Poke Sallat Anyone?

[GonnePhishin]

Came across this article and thought it was interesting, given the fact I remember listening to Tony Joe White singing about it on am radio.
Was wondering how many of our southern brethren pick and cook it up?

http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2 ... gtime.html

[Streetstar]

Reminds me of my dad -- poor mixed breed Choctaw Indian/White trash stock is where i come from in SE Oklahoma --

(and God bless him and family -- i wouldnt be here without my mom and dad ... period )

He would drag that mess home from his occasional jaunts down there and whip it up --- Greens with bacon drippins --- I never developed a taste myself but still remember him treating this dish with reverance -

I think its nostalgia ----- just like car guys cling to the memory of their mopars thinking they were good cars or something ---- they weren't that good then, and still arent , but remind many of us when we were young etc.

[J35]

I have cooked a lot of it out in the fields with ROUND-UP

Never tried it on the stove.

----------J

[Walker]

I grew up just south of Tulsa. Grandma was a farmer's wife, used to scramble eggs with it. Pretty good seasoned with bacon. She stopped fixing it late in life because she couldn't pick it without getting into some poison ivy.

[vancelw]

I never liked poke sallet....too bitter for me, as are turnips, mustard, collards....I like spinach. (popeye was on TV when I was a kid)

I have a mess of poke sallet growing in the back yard. I need to ask my dad if he wants some of those weeds the cows won't eat before I chemically mow them.

[Walker]

I never liked mustard or turnip greens because of the bitterness either. Grandma did something that took that out of polk greens, maybe it was boiling it then draining the water and boiling it again.

[hayabusa]

Annual Poke Salad Festival
www.pokesaladfestival.com/
Presents.. The 41th Annual Poke Salad Festival. will be held. May 4th - 9th, 2015. in Blanchard, Louisiana. Poke Salad Festival Announces Theme for 2015.
The Annual Poke Salad Festival Treasure Hunt
pokesaladfestival.com/treasurehunt2.htm
The Poke Salad Festival Treasure Hunt starts on Monday May 4th with. clues being announced daily on television, in the newspaper, on the radio, and. by 8:00 ...
Events - Town of Blanchard, Louisiana
www.townofblanchard.us/index.asp?Type=B_EV&SEC...A17C...
Our annual Poke Salad Festival is held the second Saturday in May each year. There is always a carnival which opens the Thursday before and lasts through ...

My grandmother & wife would pick the greens by the driveway and cook/boil the greens. I would not let them cook it when I was home. The stuff stinks like a boiling out house when boiled the first time. After the first boil and drain the second boil it did not smell. Momma added sugar to make it not bitter.
I never ate that stuff in my life. Probably missed out on a good thing. Here in Louisiana they say Polk Salad.

Looks like Walker & I posted at the same time & my first post is in cyber space.

hayabusa

[Walker]

Must be why I've always heard it pronounced Polk. Grandma's family left Lousiana after the civil war and traveled through Texas into Arkansas. Grandparents gave up farming and moved to Bixby in the 50's.

[vancelw]

I never liked mustard or turnip greens because of the bitterness either. Grandma did something that took that out of polk greens, maybe it was boiling it then draining the water and boiling it again.

I always thought the boiling-draining-boiling was to get rid of the poison

[Walker]

That's what I was told too. Don't eat'em without doing that.

[Griff]

I hate weeds. In the yard almost as much as on the table! All that stuff, spinach, mustard, poke salat, dandelion greens, they're all weeds! Edited to add collard geens to the "not on my table" list!

[Blaine]

It has antiviral properties, and some idjits smoke it to get high....lot's get sick off it.

[Rusty]

I like any kind of greens. If I happen to have a little pepper sauce to go with it, they're even better!

[M. M. Wright]

My wife has fond memories of picking pickup loads of Polk to sell to Allen canning company. I remember it bringing very little money.

I grew up in east Tulsa Street star. 11miles to town in the late 40s.

[hayabusa]

I always thought the boiling-draining-boiling was to get rid of the poison

That is what anyone who cooks it says.

