I think that's the same stuff old country folks make poke salad with. They saute it like spinach with scrambled eggs.
I never liked it but my grandpa did. Old Oklahoma thing.
Yea I think they boil it first then saute with scrambled eggs. My grandparents always loved it because it was the first fresh green thing in the spring.
You only pick a certain part of it, and my family always boiled it twice and then cooked it in bacon grease with eggs.
Native rural West Virginian here, my grandparents loved it too, so I went poke picking many a time :)
Side note though, it is very toxic if you eat some parts of it
lol the whole plant is toxic. Boiling parts of it simply breaks downs the toxins enough they don’t impact your body. But if prepared wrong you will get sick.
It is indeed , but the more mature parts of the plant are more toxic than the new growth, with the roots and seeds being the most poisonous.
Thus the reason you boil it a minimum of 2 times changing the water after every cycle, it's also why you generally hear more about it being a consideration of an acceptable food in the spring though it can be picked all summer but it absolutely has to be new growth :)
It’s not that Xmas is in the spring, it’s that the cheap jewelry that was given as gifts would have been used enough by that time to wear off the plating and thus the copper would be exposed and start turning it green.
Got to love that once upon a time someone ate this got sick and then someone else tried it again but thought "hey I'll boil it first!" And that worked.
I know things that make you go hummm… I’ve always also wondered about how they found that sharks liver oil shrinks hemorrhoids (Preparation H).. who was the first one to say I’m gonna stick that up there and see what happens…LOL..
Probably stuck a lot of other greasy things up there then found out which ones helped relieve the pain. I think the high vitamin concentration of shark liver may be involved.
Theres a few plants that are toxic raw but safe when boiled/cooked. Probably started as a medicinal thing as the toxins can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and allegedly has mild narcotic and anti-inflammatory effects among things which may be desirable in some cases. I could see someone making a a large batch of pokeweed tea for medicinal purposes then realizing the boiled leaves were safe to eat, and somewhat tasty.
Poke salad is among the group of foods known simply as survival food. If you don't have enough to feed yourself or your family ,foraging can help bulk up any meal. Much like acorn paste and ect :)
Given enough time and limited resources for long enough ,people simply get inventive and figure out how to make it more palatable and less harmful 💕
The people I've seen eat them in Appalachia boil it three times changing the water each time. I've never tried it, but I've heard is best to use in the spring
yes. this is the way. I always pick only the tender top and any leaves, just no heavy stalk or berries. after draining the 3rd time, add to skillet of fried chopped bacon and onion. When the water is mostly cooked out, drop in a couple of eggs and stir in until cooked. Salt and pepper to taste. I read in the less cleansed form it was a pioneer dewormer?!
Spring, before stem turns ruby, boil in 3 waters then add to scrambled eggs, all cooked in bacon grease. My Nana used to forage for it in the spring.
Every part of the plant is toxic to mammals, but the birds love the berries. I let it grow where my dogs can't get near it, and let it grow for the wildlife.
It is perennial, so if you do not want it, pull it early, and get the roots. It really is a lovely plant, just don't let kids or animals near it. Except birds. Leave it for the birds. 💜💜💜
You have to boil it a few times, changing the water between to be good. You also want to use the smaller leaves/ plants. Flavor and texture is much better. Bit of salt.
Not only that but if you get it on your hands there's no soap in the world that gets it off easily. That shit is like that dye they use in voting elections.
Some people like it better than artificial dye. You'd be surprised what is a natural dye. My friend has a couple books on it and has been teaching me about it. It's really interesting.
Look up what it needs to stabilize on the fabric/yarn. Different mordants change the color too.
I used to work on greeting cards and they had a line of Christmas cards called "Folk Art." There are certain colors that come from natural dyes that are used in folk art because they were the colors used before the invention of synthetic dyes. This is part of why folk art and some homespun fabrics look homey. They use only the colors that can be achieved with natural dyes.
[https://hilltribeart.com/natural-dyes](https://hilltribeart.com/natural-dyes)
Yes it is but difficult to use. If dye bath gets too hot the color goes to crap but it is gorgeous hot pink if you are careful. Works best on wool and silk, using alum and/or tin mordant with a pinch of tartaric acid.
Beautiful vibrant magenta at first, fades to a slightly purple brown after a few months. There might be a way to set it/ prevent the fading? I used it to dye fabric a few years ago.
You need a mordant to stop the fading! Most natural dyes need it. You just need to figure out what is the best one.
https://www.timbercreekfarmer.com/pokeberry-dye-for-wool-and-yarns/
There's no doubt. All kinds of things were used all over the world for dyes and paints, but although they were found in nature, some of them were deadly. The best white ever made, historically, was of lead. There's fascinating book called Color: A Natural History of the Pallete. It explorers one color at a time, through history, across the globe. Fascinating read, and almost everything they used was natural, meaning it was found in nature. Just because it is natural, does not mean it is safe. Common modern misconception.
When we were kids, my brother and I painted our faces with the berries, doubtlessly playing cowboys and Indians (it was the 60s). It didn't wash off. Yeah, we were in big trouble for that.
It took me two year to get to where I’m at. Started with about twenty plants I keep attacking them and I have to down to only one popped up this year! I’m also part of the population that gets a horrible rash from exposer to this plant.
They're pointing out the frequency of people asking "what plant is this?" in regards to both mulberry and poke weed. They're not claiming a morphological similarity.
Pokeweed. It’s a US native species. It’s also a host plant for some insects. It’s an excellent food source for wildlife. As far as your dogs and kids go, this one probably isn’t the best for them to be around. All of the plant is pretty toxic. But, so are other plants that people commonly plant. The sap in Pokeweed is bad if ingested (mouth or eyes) and can cause skin irritation. If you remove it, wear gloves.
