Here's the truth about poke salat - phytolacca americana.

Poke salat, when it matures, develops purple colorations on its stalk, flower stem, and berries and seeds. It is the MATURE leaves, and purple stem and seeds that contain the poisonous substances. Young plants are safe, as is the juice.

Young poke without any hint of purple makes an excellent dish of greens similar to spinach. It must be parboiled, then should drained well and added to a skillet and fried in butter or bacon drippings. It's a meal fit for a king.

Mountain folk often make a wine from the berries, claiming that a small glass each day helps relieve their arthritis symptoms. They also make a jelly, discarding the seeds. Many southern cities have festivals in honor of poke, and many websites contain lots of information.

Poke plants are spread far and wide by birds who gobble up the berries, then deposit the seeds for miles around. In fact, the seeds are difficult to germinate artifically because they prefer going through the acid in a digestive tract and then get frozen before they will sprout.

Poke root is a herbal remedy that has been used for millenia with excellent results, but can be poisonous when used incorrectly, as sometimes happens with someone who doesn't know what they are doing.

Poke salat has a place of honor in my garden, and in my kitchen.

Molly McBee

James

There are a lot of really good recipes on the internet for how to fix poke.
Molly

Gary

I have a question--I'm rescuing my garden now, which had gone to weeds for the past several years. In one raised bed there is a huge poke tuber, too big and woody for me to dig out. I"ve covered it in newspaper and weighted the paper down with rocks. Do you think that will kill it? Also, since the tuber is poisonous, is it safe to plant near it?

Thanks.

Maro

If you decide to try digging it out, take care with the sap from the root as it is very poisonous and might be irritating to any skin it touches.

Planting other things near it won't hurt the other plants. The sap from the poke root won't travel into the other plants.

Molly

Parboiling and removes the saponins and other poisonous substances and makes it safe to eat.

Molly

Drain well and use as desired.

I picked it fresh this spring and it is so tasty! It doesn't have to be all greasy with bacon grease to taste good. I pair boil twice then add a little olive oil in the final cooking. I strain the leftovers and put them in the fridge. Then I throw them in a skillet without any extra oil, heat them up and add some eggs for a tasty breakfast!

Perhaps the toxin is in the pigment, I don't know. I do know the pigmentation goes away upon cooking.

However, ALL of the poke that grows here is very purple from the get-go, the smallest sprouts are vibrant magenta. So,it wouldn't be possible to eat non-purple poke unless it is grown with the total exclusion of light, in which case its ghostly creamy white-yellow with some purple tinges on the stems.

Perhaps its either a genetic thing or a response to temperature. Up here in Michigan, springs are probably cooler than in the south, perhaps as many other plants do, poke just produces more pigmentation in colder weather.

I've seen pictures of polk plants from around the world and none of them had magenta (or purple) leaves.