Once upon a time, when my daddy was a boy, he walked all the way into town to see a movie with a friend. But before they could set off for the matinee, his friend had to pick a mess of poke salad for his mother. So the kid grabbed a bag, quickly stuffed it full of dead leaves and then put some poke salad on the top. He left it for his momma to find and they took off down the road heading into town. Sneaky, huh?I'm not sure what kind of punishment the kid ended up getting--maybe he wasn't allowed to watch Howdy Doody for a week, or worse, maybe he had to give up Dragnet altogether--but I do know he missed out on some yummy greens for dinner.
We're fortunate to have quite a bit of poke growing in the backyard out by our burn pile. It's very poisonous so don't pick it if it's too big--you want to make sure that the leaves are from young shoots, less than 6 inches long, and don't have any red color to them. I've heard that you can peel the stalks and fry them like okra but I'm not brave enough to try it. I'll just stick to the leaves, thank you.
Poke Salad
a mess of poke
1 or 2 eggs
bacon fat
salt and pepper
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add poke. Let boil for 10 minutes. Drain. Rinse leaves in a colander and rinse out the cooking pot. Add more water to the pot and bring to second boil. Add poke and boil for another 10 minutes. Drain. Rinse leaves again and squeeze out the excess water like you would with spinach. Add to a skillet with some bacon fat, scramble an egg into the greens, and season with salt and pepper.
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Eeewwww, I am afraid of poisonous food!
ReplyDeleteIf the picking was left up to me, I'd probably end up poisoning everyone.
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm a girl from Texas, and I really know nothing about Poke Salad....I just know some old song...LOL!
ReplyDeleteYour story reminded me of my dad, who grew up in the 20's and 30's and they had a cow, and he didn't like milking said cow. He would put water in the bucket too, to cut his work time down, and my poor granny would threaten to get rid of the cow......bad milk!!! I don't think he did that very often.
Anita--Polk Salad Annie by Elvis Presley! I'd never heard of that song until a couple of days ago!
ReplyDeleteinteresting! but all I can think of is the 'poke' on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this before!
ReplyDeleteWow Ali...that sounds kind of dangerous for a salad! Now if it were poke pizza or something it just may be worth it! :)
ReplyDeleteIf I had a nickel for every time I had to listen to my mother complain about eating poke salad as she grew up, I'd have a whole lotta nickels. Needless to say, I never got to try it as she wasn't going near the stuff. Your concoction looks worth giving a try though :)
ReplyDeleteQuite a sneaky kids! Never had a poke salad, but the story was funny.
ReplyDeleteAhhh brings back childhood memories!
ReplyDeleteRemember, the berries, while lovely, are highly toxic too!
It's a shame that you don't live close enough to attend any of the Poke Salad festivals!
Note: the Declaration of Independence was written in ink made from Pokeberry juice.
Why don't you write an Ode to Pokeberries?
Hmmm, I don't know that I want to eat weeds out of my yard-mainly because I would probably kill everyone in the house. I'm thinking I'll stick with the romaine in the garden :)
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed the story!