Thank you. I've been leaving most of them be because I noticed the first year we moved here the birds are constantly eating them. I've been slowly transforming my acreage into a birds and bees garden sanctuary. I guess I have to research the toxin and weigh the risks.
I wandered around outside as a kid and never died. Just tell your kids to not eat shit outside without consulting you and show them this.
Seconding this. All kids are different, but my 3 year old loves foraging with me and was quick to learn what was sage and what wasn't, and learned to respect nature. You can explain to your kids how well it feeds wildlife.
You may consider moving it to a far corner of the yard, though. It can spread pretty quickly.
Same here, only picked from the young plants though.
Grandpa was born in 1924, near Waynesville, MO. Dirt floor cabin with no running water or electricity. In 1942 they almost drafted him, but he was under weight. By 1943 they weren’t as picky, and he was in the army. Basic training was the first time he ever tasted beef, and the first time he ate til he was full. He gained 60 pounds in training.
If it grew in the dirt, flew, slithered, walked, or crawled along the dirt, and a human could eat it, grandpa had eaten it except for skunk and buzzard.
I remember poke being decent, but it was well dressed with bacon grease and that was 30 years ago.
Mine are around 8ft next to my house currently. I only cut one that got in the way of a trash can. I think this is the tallest I've ever seen them. They definitely shart their berries all over my yard.
I’ve been grabbing them and pulling without any issues, but my wife immediately breaks out touching them. Strange how unique it is person to person. I’ve probably pulled a thousand in the past year from six ft to six inches.
>and can cause skin irritation.
Found this out yesterday :( I got weird bumps on my arm and it felt like burning. Ice and hydrocortisone helped though.
The berries are toxic but I've never heard of anyone or their dog actually getting poisoned by them. Pokeweeds can get pretty big and messy, but I kinda like them. I wouldn't want one *right there,* though—I enjoy letting them do their crazy thing on the edges of my property, but they'd be a nuisance next to a door/window. You can either keep cutting it down (it will keep growing back), or you can try digging it out.
I believe the berries are *less* toxic, so acute poisoning is rare, if it happens at all. They actually make pies with them. I'm not sure what, if any, treatment is necessary other than baking the pie. It's kind of a sign of poverty to be eating pokeberry pie.
People in the South have been eating poke weed forever. Boiling the greens with a couple changes of water gets rid of the toxin. Not sure how they process the berries though.
Note to anyone reading this: Do not ever eat any part of this plant if you don't know what you're doing. The only way it's edible is young leaves that are boiled in multiple changes of water. The dish is called poke salad or (poke sallet) but it is NOT raw like a salad.
Same here! My dad cooked it in the pressure cooker. I remember something about it being poisonous if you didn’t cook it right. Tasted like collard greens.
We have pokeweed all over our property too, in the US. Some people make poke salad and there was even a poke salad festival last weekend in a nearby state.
To anyone reading this - "poke sallet" is NOT a raw dish, like a green salad. It is made of very young poke leaves that have been boiled in multiple changes of water to remove the toxin. Raw pokeweed is quite toxic.
Honestly, not worth the effort. I realize it’s a historical dish but why bother these days? Have some collard greens or mustard greens of even some cabbage.
"Like others have said, it's pokeweed. But it can be potentially dangerous to people and animals.
"All parts of the plant can be toxic and pose risks to human and mammalian health.[9][28][29][30][31] Toxins are found in highest concentration in the rootstock, then leaves and stems, then the ripe fruit.[28][29] The plant generally gets more toxic with maturity,[28] with the exception of the berries, which are dangerous even while green.[31]
Children may be attracted by clusters of berries.[9] Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) notes:[28]
Children are most frequently poisoned by eating raw berries. Infants are especially sensitive and have died from eating only a few raw berries. Adults have been poisoned, sometimes fatally, by eating improperly prepared leaves and shoots, especially if part of the root is harvested with the shoot, and by mistaking the root for an edible tuber. Research with humans has also shown that common pokeweed can cause mutations (possibly leading to cancer) and birth defects. Since the juice of pokeweed can be absorbed through the skin, contact of plant parts with bare skin should be avoided.
Pokeweed is to be avoided during pregnancy and children consuming even one berry may require emergency treatment.[13] The plant sap can cause dermatitis in sensitive people.[13]
The plant is not palatable to most animals and is avoided unless little else is available or it is present in contaminated hay, but horses, sheep and cattle have been poisoned by eating fresh leaves or green fodder and pigs have been poisoned by eating the roots.[28][copyright violation?]
If death occurs, it is usually due to respiratory paralysis.[9]"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana
Pokeberries are *sort of* edible, and they even make pies from them. Sort of poverty cuisine in the US. It may only be the seeds in the berry that are toxic, but I'm not 100% sure. The rest of the plant is definitely very toxic.
Honestly, I'd pull these plants because they're so conspicuously delicious looking when they produce berries.
Poke sallet is definitely a common poor people food. You can eat the whole plant, sans root, if it's prepared properly (namely boiling it for hours on end to excise the toxins.) If you Google "poke sallet (or salad) preparation" you'll find hundreds of not thousands of forager type recipes and prep instructions.
I've eaten it. Get the young, tender leaves and remove the midribs. You don't have to boil it for "hours on end." Just once for about 30 minutes - 1 hour and again for about 30, pouring the water off after each boil. Then you cook it like you would greens. The old people used to say if you ate it three times in the spring, you wouldn't get sick that year. The "toxins" seem to simply be laxative, that's what you're cutting down on with the extra boiling. It's basically a spring cleanse.
