Can You ID This Plant for Me, Please?

[Tuffoldhen]

It's poke weed and very poisonous.

 

[sonjab314]

Quote:
yes. the entire thing is poisonous. You can eat the young leaves of young shoots but they have to be steeped, drained steeped, drained again then boiled to render them safe.

here in north alabama, pokeweed is such an important source of cooked greens that we even have pokeweed festivals

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Polksalad

 

[Wisher1000]

I, too, LOVE polksalad (with peppersauce and scrambled eggs!) but PLEASE do not make a salad with polk, that's not how it's done! It's called polk salad but it is more like turnip greens or spinich.

 

[key west chick]

Poke salad is indeed made with poke leaves. BUT, they have to be the very young, leaves and cooked just a certain way or they are extremely poisonous.

 

[AKsmama]

Technically it's "poke sallet," not "polk salad." Here's an article from MON: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1971-03-01/Poke-Sallet.aspx

It can be highly toxic if not cooked. "Do not be tempted by its delicacy to use poke for salads in a raw form. Uncooked pokeweed can be violently cathartic and cause severe poisoning. Because poke is a tender vegetable it should be cooked quickly in boiling water, lightly salted, and served quickly with drawn butter and a dash of lemon juice. The tender stalks are handled just like asparagus and are especially good served on toast with hollandaise or a mild cheese sauce."

The words violently cathartic

Actually the roots made me think of mandrakes from the HP movies

 

[sonjab314]

Quote:
I dont care what its called. Its still good

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! I just cook it like mustard or turnip greens BUT drain the first cooking water and add fresh, then finish cooking.
We eat poke and I freeze some for later. We would have a poke-weed jungle here too. It is everywhere (and a noxious weed), but I have one plant on the edge of a back garden that gets huge. I like to catch it (about right now) and strip the younger leaves to cook, then cut it back to the ground. It sprouts right back with lots of new shoots (yes, edible). I guess it grows happily because it is one of the few 'spring greens' the chickens don't bother *much*.
You should try some.

Lisa

 

[HLAC]

There's a bunch of pokeweed in my yard. It comes up in the garden and along the edge of the field. I kill the ones in the garden but there's a big one I let grow up every year on the edge of the yard. It's kind of pretty and I keep thinking that one of these days, I'll be brave enough to eat it.

I do have a war with the poison hemlock in my yard. When I moved here, there was about a solid 3/4 acre of poison hemlock.

And that stuff isn't good for anything.

 

[Matthew3590]

I have that same plant in my yard

 

[speckledhen]

Well, salad or sallet, I ain't eating it. Just wanted to ID it for certain, once and for all. Now that I am sure what it is, all of it that is in the frequented areas will be removed. Thanks so much for all the input, guys!