Pokeweed: Only eat this if...
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Can you eat pokeweed? Yes & No. That's the only way to say it simply. I explore this complex plant that is both deadly and an edible traditional medicine. How can both be true? What is the analogy. Is it like aspirin, like asbestos, alcohol, or tobacco.
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Several years ago my daughter ate a bunch of poke berries when she was outside playing - dad was busy gardening and didn't realize it until it was too late. She was about 3-4 years old at the time. We immediately called the poison control center. They said the berries shouldn't be eaten because the seeds in them could cause diarrhea which could lead to dehydration. They advised me to give her ipecac syrup and that she would be fine. She threw up a bunch of purple and was fine shortly after.
So, it can be used as a laxative to clean you out?
I wonder if you can use it for like you can do with China berry tree berries.
@@memyself3579 you just have to eat them in moderation. One stalk of those a day is more than enough. Starting off you should eat 8 a day. I ate the whole stalk each day and just cleaned out my stomach and wasn’t too bad felt so much better after
😬
Thank God!!
That if she chewed the seeds
Some FYI : The berries make a great wood stain, if you boil it with water, and apple cider vinegar. It makes a awesome wood stain
Thank you! That sounds interesting & I will try it!
I bet it looks similar to heart ❤ wood from Brazil :)
Beautiful indeed!
Old 1800 stains,, berries
Wow, I'd try that. Funny I hate this plant / weed , I have tons of it on my property and I have pulled and cut a ton of it out in the last couple of months. I think I'll leave well enough alone and not eat it.
Even though I moral hunt , I know what I'm doing in that area. So.....that being said
@@deedeeedwinburks8614 True. it does make a awesome die.
@@deedeeedwinburks8614 I never tried that. How does it fix into the cloth? Will it leach color when it is washed? I ate tons of Poke Salet.
"Millhouse, what do the berries taste like?"
"They taste like 'burning'! Ohhh!" (rolling on the ground in agony)
I ated the purple berries
It was Ralph Wiggim that said that.
@@BabiesKillYou Oh shit! You're right!
(Now, we both know it.) Good catch.
😂
You unlocked a hidden memory
When I was a kid I used to go with my grandmother into the woods to look for pokeweed. We went very early in the spring and grandma always told us don't eat it after a certain time in March. She cautioned us to leave the plant alone because it was so poisonous. However, very early in March when it was just beginning to come up she would harvest it and eat poke & dandelion salad. She wouldn't let my sister, cousin, or me eat it because she was afraid it would make us sick. I've never eaten it, but, I enjoyed the walks in the woods with Grandma and my sister.
Why was your grandma eating flowers and berries
@@mtmjayo8019 My grandparents were the last of the pioneers. They homesteaded, cleared the land and basically, they were dirt farmers. They lived off the land and ate what was available. Grandma loved Poke salad. She also ate dandelion salad.
@@cwfan2 that’s actually pretty cool
She was a witch 100%
@@saltedraisins7098 lmao
I love how he expresses concern about getting juices on his hands and then he proceeds to just squish them all over his hands throughout the video
My grandma used to boil pokeweed and we'd eat it all the time, especially with eggs. I've eaten it since I was young.
we did also.😊
My Dad ate it regularly during the Great Depression. He told me not to use the stems, leaves only and it must be boiled and drained 3 times before ingesting.
@@living2ndchildhood347 yeah that's how my grandma did it.
We got it in cans
Me too we eat it as a greens with eggs
All plants are edible, just some you only get to eat once...
😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂😂
That plant wasnt willow! Aspirin comes from the WILLOW TREE
From the cambium layer beneath the bark.
Aspirin comes from the aspen tree.
@@samsteele4650 No its the Willow Tree. If you go to a healthfood store you can buy Willow Extract from Willow Trees
Willow trees when juvenile they look bush like so for all you know it could of been. Also he said this is willow which aspirin comes from so your just resaying what he said.
@@nevaeha4048 NO, what he told you was willow and gave aspirin is NOT a immature willow tree. He should edit this video and apologize for missleading ppl
Being born and raised in SC, I’ve heard my grandma talk about making poke salad back in the old days, pre and post Great Depression. Given what’s going on these days, looks like I’m gonna be digging through her old recipe books that she left to me to find some good old Southern recipes that might come in handy. Thank you Ma-Ma! I’ll always be grateful for your wisdom!!