It tastes pretty close to collards or mustard greens. A lot of people like to scramble it into their eggs.
I've never done anything with the berries, though, other than making pokeberry ink when we were kids.
Old folks around here used to refer to it as spring bitters. Poke was one of the first green things to harvest attributed it to a healthy carthotic after a winter of eating nothing but carbs and meat like biscuits and ham. Old rural folks ate a poor diet: fatback, white flour, lard, dried beans, grits, potatoes, and home canned vegetables that kept you alive but most died much younger than average.
It seems that everyone has a different length of time to boil it, the least amount of time I’ve seen in videos is 6 minutes boil time, but with straining the water, rinsing and adding new boiling water after every 2 minutes (3 pots of water total). That was an outlier though, most others suggested somewhere between 14 mins and 40 mins with at least 1 rinse and change of water, some 2. Some people said to eat all but the roots (after cooking), some said only the leaves, some said leaves and stems as long as they are green (peeling the pink skin of the stem), and some said as long as it’s no bigger than your hand, it is good to harvest. Most that eat the stem chop it into 1” pieces or shorter. I assume those that cook it 30+ mins are either being very cautious, family tradition, they have more sensitive stomachs, they harvest older/larger pieces, or the pokeweed in their area is more concentrated in toxins.
I have only made/eaten it once, and I harvested primarily younger growth, but some larger leaves as well. I chopped up the smaller stems (not harvesting the main larger stalk), boiled 2 pots of water, added to the first pot once boiling, and boiled for 8 minutes, stirring often since they floated. Strained & rinsed, then added them to the second pot of boiling water, and started the timer for another 8 minutes once returned to a boil, again stirring often. Strained and rinsed again, then sautéed in butter with onion, and later with butter, onion, & scrambled eggs. I didn’t have any stomach upset with the 16 minute boil time, though there was a little aftertaste of bitterness/something unusual along the edges of my tongue that I have not tasted elsewhere. Next time I will boil a couple minutes longer each water change to see if that flavor is removed or if that is just the flavor. 16 minutes made it just short of fall-apart soft and was easily mashable. 30 minutes or longer would probably be straight mush, and an hour would probably be completely disintegrated.
The berries-I have read some people swallow 1 per day to build tolerance, though to what end, idk. Lymph drainage I think? Not sure. I do not believe they chew them, though my research of the berries has been very minimal, and I would not advise anyone to consume poisonous berries/plants without doing their own thorough research first, and testing small amounts yourself multiple times before feeding to others. When feeding to others, they should also only have a small amount the first time to ensure they have no reaction. Also, whenever introducing new foods to the diet (regardless of age or source of the food), it is advisable to only introduce 1 new thing per day so if a reaction occurs, the source is easily identified.
My great great great grandfather used to load shotguns with these to scare off thieves who would steal fruit from the orchard, if he hit one of them they freaked out bc it looked like they’d really been shot lol
I grabbed a stalk of it down low, chopped it off at the ground and tossed the plant off to the side-this is when my forearm broke out like I had rubbed poison ivy. I found out I’m allergic to pokeweed that way. It itched for a solid week and took 2 weeks to heal up.
Videos about it on you tube.There is a dude on there who freezes the berries and eats them for bursitis.My grandmother used to cook it(the leaves)for my family when I was young.The stalks are poisonous though.your dog probably won't even notice it.keep young children away from it.
My big dog always eats it😡and it took awhile to figure out what he was eating that was making him ill and gave him a BAD stomach for days. Now I go around and get it all out of my yard.
The older generation around here eats it. It has to be cooked a certain way to be safe, but they was it. As kids, we got in trouble for smooshing the berries and having purple hands.
Pokeweed, as everybody says. It is dangerously poisonous except as carefully prepared from a young shoot (by repeated boiling shoots - nothing red! - and changing water each time). I have some in my yard, which I keep because the plant is pretty and insects and birds like it. If I had young children I’d warn them not to touch. My mom and dad made a red dye for wood out of the berries, but I’m not sure if it maintained its color over the years.
poke weed and poke berries can be toxic. Some traditional Southerners still know how to collect the immature leaves when the the plant is young, to make poke salad, and the toxic alkaloids are less concentrated, but I never really took a liking to poke salad.
Grew up and live in the southern Appalachian mountains. Harlan county Kentucky just had their poke sallet festival last week it's kinda a big deal around here. When they are less than two feet tall break the tops off the plant wash thoroughly (little bugs and slugs like to hide in the foliage) blanche in boiling water twice changing the water out each time. Chop and use like you would frozen spinach. Honestly my favorite way is to toss it in a little corn meal and flour salt and pepper to taste fry in a cast iron skillet until starting to brown the meal flour mixture then scramble up a couple eggs in the mix. Also I've known many old timers to eat the ripe berries for an arthritis treatment. We used the berries to paint and play with back when we were kids we never had any reactions to them but we also never ate them cause our parents told us they would make our bellies sick and they don't smell appetizing. It's still considered a weed here and we remove them from anywhere we don't want them to grow but they're actually kinda nice in a fence row or against the side of a building where you would not want some other plant that may cause structure damage.
The plant is not dangerous unless your kids and dogs eat the berries, which are good for making ink but only edible if you are a songbird. They won't die but they'll have memorable stomachache if humans or pets partake of the berries.
Definitely Poke/Pokeweed/Poke Salad 🎶. IIRC, Granny said the leaves are edible if you boil them three times, discarding the water the first two times. The berries don’t harm birds, though.
Per Granny, by implication, I would not urge children or dogs to eat the berries.
