LCV Spring 2013 - (Page 65)

found in 19th-century newspaper Down there we have a plant that grows out in the accounts. Claims of cancer cures woods and the fields, also emerged every so often, as looks somethin’ like a turnip green. did reports of children and others Everybody calls it poke salad. Poke salad. poisoned by the weed. In the Used to know a girl that lived down there and 1830s, newspapers reported the she’d go out in the evenings and pick a mess of it... death of an Ohio boy who had Carry it home and cook it for supper, eaten the root; his siblings ’cause that’s about all they had to eat, survived. In 1851, a Cincinnati But they did all right. man poisoned his family after bringing home pokeweed from a —Tony Joe White’s introduction to “Polk Salad Annie” city market. All were affected, but none died. Ongoing research into the plant may reveal some possible, you’ll be glad to know that, like most modern, medicinal applications. weeds, poke grows in urban and rural areas; The plant is famous for being many can forage for poke in vacant lots and harvested in the wild, but canned versions were sold commercially backyards across much of America. beginning in the mid-1900s. Arkansas’ Allen Canning Company offered Poke Salet (another alternative spelling), with the label ———————————————————————————————— Michael Mizell-Nelson, Ph.D., is an associate professor and public history program proudly proclaiming the leaves were “organically grown.” Perhaps coordinator at the University of New Orleans. the marketing department wanted to banish consumers’ thoughts about dangerous chemicals lurking inside the can. However, it proved too difficult to procure enough of the plant to make the product worth the Allen Company’s while, and they stopped canning the green in 2000. Not surprisingly, festivals celebrating the green seem to appear only in Southern states, notably Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. Louisiana once boasted two festivals, but now only the original one in Blanchard remains. Residents of the small town below Shreveport hosted their first festival in the mid-1970s. At times, organizers had to rely on Texas pokeweed, but the festival has grown well beyond its origins in a local church. By 1980, a bumper crop year for poke, several thousand people turned out for the festival. Louisiana’s other Poke Salad Festival, once staged in Oak Grove, featured a variant of the older spelling: salot. Oak Grove is the hometown of the singer-songwriter responsible for a pop hit in 1969 that put poke sallet on the map, but with a spelling that seemed to aim for greater success among country and pop music fans. The publishers were right; the song “Poke Salad Annie” achieved even more renown once Elvis Presley released his cover version. Best known as the author of “Rainy Night in Georgia,” Tony Joe White is one of the many Louisiana musicians seemingly better appreciated by foreign audiences. Often counted among the slew of swamp pop musicians, White now lives outside of Nashville when not touring in Europe, New Zealand and other far-flung regions. Enjoy a location within walking distance to the French Quarter, Riverfront Surprisingly, few of the avant-garde and Arts District, with playful modern Creole cuisine at Café Adelaide, southern chefs seem to have glommed onto by the Commander’s Palace Family of Restaurants, invigorating treatments what might become one of the most loco of at Balance Spa, and a staff that anticipates your every desire. locavore trends. Those interested in experiencing 300 Poydras Street, New Orleans Louisiana’s festival should make it to Blanchard loewshotels.com 866.211.6411 or contact your travel agent the weekend of May 11 and 12. If that’s not LIFE IS SIMPLY MORE VIBRANT AT Spring 2013 • LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 65  http://www.loewshotels.com

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LCV Spring 2013

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