Definately has carcinogenic properties. This video contains zero information that pharmacutical companies want too keep from you. How could a "weed" that is so common be controlled? . Why did native Americans use this plant for so many things ? Just a video of shameful ignorance.
Publish it please. Share the knowledge of the past .😊
Not salad. Sallet. Big difference.
Polk. With an L. Not Poke.
I eat it every spring. Use the young tender shoots. Wash them. Then bring them to a boil & pour off the water. Repeat.
When you bring it to a boil the third time. It's ready to eat. Can also combine it with other greens like turnip greens to enhance their flavor.
For the future (!), you might also check out other wild foods such as lamb's quarters (white goosefoot) which is highly nutritious & is actually cultivated as a staple in Nepal & Northern India. It self-propagates & needs no care where I live. Just grows for the taking.
My great grandmother ate one of these a day for arthritis. She would collect and dry them for year round use. The old folks ate the new leaves when the plants first came up in the spring. It never hurt them, but you have to use everything in the correct way. A coworker told me her grandmother made wine with the berries and would take a teaspoon for arthritis. Many things can either cure you, or kill you. It is up to the individual to do the right thing with any medicine.
Fix it every spring
Yes, the old Chinese lady down the street would plant a whole front yard with them every year, and she would eat 1 or 2 berries a day, for arthritis. Just don’t chew, only swallow whole, so you don’t bite the seeds which are poison and cause diarrhea.
I ate these all the time when I was little. Only small amounts.
But I always intentionally got it all over my hands and pretended it was blood!
I never once got sick from any of it, and I definitely have core memories of playing with this plant!
we painted ourselves with it when we were Wild Things.
Painted the horses and the cat's and dog's ourselves and each other .
Phytolacca(pokeweed) is medicinal and helps with weight loss, and Arthritis. I add 20 drops to a glass of water twice a day
@@karenthompson9492
LOL! How cute! I would love to see pictures of that! I can just imagine painting my face and arms and hands with the ink of those berries on a Saturday afternoon and being unable to get rid of the stains before Sunday morning church! My mother would’ve had a fit! She would’ve been just too mad!😂
Berries are fine. i know an older gentleman who swears a handful a day cures his arthritis when in season. They harvest and freeze them. He says just do not eat the seeds. If they were poisonous he would have been dead long long ago. I've tried a few but they are nasty and I don't have arthritis so I didn't notice anything.
I have eaten poke leaves and stalks most of my 65 years . You always harvest the young tender leaves at the top of the stalk , usually not more than three per stalk . This is done in the spring of the year when the poke is usually not more than knee high and the stalk is green and tender . The berries can be used as a muscle relaxer when ripe later in the summer , but only 1 to 3 per day for adults .
When I was a kid we had a really good dog that got distemper. The vet told my dad to bring her in and he'd put her to sleep. Well luckily dad couldn't get her to get in the truck, so dad called an uncle of his that knew dogs. His uncle said, NO. Just go down by the barn and dig up a mature POKE plant. Cut the root off it, take root in and wash it and slice and fry it like potatoes and feed it to her. It stunk to he'll but ginger ate it right down and in a few days you couldn't tell she had been sick and she was with us anther 12 or 14 years.
Wow nice info thank you
Woa .. that is wonderfull.
Youre serious?
Thanks (:
I love when old time stuff like this works
This kind of information should be in books , saved from the next generations
Farmers were some of the smartest people, we really need to get back to some basics
Distemper and lock jaw, both an animal can survive if they can get nutrition and keep hydrated. Sometimes might get a odd quirk, like a wobbly head. Vets are sometimes too quick to give up on people's pets.
@Josephus S Just be careful. Rabies has been misdiagnosed as distemper.
I ate poke salad all the time growing up. My grandmother made it for us kids quite often because it grew everywhere in her yard. Her tip was to boil the leaves 3 times instead of 2 times
3 times huh... lol why not 7
Did grandma do it for kicks or was it out of poverty ?
She meant well!!🙂
yup I eat it, love it. got to know how to cook it. twice boiled and then cook a 3rd time, boiled or fried or baked.. but that poison is water soluble.