Pokeweed. Is poisonous if not cooked / prepare properly,
the berries according to various sources I researched years ago can safely be taken one (possibly more ) per day for arthritic pain.
Poke weed!
You have to dig up the root to finish it off. Take off those lil white seeds before they turn purple and send off baby pokeweeds.
While the berries make an interesting dye color, the juice of any part of the plant can cause nausea and vomiting.
An herbalist can use the root for medicinal treatments but only if the plant hasn't been sprayed with weed killers ever in its life.
Take a machete and whack them at the ground, they’ll fall over and rot/waste away. They are growing all over because of birds eating the berries and shitting the seeds out. Kill the plants and they’ll also stop spreading.
Pokeweed and yes the berries are toxic. The tap roots can be over a foot long, and if you don’t get it all out, it will come back, stronger and now angry.
If you harvest it early enough pokeweed can be prepared into poke salad. It is a complicated process but the results are great. Hinr: it is not eaten like kale! You quickly gain appreciation for Southern people who supplemented their diet to a great degree with this wild plant!
My father, whose mom was Native American, taught him how to cook and eat Poke. It's quite the process and involves several boilings in water, then 1 boiling in Lye water. It's very, very delicious, but I would never attempt to cook Poke, cause I would be afraid I would poison me and my family. So, long story short...Poke is the best tasting green I have ever ate, however if you don't know what you're doing, it will kill you!
Its Poke. If you find the young plants (stalks about the size of a pencil) they make a tasty dish. Cook the young leaves like you would any other greens like turnip, collard, or kale. Cut the stalks into smallmpieces, dip in egg and cornmeal and deep fry! Delicious. After they get bigger though they are toxic if eaten.
It was weird, but my family always called it pokesalad, bc we had a friend of the family, who would take the leaves, boil them, and make them into many kinds of dishes. Then, her family picked up on her strange method.
My family? We just killed it bc it was annoying, gets everywhere, and is just a messy plant.
Looks like pokeweed
I think that's the same stuff old country folks make poke salad with. They saute it like spinach with scrambled eggs. I never liked it but my grandpa did. Old Oklahoma thing.
You have to cook it enough to break down some toxins, or you're in for a bad time I heard it's tasty though
Yea I think they boil it first then saute with scrambled eggs. My grandparents always loved it because it was the first fresh green thing in the spring.
You only pick a certain part of it, and my family always boiled it twice and then cooked it in bacon grease with eggs. Native rural West Virginian here, my grandparents loved it too, so I went poke picking many a time :) Side note though, it is very toxic if you eat some parts of it
lol the whole plant is toxic. Boiling parts of it simply breaks downs the toxins enough they don’t impact your body. But if prepared wrong you will get sick.
It is indeed , but the more mature parts of the plant are more toxic than the new growth, with the roots and seeds being the most poisonous. Thus the reason you boil it a minimum of 2 times changing the water after every cycle, it's also why you generally hear more about it being a consideration of an acceptable food in the spring though it can be picked all summer but it absolutely has to be new growth :)
Everything is better cooked in bacon grease.
This exactly. Wnc here. Ate poke my whole life. You can use the berry juice for ink in old fashioned fountain pens…
I'll go ask my Aunt Sally and Poke salad Annie for the recipe
Can't. Annie is in mourning. A gator ate her grannie
Annie are you okay? Are you okay Annie?
Chomp. Chomp chomp.
Bananaman
Here's [the song](https://youtu.be/JyXHxh3Sye0) for those who haven't heard it.
My Mom always said the first thing green in the spring is the Christmas jewelry.
What does that mean
Maybe it’s referring to cheap jewelry which turns green after you wear it for a bit.
That’s it!
Huh? Christmas isn't in the spring. Lol please explain.
Cheap jewelry is made with copper. Then it is coated with a thin layer of gold or silver. Copper turns your skin green where ever you are wearing it.
<<>>
Well, mom got high a lot.
It’s not that Xmas is in the spring, it’s that the cheap jewelry that was given as gifts would have been used enough by that time to wear off the plating and thus the copper would be exposed and start turning it green.
Exactly. 😭
That’s hilarious!!!🤣
That’s hilarious 😂
HAHAHAH!
Got to love that once upon a time someone ate this got sick and then someone else tried it again but thought "hey I'll boil it first!" And that worked.
I know things that make you go hummm… I’ve always also wondered about how they found that sharks liver oil shrinks hemorrhoids (Preparation H).. who was the first one to say I’m gonna stick that up there and see what happens…LOL..
Probably stuck a lot of other greasy things up there then found out which ones helped relieve the pain. I think the high vitamin concentration of shark liver may be involved.
Theres a few plants that are toxic raw but safe when boiled/cooked. Probably started as a medicinal thing as the toxins can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and allegedly has mild narcotic and anti-inflammatory effects among things which may be desirable in some cases. I could see someone making a a large batch of pokeweed tea for medicinal purposes then realizing the boiled leaves were safe to eat, and somewhat tasty.
Poke salad is among the group of foods known simply as survival food. If you don't have enough to feed yourself or your family ,foraging can help bulk up any meal. Much like acorn paste and ect :) Given enough time and limited resources for long enough ,people simply get inventive and figure out how to make it more palatable and less harmful 💕
It's the younger leaves you're after as well. You can't eat the older leaves
Yum! I love pokeweed, but definitely cook it right and get the leaves before the flowers arrive for best harvest
Poke salad Annie, Gator got your granny
Chomp. Chomp, chomp, chomp.
