[Magdalen] In the jungle

[Ann Markle]

Only one contrarian statement to Sib's explanation:  They've been as tall
as 8 feet in this backyard where I live.  And my neighbor in TN said to get
those poke leaves ASAP in the spring.  She would say that 8" tall is too
big to be good -- but every "old wife" has her own version, I bet!  I pull
them up when they're small, and have mostly got the new seedlings, though
the old, big roots do send up sprouts (which I also pull early).

Ann

The Rev. Ann Markle
Buffalo, NY
ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
blog:  www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com

On Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 12:04 PM, Sibyl Smirl <polycarpa3 at ckt.net> wrote:

> In defense of Poke.
>
> It seems that I always have to be the contrarian, so here I go again on
> another rant.  Poke is one of my favorite plants.  "Tree-sized" is an
> exaggeration (I've never seen it taller than about five feet, and I've seen
> it in the richest, well-composted soil and full sun), and it's poisonous to
> the iggernant, but all true Rednecks love it.  Euell Gibbons, in "Stalking
> the Wild Asparagus" and Gene Stratton Porter in "The Harvester" got quite
> poetic about it, in different aspects.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/ncypj5s
>
> First-year seedling plants aren't much use as a vegetable.  You want the
> spring shoots from ancient, massive roots, less than 8" tall, and fat as
> big toes, not yet purple. Absolutely delicious cooked in bacon fat! Allen
> Canning used to put up a lot of it in tin cans every year, but I hadn't
> seen it in the grocery stores lately: just found out why when googling for
> URLs to put in this.  I don't know whether Allen's actually had people
> growing it commercially, or paid woods-running kids for all they could
> bring in.  You just want to harvest the first shoots from the big
> established roots: if you don't leave some shoots to grow for the season,
> you kill the plant, and country people with good sense don't _want_ to kill
> the plant.
>
> http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=7054
> http://www.allens-restructuring.com/
> http://sagercreekveggies.com/#
>
> It's a powerful and valuable medicinal: unfortunately, Big Pharma can't
> patent it.  The medicinal qualities are what makes it poisonous, of
> course.  Redneck herbalists used to preserve the berry juice to use in a
> Spring Tonic, but I don't know the formula.  Basic warning is never to eat
> the berries, just use them for ink and dye.  As a dye plant, it makes a
> gorgeous color, but the secret mordant that keeps the color from fading has
> been lost.  What my husband used to hate in terms of purple bird-shit on
> cars was the mulberry.
>
> http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/pokroo57.html
> http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com/poke-herb.html
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sibyl Smirl
> I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
> mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net
>