@@watkinsjames82that's a ignorant response..
I'm an arborist by trade... I also live in the south. Poke salad is only consumed during a certain time of year. When the leaves are young and fleshy. Then they're soaked and drained in salt and fresh water overnight before consumption... Strips away the toxins from the leaves, the small amount of toxins left are good for any parisites in your lower digestive tract... I'm not just an arborist, I'm a Cherokee Indian as well. Your video on mistletoe made me laugh when you said you would intentionally propogate it on your trees... Mistletoe is a death sentence for a tree. You may be a biologist but I just see you as someone saying exactly what you read from a book. No real world experience, same goes for the people who taught you what you know. Technically, yes you're right. But also so wrong, field experience is key to understanding any field, biology, horticulture ect. A lot of things that have been taught on paper have been wrong in reality. I'm going to keep watching your channel.
hi dude any good websites on identifying plants it took me a few hours to learn about this huge 6 ft tree that the birds love growing in my garden..its out doing my whole garden.thank....
@@ashyslashy5818 if you have a 6 foot diameter tree your yard and you don't know what it is... Well you're obviously mentally handicapped. God bless you.
@@ashyslashy5818 there are so many to be honest. My tip would be find a site that is based around the trees in the zone you live in. Tree's and plants very drastically from one zone to another. So if you live in the Midwest or down south or up north all the trees will be different varieties. I'm from Florida and when I moved to Georgia, I had to almost completely relearn all the new tree types. That's why Florida has it's own ISA chapter, there's so much biodiversity in that state just by itself.
@@markvann9347 YA i live in southern Louisiana.but thank you.
I've eat it all my life. Berries are good for spring tonic. Eat one the first day, two the next, three the next, then two the next then one. Berries are also used to color Port wine. It's really not that deadly. Heat breaks down tbe oxalate toxins in the leaves. Just has to be par boiled. Drain the first water then boil again. I'd rather have it than turnips or spinach.
Thanks for your experience and advices to all.
“Not that deadly” is not something I want to hear when ingesting something.
Didn't know they color port wine with it. That's pretty cool. We used it as war paint when we played cowboys and indians haha.
It has a crunchy texture no matter how many times you parboil it. There is a nutty taste that makes it more interesting than spinach and way tastier than turnip or mustard. Eggs and/or bacon make it more nourishing. If you're afraid to try it the first time, have someone who can cook it teach you. Good stuff.
@@reginaweiner3817 I've eat it all my life. Par boil one time. Then boil for about 20 minutes. Serve over cornbread with some hot pepper sauce.
I never knew it was edible. I just remember as a kid squishing it in my hands because the color was so pretty. We never washed our hands. We were to busy playing.
I’ve eaten this many times. We picked the leaves before the berries came on. Boiled once then fried with bacon and scrambled eggs. I’m still alive.
It can cause birth defects.
Birth defects ? So ? I eat poke sallet every spring. Have for my entire life. At 71 years here my procreation days are long over.
I think this is very important. Pick the leaves from young plants BEFORE THE BERRIES COME ON. cook by boiling twice with fresh water each boil then fry as you like in bacon fat or maybe in butter. But YOUNG PLANTS BEFORE BERRIES APPEAR.
@@abelincolnparth Really. My mother gave birth to twelve kids, and her cousin gave birth to twenty two. I’m #10, and none of us had birth defects. They’re both deceased now and raised us up on poke sallet. I have to wonder if they ate it while pregnant. They probably did.
Ok, now I'm hungry! Your recipe sounds delicious.
You crack me up!! So I eat polk as often as it's available to me, which is pretty often. Lol. Not only do I eat the leaves, I cut up the tender ends of the stalk and fry it like okra, and it's comes out looking and tasting just like okra! (Something my kids look forward to when I walk in with an arm full of weeds.) And the berries, I always make sure to pick enough berries to last through the rest of the year! I freeze them and eat one a day, just swallow it whole. It's been a lifelong food to me and so yes, I started my kids young on it too. 🤗
Do the berries have medicinal properties? Do you eat them for health reasons?
@@johnstone7763 yes, you should look into the benefits of pork berries. You just definitely don't want to overdo it. Like I said I only eat one a day.