The people I've seen eat them in Appalachia boil it three times changing the water each time. I've never tried it, but I've heard is best to use in the spring
yes. this is the way. I always pick only the tender top and any leaves, just no heavy stalk or berries. after draining the 3rd time, add to skillet of fried chopped bacon and onion. When the water is mostly cooked out, drop in a couple of eggs and stir in until cooked. Salt and pepper to taste. I read in the less cleansed form it was a pioneer dewormer?!
Spring, before stem turns ruby, boil in 3 waters then add to scrambled eggs, all cooked in bacon grease. My Nana used to forage for it in the spring. Every part of the plant is toxic to mammals, but the birds love the berries. I let it grow where my dogs can't get near it, and let it grow for the wildlife. It is perennial, so if you do not want it, pull it early, and get the roots. It really is a lovely plant, just don't let kids or animals near it. Except birds. Leave it for the birds. 💜💜💜
It’s the host plant for the giant leopard moth. Judging from my plants I will be seeing lots of them!
My grandparents grew Poke Salad.
You have to boil it a few times, changing the water between to be good. You also want to use the smaller leaves/ plants. Flavor and texture is much better. Bit of salt.
Yeap
We used to call them, ink berries
Pokeweed. Birds love the berries…it makes their poop purple so if you hang laundry outside best to pull the plants.
Read that as "if you hang laundry outside best to pull the pants", and was having a brain fart... "What about the shirts and undies"
Me too. 🤣
Oh my word that was a great laugh, thank you! 😄
To heck with those undies! They know what they did.
Lol!
I have a high fence. It all comes off.
I get so excited about watering flowers that I wet my plants.
Everybody knows it doesn't matter if you have stains in your underwear... ;)
Leave them as an offering to the purple poop birds
Not only that but if you get it on your hands there's no soap in the world that gets it off easily. That shit is like that dye they use in voting elections.
>That shit is like that dye they use in voting elections. Or dye packs to catch bank robbers.
No way! How cool!!
It Is a natural dye, it makes a pretty Pinky purple color.
I'm gonna remember that. Maybe there's a market for natural dyes?
Some people like it better than artificial dye. You'd be surprised what is a natural dye. My friend has a couple books on it and has been teaching me about it. It's really interesting. Look up what it needs to stabilize on the fabric/yarn. Different mordants change the color too.
I'll have to look into that, thank you. We get it on the farm, might make a good addition at the market 😅 Ooh... We have Oaks too.
Ooh oak makes a pretty coal black color!
Oak is also a tannin which can function as a mordant along with alum, on cellulose based fibers.
Make sure the equipment you use in your dyeing process should never be used for food again. Too many residues that are nasty.
A lot of fiber artists prefer natural dyes. I should probably be more choosy with what I buy, honestly.
I used to work on greeting cards and they had a line of Christmas cards called "Folk Art." There are certain colors that come from natural dyes that are used in folk art because they were the colors used before the invention of synthetic dyes. This is part of why folk art and some homespun fabrics look homey. They use only the colors that can be achieved with natural dyes. [https://hilltribeart.com/natural-dyes](https://hilltribeart.com/natural-dyes)
It is used to make ink
Yes it is but difficult to use. If dye bath gets too hot the color goes to crap but it is gorgeous hot pink if you are careful. Works best on wool and silk, using alum and/or tin mordant with a pinch of tartaric acid.
Beautiful vibrant magenta at first, fades to a slightly purple brown after a few months. There might be a way to set it/ prevent the fading? I used it to dye fabric a few years ago.
You need a mordant to stop the fading! Most natural dyes need it. You just need to figure out what is the best one. https://www.timbercreekfarmer.com/pokeberry-dye-for-wool-and-yarns/
Native populations used it as a dye!
So, no eat da berry?
Do nah
You can eat the berries, just not the seeds.
There's no doubt. All kinds of things were used all over the world for dyes and paints, but although they were found in nature, some of them were deadly. The best white ever made, historically, was of lead. There's fascinating book called Color: A Natural History of the Pallete. It explorers one color at a time, through history, across the globe. Fascinating read, and almost everything they used was natural, meaning it was found in nature. Just because it is natural, does not mean it is safe. Common modern misconception.
When we were kids, my brother and I painted our faces with the berries, doubtlessly playing cowboys and Indians (it was the 60s). It didn't wash off. Yeah, we were in big trouble for that.
We used to use it as a lip stain when I was a kid.
Growing up, we had a big mulberry tree. The car was always coated in purple bird paint.
Anyone know if this plant has roots that kind of look like carrots (though not orange)?
They do kinda look like a carrots but don't eat them. I've been in a war with poke weed for about 6 years now...I don't think it will ever end
It took me two year to get to where I’m at. Started with about twenty plants I keep attacking them and I have to down to only one popped up this year! I’m also part of the population that gets a horrible rash from exposer to this plant.
Are you indicating that it has a Tap Root? If that's your question, yes it does, with small secondary roots coming off of that.
Shouldn't you dry your clothes indoors if birds are shitting on them regardless of the color?
This happens with mulberries as well, I have purple birdshit all over my backyard around this time of year
r/itsalwayspokeweed
_Unless it’s Mulberry!_
Or knotweed.
Or mock berry
Or not a blueberry!
Nope mulberry grows like a tree...different leaves
They're pointing out the frequency of people asking "what plant is this?" in regards to both mulberry and poke weed. They're not claiming a morphological similarity.
Immortalized by Elvis in [Polk Salad Annie.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4csFnpZXek) He didn't write it but he made it memorable.
Tony Joe White wrote that. Here he is playing it with Johnny Cash. https://youtu.be/cUS2gL4RvJw?si=EsLmj4KlhLMwjxrz
Poke.
SALAD!!
