Poke Salad

[chell]

Does anyone here eat Poke Salad? Or does anyone in your family? My grandparents ate it. I wonder if people still eat that.

What about Dandelion greens? I remember watching my grandmother cut them and the way she would do it. I don't know why but just thinking of watching her looking fro some greens is a comforting thought.

Anyone know what yellow root is? I don't know what the real name is but it is something that grows along side of a creek. You boil it then drink the nasty, bitter liquid. My great-grandfather would mix it with some kind of corn liquor.

Thanks to the person who posted the weird food link - that got me thinking about all this.

 

[DisneyBug1995]

My Mom and Grandma used to make dandelion greens. It taste pretty good. I used to have a friend in school whose Mom used to make fried dandelions.

I've never heard of Poke Salad or yellow root.

 

[GEM]

I'm pretty sure it's Polk - but I could be wrong about that. My grandparents ate it.

 

[jipsy]

No it's poke, and yes my mom used to make it with scrambled eggs. They say now that it's very poisonous when it is mature, but she used to pick it when it was very young and tender. Kind of like fiddleheads (ferns).

I have a recipe for dandelion wine. The greens can be very bitter if not cooked properly when eating.

Yellow root was used to treat colds. It's very bitter which is probably why your ancestors mixed it with liquor.

 

[PattnFmly]

Makes me think of that Poke Salad Annie song. I can't remember the words right now, I'll have to google it and find them!!! But no, never have eaten either ....

 

[chell]

No it's poke, and yes my mom used to make it with scrambled eggs. They say now that it's very poisonous when it is mature, but she used to pick it when it was very young and tender. Kind of like fiddleheads (ferns).

I have a recipe for dandelion wine. The greens can be very bitter if not cooked properly when eating.

Yellow root was used to treat colds. It's very bitter which is probably why your ancestors mixed it with liquor.

My grandmother would only pick or cut poke and dandelion certain times of the year, early spring I believe. She said the poke was poisonous after it matured so much.

I'm glad someone else has heard of yellow root. Very bitter doesn't even begin to describe that stuff. YUCK! I only took a taste of it once. My great-grandfather would have a glass every night and swore he slept like a baby because of the yellow root. I think it was the corn liquor that made him sleep so well. But we never did tell him that.

 

[chell]

Makes me think of that Poke Salad Annie song. I can't remember the words right now, I'll have to google it and find them!!! But no, never have eaten either ....

When you find it you will have to share. I have never heard it.

 

[nativetxn]

I haven't eaten dandelion greens or poke salad for many, many years. I lived with my mother's mother for many years and she made these salads. Not much different from regular lettuce salads except that they were free

Katholyn

 

[jipsy]

Poke Salad Annie

written by Tony Joe White
Originally recorded by Tony Joe White
Also recorded by Elvis Presley


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[spoken]
If some of ya'll never been down South too much...
I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this,
So that you'll understand what I'm talking about
Down there we have a plant
That grows out in the woods and the fields,
Looks somethin' like a turnip green.
Everybody calls it Poke salad. Poke salad.
Used to know a girl that lived down there and
she'd go out in the evenings and pick a mess of it...
Carry it home and cook it for supper,
'Cause that's about all they had to eat,
But they did all right.

[sung]
Down in Louisiana
Where the alligators grow so mean
There lived a girl that I swear to the world
Made the alligators look tame

Poke salad Annie, poke salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her mama was working on the chain-gang
(A mean, vicious woman)

Everyday 'fore supper time
She'd go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess o' poke salad
And carry it home in a tote sack

Poke salad Annie, 'gators got you granny
Everybody said it was a shame
'Cause her mama was aworkin' on the chain-gang
(a wretched, spiteful, straight-razor totin' woman,
Lord have mercy. Pick a mess of it)

Her daddy was lazy and no count
Claimed he had a bad back
All her brothers were fit for
Was stealin' watermelons out of my truck patch


Poke salad Annie, the gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her mama was a working' on the chain gang
(Sock a little poke salad to me, you know I need a mess of it)

 

[paigevz]

Yessir, I have eaten many a poke salad in my youth. We also ate it with scrambled eggs. We had one place we got it, and had to watch very carefully for it to appear so as to get it when tender and green. Couldn't get it after it grew up.

We did not eat dandelion greens, and I've never heard of yellow root.

But, we ate nearly anything you can grow: squash, okra, sunflower seeds, strawberries, asparagus, leeks, pumpkins, all kinds of melons, rhubarb,and the usual garden stuff.............

..........and nearly anything you can hunt: squirrel, deer, turkey, goose, etc. But we did not eat 'possums or snakes like some of our school friends.

We had a varied diet.

We also grew and sold peaches, apples, grapes, plums, string beans, Christmas trees, maize, clover and hay.

We canned tomatoes, pickles, jellies, pickled okra, and most all the fruit.

We grew everything organically.........my dad didn't like poisons........and used our own fertilizer from the steer we penned up and raised for slaughter each year.

We also had cows/calves, horses/colts, geese, ducks, guineas, chickens, rabbits, goats, and hundreds of farm cats. We ate everything except the cats, milked the goats but not the cows, and ate duck, goose, guinea and chicken eggs.

We gathered nuts in the woods, and dug our own worms and seined our own minnows for pond fishing and trot lines in the river.

We used a wood cookstove and a fireplace for heat, for which we had to go out and cut wood all year, and chop kindling all fall. I had my own little hatchet to chop kindling with.

We went berrying, and I had my own bucket.

I am 36 years old, but I have more of my childhood experiences in common with those a generation (or even two) ahead of mine. We had lived in Texas in a middle class neighborhood, moved to Oklahoma in the Kiamichi mountains (yep, there are mountains there), and lived that first year in the housing projects before my parents bought their farm. Then I had my old-fashioned way of living. Before that, I had been a modern kid. It was an interesting change.......I was a second grader when we moved, and by 4th grade, the changeover was complete.

I am now a confirmed city dweller and don't like to spend more than 2 days in the country. Too much work, too many bugs, don't like the temperature extemes, and I really can do without all those animals needing so much attention all the time.

 

[chell]

But, we ate nearly anything you can grow: squash, okra, sunflower seeds, strawberries, asparagus, leeks, pumpkins, all kinds of melons, rhubarb,and the usual garden stuff.............

That isn't considered usual garden stuff? For us it was.

I love the country. I can't wait until I can retire and live back out where I grew up, even though the area is growing up now. The good thing is that a grocery store is now within 30 minutes. But I don't like so many people being out there now.

My grandmother would eat turtle, opossum, rabbit, squirrel, etc. But she never made me eat it and I don't think she even offered it to me. She knew I was too picky to eat that stuff. Guess that is why she always made me something special out of my own little pot. Oh how I miss my grandmother.

Me & my grandmother would go out and dig up worms then the next day we would go fishing with them. Those were such great times.

 

[chell]

Thanks jipsy!