My mother had me pick the sprouts (less than 8" tall) and she'd cook the leaves just like spinach, with salt and butter. I found out that the older plants don't taste as good, but the young leaves are very spinach-like.
You pick it early in the Spring , and the tender younger leaves. Even the upper stems of younger plants, they taste very much like asparagus. Don’t pick old, giant leaves, or any when you start seeing purple on the stems. You don’t even need to parboil young tender leaves. They ARE very acidic, and will make your teeth feel like they’ve been sandpapered. Very good, and very nutritious. 👍😊
Dave this is one way I make poke. ruclips.net/video/I0dPg0yKhg8/видео.html
This l don't get because the stems come up and are colored immediately.
@@snowmiaow Red is one thing, but when it turns purple, you probably want to parboil it.
@@anoldmannameddave7455 Ours just seem to turn red, in northern Ohio
One of my favorite foods.i will tell you how to cook.
First,you want to wash it in the sink,fill a sink halfway full.youll need a good "mess" cause the leaves will shrivel as you will boil it 3 times,boil it at least 20 minutes each time.wash it twice in sink.mama was taught boil it twice, I go ahead and boil it 3 times.after you boiled.it good,lay each leaf or small wad on towel or paper towel.
Now this part what makes the taste.scramble eggs in bacon grease.i do about the same amount eggs as I have the poke leaves.
When eggs look halfway cooked add the leaves.salting what makes it.salt to taste,little black pepper.serve with.gpod cornbread and a big ol green.onion,I like blackeyes also.i was raised on eating it about 3 times a year,I will eat it every year as long as I possibly can.right.now is perfect for gathering,a couple weeks it will be too big and taste too strong.happy poke salat eating
Interesting. I got into it years ago while working in my yard in Florida and my entire arm turned black and numb! Now it is growing wild over my garden fence from my neighbors yard dropping berries on my tomatoes. I think some midnight gloved trimming is in order! Have all you want it almost killed me!
I've used the berries as a dye; the most successful try was mixed with staghorn sumac powder and sealed with deer hide glue. This was on a cattle jawbone club that I put on consignment in a Native craft shop. It took a couple of years to sell, but the design was still as bright as ever.
What's staghorn sumac powder? Made from powdered bone?
@@hyperchefmommy3090staghorn sumac is a plant. Powder is made from its berries.
I’m born and raised in the south in Kentucky and we have eaten Polk for most all of my life my mom would cook the smaller leafs just like you were cooking collard greens and then she would take the small and tender stalks and soak them in salt water and then rinse them and rolled them in cornmeal and fry them and they were awesome . But we were always taught to not eat certain parts of them in which I can’t remember which part but anyway we were told that it was poisonous . We played with the berries from it for ink and other stuff we had a blast making mud pies and just things like that . Thank you for sharing this it takes me back to my childhood .
I've eaten quite a bit of polk salad. My mother used to boil it, drain the water off and boil it again. Then I think she drained it, mixed it with eggs, and cooked it in a skillet. You can also peel the stalks, cut them up like okra, bread the pieces, and fry it. It's just like okra but a lot of work. I've done that, too.
I will never unsub from you ..this information is so crucial
:) Awesome.
I agree some day we might need to use these skills... especially the cordage/rope one.
@@brendan60 yes Worling with fiber is neat
👍👍👍
Wow, I grew up eating Polk salad greens and my mom would chop up the stalk and fry it up with a mess of okra to make it go farther. We couldn't tell the difference.
I am glad you know the real name Polk not poke
It can cause birth defects by even just touching it.
Poke Sallet, not salad.
If you folks had laid off the poke weed and fat back etc The Confederacy might have won. I don't know.
@@fredeaston3988 The south did win. Look at us now. Best economies in the country. Comes from the work ethic and God fearing folks that love America. Yeah, lot of us aren't to bright and don't know how to eat right but the majority of us are fighting for whats right.
My mom (RIP) was from Mississippi and she ALWAYS cooked Polk Salad. The berries are not poison. My mom made Polk Salad wine out of the rip berries. She said you aren't supposed to eat Polk Salad greens when the stalk turns red.