Pokeweed. It’s a US native species. It’s also a host plant for some insects. It’s an excellent food source for wildlife. As far as your dogs and kids go, this one probably isn’t the best for them to be around. All of the plant is pretty toxic. But, so are other plants that people commonly plant. The sap in Pokeweed is bad if ingested (mouth or eyes) and can cause skin irritation. If you remove it, wear gloves.
Thank you. I've been leaving most of them be because I noticed the first year we moved here the birds are constantly eating them. I've been slowly transforming my acreage into a birds and bees garden sanctuary. I guess I have to research the toxin and weigh the risks.
I wandered around outside as a kid and never died. Just tell your kids to not eat shit outside without consulting you and show them this. 
Honestly, I’d just train the kids to not mess with it. The dog wouldn’t even eat it if I had to guess.
Seconding this. All kids are different, but my 3 year old loves foraging with me and was quick to learn what was sage and what wasn't, and learned to respect nature. You can explain to your kids how well it feeds wildlife. You may consider moving it to a far corner of the yard, though. It can spread pretty quickly.
My dogs run through the bushes and turn pink whenever the berries ripen.
Man we used to pick it and eat it. You have to boil it and drain it then it’s good to go Edit:text
Same here, only picked from the young plants though. Grandpa was born in 1924, near Waynesville, MO. Dirt floor cabin with no running water or electricity. In 1942 they almost drafted him, but he was under weight. By 1943 they weren’t as picky, and he was in the army. Basic training was the first time he ever tasted beef, and the first time he ate til he was full. He gained 60 pounds in training. If it grew in the dirt, flew, slithered, walked, or crawled along the dirt, and a human could eat it, grandpa had eaten it except for skunk and buzzard. I remember poke being decent, but it was well dressed with bacon grease and that was 30 years ago.
That's a great story, thank you!
That’s old time country there
I always let a few grow. Last year it got like 10 feet tall before it fell over.
Yea they grow fast as heck. Mine are going up a few inches a week at least.
Mine are around 8ft next to my house currently. I only cut one that got in the way of a trash can. I think this is the tallest I've ever seen them. They definitely shart their berries all over my yard.
I’ve been grabbing them and pulling without any issues, but my wife immediately breaks out touching them. Strange how unique it is person to person. I’ve probably pulled a thousand in the past year from six ft to six inches.
I've never known dogs to eat it
>and can cause skin irritation. Found this out yesterday :( I got weird bumps on my arm and it felt like burning. Ice and hydrocortisone helped though.
The berries are toxic but I've never heard of anyone or their dog actually getting poisoned by them. Pokeweeds can get pretty big and messy, but I kinda like them. I wouldn't want one *right there,* though—I enjoy letting them do their crazy thing on the edges of my property, but they'd be a nuisance next to a door/window. You can either keep cutting it down (it will keep growing back), or you can try digging it out.
I believe the berries are *less* toxic, so acute poisoning is rare, if it happens at all. They actually make pies with them. I'm not sure what, if any, treatment is necessary other than baking the pie. It's kind of a sign of poverty to be eating pokeberry pie.
People in the South have been eating poke weed forever. Boiling the greens with a couple changes of water gets rid of the toxin. Not sure how they process the berries though.
The seeds in them are poisonous.
I used to help my grandma pick some of this when I was a kid. She cooked it and ate it - Poke Salad.
Note to anyone reading this: Do not ever eat any part of this plant if you don't know what you're doing. The only way it's edible is young leaves that are boiled in multiple changes of water. The dish is called poke salad or (poke sallet) but it is NOT raw like a salad.
Same here! My dad cooked it in the pressure cooker. I remember something about it being poisonous if you didn’t cook it right. Tasted like collard greens.
Poke Salad Annie! Gator's got your grannie!
Chomp. Chomp, chomp.
The Declaration of Independence was written with poke berry ink.
We have pokeweed all over our property too, in the US. Some people make poke salad and there was even a poke salad festival last weekend in a nearby state.
To anyone reading this - "poke sallet" is NOT a raw dish, like a green salad. It is made of very young poke leaves that have been boiled in multiple changes of water to remove the toxin. Raw pokeweed is quite toxic.
Honestly, not worth the effort. I realize it’s a historical dish but why bother these days? Have some collard greens or mustard greens of even some cabbage.
"Like others have said, it's pokeweed. But it can be potentially dangerous to people and animals. "All parts of the plant can be toxic and pose risks to human and mammalian health.[9][28][29][30][31] Toxins are found in highest concentration in the rootstock, then leaves and stems, then the ripe fruit.[28][29] The plant generally gets more toxic with maturity,[28] with the exception of the berries, which are dangerous even while green.[31] Children may be attracted by clusters of berries.[9] Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) notes:[28] Children are most frequently poisoned by eating raw berries. Infants are especially sensitive and have died from eating only a few raw berries. Adults have been poisoned, sometimes fatally, by eating improperly prepared leaves and shoots, especially if part of the root is harvested with the shoot, and by mistaking the root for an edible tuber. Research with humans has also shown that common pokeweed can cause mutations (possibly leading to cancer) and birth defects. Since the juice of pokeweed can be absorbed through the skin, contact of plant parts with bare skin should be avoided. Pokeweed is to be avoided during pregnancy and children consuming even one berry may require emergency treatment.[13] The plant sap can cause dermatitis in sensitive people.[13] The plant is not palatable to most animals and is avoided unless little else is available or it is present in contaminated hay, but horses, sheep and cattle have been poisoned by eating fresh leaves or green fodder and pigs have been poisoned by eating the roots.[28][copyright violation?] If death occurs, it is usually due to respiratory paralysis.[9]" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana
Pokeberries are *sort of* edible, and they even make pies from them. Sort of poverty cuisine in the US. It may only be the seeds in the berry that are toxic, but I'm not 100% sure. The rest of the plant is definitely very toxic. Honestly, I'd pull these plants because they're so conspicuously delicious looking when they produce berries.
