kid I was told the berries were poison, but the birds liked them. As with any greens, big old leaves can be tough, but we always tried to pick the young tender leaves, boiled them, drained that water off, then added fresh water and cooked them with whatever seasonings we wanted for any greens; i.e., salt, pepper, maybe a little bacon or oil. At the table I prefer mine with a little pickle juice (sweet or dill either one is good; and plain vinegar ain't bad). In other words, we only changed the water once; not twice. And Mother always canned a lot of it and after pressure cooking in the jars, it was as tender as any spinach. I've never bought any in the grocery store, but I have seen canned Poke in a grocery store.

[Heather]

Thanks for the link Bird, looks like it. It grows around the woods beside my yard. Might try to cook some, sounded good until the link said it tasted like asparagus. Not sure I can swallow it now. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] I'm 39 and still don't want to eat all my veggies. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[Bird]

[img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I happen to love asparagus, but I never thought about Poke tasting like asparagus. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Of course, I like all kinds of greens; picked wild Poke, grew turnips both for the turnips and the greens, picked collards from a neighbor's garden, never grew spinach, but like it. We had a neighbor who cooked up a batch of beet greens. This was a lady who liked turnip greens and collards, but she didn't like the beet greens she cooked because she said they tasted like spinach, which she didn't like. I had to agree that they tasted like spinach; very good eating in my opinion.

[Pat]

Bird, As you know Poke Salat is often pronounced as poke salad, especially by the ignorant of which we are in abundant supply. A while back my wife found a big mess of poke greens that I had trimmed to remove the courser growth and had washed and placed in the frige to boil the next day. The next day I was out of town with my mom and my wife fixed supper. She made a nice green salad with the poke salat and as we were a bit late getting back and she was hungry so she ate her salad while waiting.

Later that evening at the emergency room they gave her a charcoal preperation to drink. It wasn't a life threatening situation for her but she was miserable and uncomfortable for a while and after that aversion therapy session will not consider eating it even when prepared correctly.

A PhD biologist friend of mine who is into foraging for food says I have some of the best poke salat patches he has ever seen. Has to do with downed wood/brush pile. He says that after several years the soil chemistry will change and the poke will not do so well.

the other polk salat story is about a cousin in Mississippi who came home after dark one evening and found a washtub of hot water oiutside. As this was the summertime bath procedure he stripped down and took his bath thinking how nice of my aunt to have heated the water for him and filled the wash tub.

Well, it was the left over water from a huge batch of poke salat and it set his skin on fire. He ran and jumped in the pond and every time he tried to get out the burning would drive him back. Having no TV at that time this was the best entertainment that week.

End of trip down memory lane. Everyone look around and be sure to gather all your belongings.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]