[mark08]

How about that classic song "Polk Salid Annie"?

[vancelw]

I hate weeds. In the yard almost as much as on the table! All that stuff, spinach, mustard, poke salat, dandelion greens, they're all weeds!

We ate at a Greek restaurant in Dallas the other night. There was something that looked like a turd...it was rice and meat wrapped in grape leaves....tasted like......turnip greens to me (insert pukey emoticon here)

[plowboy 45]

Edit

[hondo1892]

I was always told poke leaves had to be picked while they were "young" in the early spring. I never tried any myself though. My daughter used to play with the berries, said she was making paint. She would get purple hands until it wore off. However the deer on my place really love the stuff in the fall. They will go from one plant to the next stripping the leafs.

[octagon]

I like all greens, when next to some good cornbread and fried catfish.

[Thunder50]

Fellow that did yard work for my Grandfather loved the stuff. He told me you had to pick the leaves young as the older stuff wasn't fit to eat. He planted some in my Grandfathers flower beds. Grandad was OK with it until some birds came in and ate the berries, then sat on the limbs above his freshly washed/waxed car!! That was a mess

[hfcable]

Reminds me of my dad -- poor mixed breed Choctaw Indian/White trash stock is where i come from in SE Oklahoma --

(and God bless him and family -- i wouldnt be here without my mom and dad ... period )

He would drag that mess home from his occasional jaunts down there and whip it up --- Greens with bacon drippins --- I never developed a taste myself but still remember him treating this dish with reverance -

I think its nostalgia ----- just like car guys cling to the memory of their mopars thinking they were good cars or something ---- they weren't that good then, and still arent , but remind many of us when we were young etc.

yep, very similar, poor white mountaineer/Cherokee stock....helped pick the stuff, and being that I ate most anything, I ate it without complaint. wonder if I would like it now

[JB]

I've eaten a lot of polk greens over the years. I've heard the same thing about not eating anything the plant when it was more mature, but I knew a guy who used to cut the thick stalks up and fry them like squash or green tomatoes. I've read (on the net so it must be true) that even the green young leaves contain some poison and should be boiled and rinsed several times. I also read that berries are actually more poisonous in their green stage than when purple.

[1894c]

nope...as a NY urban type, never had the pleasure...although the name "Poke Sallat" sounds like some old Sicilian goomba who use to run the numbers in my neighborhood, just saying... :)

[mark08]

Dig the roots, wash them good, Boil til tender enough to make a paste. Mash up with fork. Put the paste on poison ivy and it will dry it up and cure overnight. BUT for 30-45 minutes after the paste is applied it will burn like fire. NO PAIN NO GAIN

[FWiedner]

My mom's side of the family comes from Missouri back-woods. They and as a result, we, ate field greens and 'weeds' on a regular basis growing up. Some greens are better than others.

My Dad's side were in Texas before it was Texas. Any critter that will hold still long enough to cut a piece off is food.

My wife says they wouldn't feed that stuff to prisoners.

I like it.

There was something that looked like a turd...

That, to me, is a clue.

[GonnePhishin]

I like all greens, when next to some good cornbread and fried catfish.

I would agree with that

[vancelw]

There was something that looked like a turd...

That, to me, is a clue.

"Try it, you'll like it" they said....it was a good clue

[BAGTIC]

Properly prepared it should be parboiled and rinsed. Kind of like washing sauerkraut. I occasionally see canned poke on local store shelves. I have eaten it but it is nothing special to me. I hated all greens as a kid but when I married my Filipina wife she changed that. My relatives cooked all greens to a sodden unappealing mess. Wife quickly sautees it with seasonings. Sort of like wilted lettuce with bacon, etc. Big difference.

For gardeners try the summer green Malabar spinach a.k.a. Basella or alabate in Filipino. Not bitter, good raw in salads. Does well in warm weather with tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc. Climbs about 5 feet on fence [we use cattle panels] so is easy to pick. For warm weather much better than New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia). A Japanese variety of mustard called Mizuma is also good even raw. No mustard hot peppery taste and very tender.