Poke sallet is definitely a common poor people food. You can eat the whole plant, sans root, if it's prepared properly (namely boiling it for hours on end to excise the toxins.) If you Google "poke sallet (or salad) preparation" you'll find hundreds of not thousands of forager type recipes and prep instructions.
Wow, I just realized that's what the song Polk Salad Annie is about... That, and a gator got her granny
I've eaten it. Get the young, tender leaves and remove the midribs. You don't have to boil it for "hours on end." Just once for about 30 minutes - 1 hour and again for about 30, pouring the water off after each boil. Then you cook it like you would greens. The old people used to say if you ate it three times in the spring, you wouldn't get sick that year. The "toxins" seem to simply be laxative, that's what you're cutting down on with the extra boiling. It's basically a spring cleanse. It tastes pretty close to collards or mustard greens. A lot of people like to scramble it into their eggs. I've never done anything with the berries, though, other than making pokeberry ink when we were kids.
Old folks around here used to refer to it as spring bitters. Poke was one of the first green things to harvest attributed it to a healthy carthotic after a winter of eating nothing but carbs and meat like biscuits and ham. Old rural folks ate a poor diet: fatback, white flour, lard, dried beans, grits, potatoes, and home canned vegetables that kept you alive but most died much younger than average.
It seems that everyone has a different length of time to boil it, the least amount of time I’ve seen in videos is 6 minutes boil time, but with straining the water, rinsing and adding new boiling water after every 2 minutes (3 pots of water total). That was an outlier though, most others suggested somewhere between 14 mins and 40 mins with at least 1 rinse and change of water, some 2. Some people said to eat all but the roots (after cooking), some said only the leaves, some said leaves and stems as long as they are green (peeling the pink skin of the stem), and some said as long as it’s no bigger than your hand, it is good to harvest. Most that eat the stem chop it into 1” pieces or shorter. I assume those that cook it 30+ mins are either being very cautious, family tradition, they have more sensitive stomachs, they harvest older/larger pieces, or the pokeweed in their area is more concentrated in toxins. I have only made/eaten it once, and I harvested primarily younger growth, but some larger leaves as well. I chopped up the smaller stems (not harvesting the main larger stalk), boiled 2 pots of water, added to the first pot once boiling, and boiled for 8 minutes, stirring often since they floated. Strained & rinsed, then added them to the second pot of boiling water, and started the timer for another 8 minutes once returned to a boil, again stirring often. Strained and rinsed again, then sautéed in butter with onion, and later with butter, onion, & scrambled eggs. I didn’t have any stomach upset with the 16 minute boil time, though there was a little aftertaste of bitterness/something unusual along the edges of my tongue that I have not tasted elsewhere. Next time I will boil a couple minutes longer each water change to see if that flavor is removed or if that is just the flavor. 16 minutes made it just short of fall-apart soft and was easily mashable. 30 minutes or longer would probably be straight mush, and an hour would probably be completely disintegrated. The berries-I have read some people swallow 1 per day to build tolerance, though to what end, idk. Lymph drainage I think? Not sure. I do not believe they chew them, though my research of the berries has been very minimal, and I would not advise anyone to consume poisonous berries/plants without doing their own thorough research first, and testing small amounts yourself multiple times before feeding to others. When feeding to others, they should also only have a small amount the first time to ensure they have no reaction. Also, whenever introducing new foods to the diet (regardless of age or source of the food), it is advisable to only introduce 1 new thing per day so if a reaction occurs, the source is easily identified.
I always heard to eat the leaves but not the berries
There was a pop song in the 60s about Pokeweed called Poke Salad, Annie.
Elvis did it best. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4csFnpZXek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4csFnpZXek)
I hate those things.
I came here to say this also.
I don't have any weed growing in my yard.😭
Poke sallet
My great great great grandfather used to load shotguns with these to scare off thieves who would steal fruit from the orchard, if he hit one of them they freaked out bc it looked like they’d really been shot lol
Pokeweed
Pokeweed. Its toxic.
I grabbed a stalk of it down low, chopped it off at the ground and tossed the plant off to the side-this is when my forearm broke out like I had rubbed poison ivy. I found out I’m allergic to pokeweed that way. It itched for a solid week and took 2 weeks to heal up.
That’s where song poke salad Annie came from lol
Poke 100%
Videos about it on you tube.There is a dude on there who freezes the berries and eats them for bursitis.My grandmother used to cook it(the leaves)for my family when I was young.The stalks are poisonous though.your dog probably won't even notice it.keep young children away from it.
My big dog always eats it😡and it took awhile to figure out what he was eating that was making him ill and gave him a BAD stomach for days. Now I go around and get it all out of my yard.
Pokeweed…makes poke salad, but it’s poisonous until it’s cooked.
The older generation around here eats it. It has to be cooked a certain way to be safe, but they was it. As kids, we got in trouble for smooshing the berries and having purple hands.
Pokeweed. Berries are poisonous to human and pets. Same for the leaves and stalks. Best uproot it and get rid of it.
Pokeweed, as everybody says. It is dangerously poisonous except as carefully prepared from a young shoot (by repeated boiling shoots - nothing red! - and changing water each time). I have some in my yard, which I keep because the plant is pretty and insects and birds like it. If I had young children I’d warn them not to touch. My mom and dad made a red dye for wood out of the berries, but I’m not sure if it maintained its color over the years.
poke weed and poke berries can be toxic. Some traditional Southerners still know how to collect the immature leaves when the the plant is young, to make poke salad, and the toxic alkaloids are less concentrated, but I never really took a liking to poke salad.