The berries have seeds in them which are poisonous
@@thunderboi5521 people have been eating the berries for arthritis for ages.
@@thomasgilbreath1250 YES BECAUSE THEY ARE POISONOUS
THATS WHY IT WORKS AS A MEDICINE. IF IT WASNT POISONOUS IT WOULDNT WORK.
THE BERRIES ARE 100% POISONOUS
ITS NOT A QUESTION UP FOR DEBATE. THEY ARE POISON.
@@UNABRIDGED_SCIENCE caps lock caps lock caps lock caps lock caps lock. Have a great Thanksgiving! 😂
Funny! I eat it fairly often. It grows in my yard. A neighbor lady taught me how to prepare it. Also, I was never told the rule about not eating it after a certain time of year so I have always eaten it all summer long. It doesn't taste great boiled alone. The recipe involves parboiling; then draining and boiling again. You boil it for quite a while (needs to be the consistency of turnip greens), then you drain well. Then you scramble a couple using bacon grease in your skillet and put the drained poke weed in. Salt, pepper and that's it. All good!
Eggs.
Fried poke in the spring is one of my favorite things to eat. We've always used the young plants when they first pop up.
My uncle freezes the berries and takes one a day like a pill. I've been told you can take the stalk of older plants slice it up, batter and fry like fish. Haven't tried this but was told it's similar to fried morels.
What's the point of taking the berries like a pill?
yes my MAMA still waits on poke in the spring, boils it and frys, MAMA is 81 yrs
@@aquavirgio arthritis remedy
I was taught to not use the leaves from plants that the stem started turning red. boil the leaves, drain rinse, then boil again. that's what my grandma did.
That’s cool the red must be a sign that the poise s stronger.
@@nevaeha4048 you want to eat this poke plant when it's less than a foot tall after it's prepared correctly
@@tomrobards7753 so then I’m assuming the redder the color the older and taller the plant. Most poisonous plants are best when eaten small/young.
I believe this is true. It's not a 100% rule. Dandelions are ok. Most red stemmed green leafed plants have a lot of oxalate too, which is poisonous.
I can remember picking a ton of it for my Grandmother. I'd hate to steer anyone wrong, but it seems like I remember her telling me to only pick leaves from plants with no red showing on the stem / no berries also. I do remember her boiling it and draining it possibly twice.
This berry makes a wonderful dye for material and yarn. I did it and it makes a mauve color. Thank you very much we called it turkey berries. Used it foe ant bites.
We called them snake berries
Long ago, when landscaping was a part of my job, I was trimming brush on a bank and came across some Pokeweed. The branch I trimmed was rather thick (and juicy). Once I hacked through it it fell on my wrist. At first, there was just a 3-4" stain. But as days passed, it became inflamed, then an actual wound, and eventually scabbed. I followed treatment orders, but it took some time to heal, and left a scar for a year or more. I'll pass on eating it!
😬
Sounds like poison sumac
My grandfather taught me about this plant. He loved finding these growing in his garden. He would pick the plant when it was about 2 or 3 foot tall and boil it. He said you had to boil it to kill the poison in it. He said he learned this from his Grandmother which was of Native American blood. We never let them get old enough for berries though.
At my grandparents I used to gather the berries, crush them until I had lots of juice. I would look for just the right chicken feather and use it like a quill and ink well. There were so many fond memories created by simply enjoying nature.
Growing up mostly in Texas, whenever we'd visit my grandparents, we'd have poke salat. I even got to go with my grandfather, bag in hand and picked it. I just remember that it tasted good and they had to boil it and pour off the liquid a few times (if memory is correct) and it was cooked like any other types of greens. After growing up, I never had the chance to eat it again. It grew around what my GF called the "tanks" or ponds. Nice memories.
I'm from Alabama, and your article could've been written by me, down to "poke salat!" I love it! Never eat it from the first boiling like you said. Right on!
I just rewatched “Into the Wild” and would love if you could continue this series about edible and non edible plants!! (And maybe a whole episode on mushrooms?!)pls
Perfect idea Theresa! I'll definitely be doing more of this.
Is that about the young man who starved to death in Alaska because he didn't know about the footbridge?
