LCV Spring 2013 - (Page 64)

Poke sallet is made from the leaves of pokeweed. POKE SALLET: FORAGE FOR YOUR SUPPER Don’t worry—just boil it three times okeweed, harvested and served as food, serves as yet another dividing line between the South and other U.S. regions. The Iowa State University Agricultural Extension service offers sober advice about what may happen when one ingests the plant: P If taken internally, pokeweed is a slow-acting but a violent emetic. Vomiting usually starts about 2 hours after the plant or parts of it have been eaten. Severe cases of poisoning result in purging, spasms, and sometimes convulsions. If death occurs, it is usually due to paralysis of the respiratory organs. Iowa recommends that “pokeweed should be eradicated when discovered,” especially since the 64 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES • Spring 2013 beautiful purple berries might induce children to eat them. Southerners who dine on pokeweed know to avoid the berries. Instead, they harvest the younger leaves and shoots and boil out the toxins before ingesting a “poke sallet” mixture often featuring bacon grease. Scrambled eggs are another recommended complement. The plant’s toxins, according to scientific research, are water soluble, so the long tradition of boiling the leaves apparently does help considerably. The shoots are sometimes described as tasting like a poor man’s asparagus. One region’s toxic weed is another’s tasty green. Southern Ag centers downplay the toxicity while mentioning how to safely prepare the weed for dining. Alabama’s Cooperative Extension Service does break ranks in its “Don’t Eat Poke Salad” pamphlet, which questions why one would seek to eat a poisonous plant when so many non-toxic alternatives are available. If nutritionists knock a diet heavy on soul food as unhealthful, then a folk food that can kill with a single serving must be the most soulful of all foods. The power of tradition cannot always be understood. Poke’s history reveals a parallel record as both helpful plant and health hazard. The term “poke” is thought to have originated from the Algonquian word pocan, which refers both to the berry and the plant. Native Americans used pocan for dyeing baskets and other items. The term “sallet” was an Old English spelling for salad. The weed can be found as far north as Minnesota as well as in the Southwest, and it has made appearances in the writings of Eudora Welty and Walt Whitman. Medicinal uses, often via topical application, can be 

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