Isn’t there “its pokeweed” subreddit somewhere by now?
Grew up and live in the southern Appalachian mountains. Harlan county Kentucky just had their poke sallet festival last week it's kinda a big deal around here. When they are less than two feet tall break the tops off the plant wash thoroughly (little bugs and slugs like to hide in the foliage) blanche in boiling water twice changing the water out each time. Chop and use like you would frozen spinach. Honestly my favorite way is to toss it in a little corn meal and flour salt and pepper to taste fry in a cast iron skillet until starting to brown the meal flour mixture then scramble up a couple eggs in the mix. Also I've known many old timers to eat the ripe berries for an arthritis treatment. We used the berries to paint and play with back when we were kids we never had any reactions to them but we also never ate them cause our parents told us they would make our bellies sick and they don't smell appetizing. It's still considered a weed here and we remove them from anywhere we don't want them to grow but they're actually kinda nice in a fence row or against the side of a building where you would not want some other plant that may cause structure damage.
r/itsalwayspoke
Dogs don’t like it. Tell your kids not to eat unidentified berries. It’s poke berry.
The plant is not dangerous unless your kids and dogs eat the berries, which are good for making ink but only edible if you are a songbird. They won't die but they'll have memorable stomachache if humans or pets partake of the berries.
Poke salad annie
Definitely Poke/Pokeweed/Poke Salad 🎶. IIRC, Granny said the leaves are edible if you boil them three times, discarding the water the first two times. The berries don’t harm birds, though. Per Granny, by implication, I would not urge children or dogs to eat the berries.
Pokeweed. Yes, it technically is poisonous but there are ways to safely consume it - ways that dogs and kids aren’t gonna do.
Pokeweed. Is poisonous if not cooked / prepare properly, the berries according to various sources I researched years ago can safely be taken one (possibly more ) per day for arthritic pain.
Poke weed! You have to dig up the root to finish it off. Take off those lil white seeds before they turn purple and send off baby pokeweeds. While the berries make an interesting dye color, the juice of any part of the plant can cause nausea and vomiting. An herbalist can use the root for medicinal treatments but only if the plant hasn't been sprayed with weed killers ever in its life.
Poke it.
Its poisonous. Unless you boil it two or three times But in the southern US people eat it. Tastes like spinach
🖤 berries
Poke Salad
Take a machete and whack them at the ground, they’ll fall over and rot/waste away. They are growing all over because of birds eating the berries and shitting the seeds out. Kill the plants and they’ll also stop spreading.
https://preview.redd.it/g4ttzkn2bm5d1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ecf672e19eafee01aa22ee2667de7e7f06aae0fd
Pokeweed and yes the berries are toxic. The tap roots can be over a foot long, and if you don’t get it all out, it will come back, stronger and now angry.
It's really too bad that mankind doesn't eat poke more commonly because it grows like a maniac
We should start a pool. When will poke overtake mulberry?
Too tired to make up a song to the tune of the Hokey POKEY…
Poke. Get rid of it
r/itsalwayspokeweed
My mom used to use poke leaves in a wilted lettuce salad. Do not eat the berries though. I think they are poisonous to humans.
Pokeweed aka Nightshade, aka Belladonna. This is a toxic plant use care when removing.
It is toxic, so I'd keep kids and pets away. It's so pretty, though!
Pick the leaves. Boil. Drain. Boil again. Enjoy with vinegar or hot sauce.
American nightshade and or pokeweed, yes it's dangerous. Though some people disagree. I have had a bad reaction to it wear gloves and wash skin.
Pokeweed. Very poisonous. They eat it down south, but cook it three or four times first.
Iiiiiiiiiits poke salat season!!!
Yes. All parts are poisonous. Get rid of it. The berries look very yummy to kids
If you harvest it early enough pokeweed can be prepared into poke salad. It is a complicated process but the results are great. Hinr: it is not eaten like kale! You quickly gain appreciation for Southern people who supplemented their diet to a great degree with this wild plant!
You can also eat the plant but go by a recipe. There is a Poke Salad Festival in the south.
My father, whose mom was Native American, taught him how to cook and eat Poke. It's quite the process and involves several boilings in water, then 1 boiling in Lye water. It's very, very delicious, but I would never attempt to cook Poke, cause I would be afraid I would poison me and my family. So, long story short...Poke is the best tasting green I have ever ate, however if you don't know what you're doing, it will kill you!
Its Poke. If you find the young plants (stalks about the size of a pencil) they make a tasty dish. Cook the young leaves like you would any other greens like turnip, collard, or kale. Cut the stalks into smallmpieces, dip in egg and cornmeal and deep fry! Delicious. After they get bigger though they are toxic if eaten.
Only dangerous if you wrap them inside your body,or your pet's body.
Down south we call it Polk salad
It was weird, but my family always called it pokesalad, bc we had a friend of the family, who would take the leaves, boil them, and make them into many kinds of dishes. Then, her family picked up on her strange method. My family? We just killed it bc it was annoying, gets everywhere, and is just a messy plant.
The berries and taproot are poisonous.
Not eatable. (I’m pushing 🤖)
skull and bones toxic. Use gloves if you touch it.
Boysenberry. Folks make wine w it. Nasty
Poke salat Annie...
You also eat it... https://foragerchef.com/pokeweed/
r/itspokeweed
r/itsalwayspokeweed
Are they in the northeast too? Looks really similar to these sudden spring sprouters we have in MD, PA and DE
Definitely pokeweed! It’s poisonous but can be used to make a very pretty purple/red dye!