@@jturtle5318 I believe so. If I remember right, he didn't realize that the rising temps caused an influx of raging waters around his makeshift campsite (a delapidated VW Minibus) until it was too late. Starving and scavenging for food, he came across mushrooms which he misidentified as being edible. Which ultimately led to his untimely demise. :(
@@terrapinflyer273 in the book, his death was attributed to eating "potato seeds", which prevent the uptake of glucose from the digestive tract.
If he had followed the stream less than a mile from the ford, he would have found the bridge, gone back out and lived.
Whoa, that movie was good and very sad! When your so poisoned a grizzly won't eat ya ..... Wow
I still pick the stalk when it's about 10 inches tall and chop it like orka roll it in flour and corn meal and fry it golden brown, it's really good
My dad would starved had his grandmother not cooked it for him an his siblings. Mom even cooked it for him when I was young cpl.times. I passed
me too! delicious!
@@denverallen3977 It is good are it all my life my mom used to go and pick greens out of the yard and different stuff and they were great
I'm in love with you thank you for that
Where / what state(s) does this grow? I've never seen / heard of it before... I live in the PAC NW ...
The reason why Southerners eat Poke is from after the war of northern aggression. The common peoples was starved and penniless for a long time after the war. The Great Depression just added to the hardships of common Southerners. That’s why our Grandparents have passed it down to our Sorry generation. I liked the video Sir.
I have elderberries growing along the fence out back. The fruit looks like a miniature bunch of purple grapes. Yet for some reason lots of people think it is pokeweed from the photos I take. The only similarity I see is that both are purple berries.
When I was a kid,(1960s) , my mother made pokesalad to eat many times. It was like collard greens. You have to pour the water out from first boil.
Yep I agree it's the leaves.. you want them early and young.. and you absolutely boil it at least twice.. she also cooked dandelion greens. Again early spring leaves...
A young girl walked past granny’s house and granny responding to her red lipstick said, “her lips look like a bird’s ass in poke berry time.”
God bless grannies!!
Well.., you silvery tongued devil..!
😂😂😂😂
Now that's funny
That was the funniest thing iv read today
We let the local birds do a lot of our sowing. About 10 years ago, we got our first pokeweed. It was beautiful. It looked like it would make a good food plant. So, I did some research and found lots about it's toxicity. What I found consistently was that only early leaves were safe. Never sure of what constituted an "early leaf" that would be large enough to eat, I've never tried eating any of it. But we now have several that have been seeded throughout our property and they are gorgeous.
The researcher said young sprouts are different than new leaves on adult plants (which are way more toxic).
An "early leaf" comes from young plants whose berries either haven't developed at all, or haven't turned green yet (they will be tiny and white). There can be a small amount of purple on the stalk but shouldn't be very much. If the stalk is purple, or the berries are green/purple, then no leaf on the plant is edible and you should look for a younger plant.
Be careful if you don't want them to take over your whole property! They're much harder to get rid of once the stalks turn woody. They will spread like crazy and quickly take over a pasture! I fight em every year in my horse pastures lol
Eat it during the first of fall or spring boil it twice
@@krystaldaniels7940 Yes, thank you for saying it. Definitely can be a nuisance plant.
I am originally from NY but I grew up in NC and this covered a section of our backyard for about two months each summer. I was always told it was poisonous and was shocked to learn as an adult that people ate pokeweed. I would imagine people ate it long ago because it was so abundant and no effort was needed to grow it.
Used to call these “stain berries”. We’d pelt each other with them and stain each other’s shirts. Kinda like paintball with berry ammo.
Mom hated them.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sounds fun.
I used to call these stain berries too, though we would mash them up, and mix them with some other plants to make fake blood
When I was a kid we would use these to dye sand to make mudd pies.
We would throw them at each other and used them we played war to simulate blood. Fun times! That stuff would stain worse than red mud. 😂
@@grantd1011 Ya this stuff made a mess hahahaha
Oh,what a cool idea.
We used to mash them and find a feather to write.
My cousins dared me to eat them, and I ate a couple handfuls of the berry. I just threw it up later. I was around 7 or 8.
they used you as an experiment....be the experimenter, not the experiment....lol...
But did you die? Ha ha.
🤣 sounds like my family. "here cuz eat this"
@@williambell3893 yep...someone told me rabbit droppings were 'super pills!'
