Can You ID This Plant for Me, Please?

[itsy]

Not to go on too far of a tangent here.... but at what point do people say "Hey, maybe if we boil the heck out of it...and we only eat the really small leave - we can finally eat it without croaking!" lol. It's always amazing to me how we discover how to eat something extremely poisonous so that it doesn't actually kill us. What did it actually take to get to that point of discovery?

It's like that Japanese blowfish. I think I'd rather just pass!

 

[Tala]

Quote:
yeah I'd like to know how they figured out the "recipe" for eating it! LOL

I have polk TREES in my yard

It's not even summer yet and they're almost 6ft tall already. My grandma used to cook them for us as kids, I love it (and all other southern greens) but I just don't have the TIME to do all that work. I rarely cook anymore.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Ok, just have to say this since it's such a deadly plant...


The leaves we boil and eat like turnip or mustard greens except we do pour the water off after the first boiling.

We also eat the stalks. Take the young tender stalks, peel off the tough outer layer then cut in wheels and bread it and fry it like okra. Most people who have tried it can't tell it isn't okra when they eat it. I know it is a deadly poison and we are all going to die horribly someday.


Must take a while though, because we eat all we can find every spring.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

MFB- I have a ton of the wretched stuff growing in my yard. You are welcome to it all. Between the milkweed and the poke weed I can't win. If you don't catch it really small it is impossible to pull up. I have some that even Roundup hasn't killed.

I can't even get the chickens to eat it. Sigh. I hate the stuff.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
it gets big? We eat it as it gets big enough, so never gets a chance to grow big here.

 

[DTchickens]

From what I hear the berries actually aren't that poisonous, you can eat them directly off the plant in small quantities. My dad said he saw my great grandfather do it (he believes), and I actually discussed this with a buddy of mine who did it.. He said just don't eat a lot, he did, and was in the bathroom quite awhile!

I've heard the berries can worm birds, but never tried it myself. I imagine this is due to the small amounts of Alkaloids, which is the same reason green tomatoes/potatoes are poisonous to birds, since they and peppers are all in the same nightshade family with poke salad as it's called here.

-Daniel

 

[Tala]

Quote:
it gets big?

I just said mine were almost 6ft tall, lol, if that's not big for a garden variety yard weed, I don't wanna know what grows at your house!!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

The problem is that if it gets above about a foot tall the roots are darn near impossible to get out. If you don't kill the root it just keeps coming back again and again and again. I have one stalk that I have been trying to kill for years. Arg.
The darn stuff grows about a foot a day too.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
In the winter when it dies back, pull it up then. Promptly re-locate your burn barrel over any remains. Burn normally for the rest of the winter. hehehehehe

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
it gets big?

I just said mine were almost 6ft tall, lol, if that's not big for a garden variety yard weed, I don't wanna know what grows at your house!!

yeah, that's big! I was just teasing....