@@vancegodin4149 🤣 looks like we're all family in these comments!! my cousin convinced me once that if I touched the electric fence with aluminum baseball bat it would make me 10x stronger
Mockingbirds love the berries. You’ll be blessed with purple bird poop on your porch, car, etc.
They also get crazy, I think their drunk
Where are the mockinhbirds? I haven't seen one this year.
Elderberries and blackberries too, purple poo for days
@@nancyfahey7518 song birds are missing in Pa. Used to hear them early morning and evening. I heard one late afternoon fir a few minutes.. now mostly when you sit outside its quiet. Honey bees still around some but hide from the UV. Our earths magnetic shield is at an all time low right now and it's easier to get sun burnt. Even plants are showing stress or early browning if leaves.
@@colsoncustoms8994 i got bombed by a bird in our tree as I was watering the garden. Hit my hat and rolled onto my shirt..rinsed it immediately.
Been eating it since I was a child! Still love it @ 62 years old
When I was little, my mother used to tell me those were Dog-Pills and I asked her why they were called Dog-Pills and she said if you eat them you'll get sick as a dog.
I have an abundance of this plant in my yard and I'm very excited about this video. I was thinking about using it as a dye for my wool I don't know if it'll work but I'm interested to try it out. 😁
It makes a pretty dye
Yes, I hear the leaves when harvested as young leaves are highly nutritious and anti-cancer. I grow lots of poke on my property so I am excited to make lots of stir fries with it next spring!
I love making salads with poke leaves. They're delicious when young & tender like in the spring. But, later when it grows tall.... it gets tough. What I do ... wash it , have a bowl of water with ice in it ready, then boil it for10 or 20 seconds with a teaspoon of arm and hammer baking soda... drain it... then quickly put the poke leaves in the bowl of ice water and chill for a few minutes.... drain again. Chop it up & add a few strips of diced bacon. Cook till bacon is crispy then add 4 to 6 slices of mozzarella cheese... let it melt and enjoy!! 😁👌
You can make a pie with the leaves also. Try this.... wash the leaves..... boil for 30 seconds just enough to make them soft... lay them flat... dice onions and mix with sausage or diced chicken add some caraway seeds, oregano, and some Cajun spice,... put the ingredients on the tender leaves... roll it all up.... dip in dough... and using bacon grease.... deep fry till golden brown, and enjoy! I hope you like these suggestions, it's just a couple of things I make, there's a lot more recipes I use. Edwin Burks. Thank you for your time.
@@deedeeedwinburks8614 I love animals and therefore don't eat them, but I am glad that you are eating Poke!
@@tarachambers7704 I don't or kill animals😁. I'm just giving you a suggestion 😊. I don't eat meat... I eat lots of berries, nuts, and vegetables, fruits. God wants us to take care of the animals not mistreat them. Fruits, nuts, and berries are more healthier than meats. Thank you kindly for your reply. Hope you have a great night sleep!!😁
That's why this man is telling you its poison. It has many benefits.
Well, every body's different. I mean.... I have a foster brother who can eat poison ivy & it doesn't bother him, if I just get near it I break out in blisters! But Jewell weed will kill that. What I'm saying is.... What hurts one... might not bother another. 😀. In the spring, I eat pine tree shoots and roots for vitamin C, but some people are allergic to them especially if you take certain medicines. We're all different.
My foster brother died last week from the covid 19 virus. 😐
I prepare and eat polk salid and grew up eating it. Must pick leaves when young before the stems turn red
Soak in salt water then boil twice, each time changing the water to remove any toxins
I got a chunk of the stem fly into my eye while chopping a plant down. Had a red spot on my eye and it stung for 6 weeks. It has a ridiculously deep and robust taproot, and even taken from two feet down, it will come right back the next near.
I ate *small* amounts (one or two) of the berries when I lived in its range, as much to shock those who believed them to be super-deadly, eat-one-and-you-die affairs as anything. They didn’t taste great, they didn’t taste awful. Never got even the least bit ill.
They taste mildly sweet
I use a homeopathic preparation of phytolacca or poke weed for sore throat and swolken glands.
We mashed it up to make the ink for Dungeons and Dragons maps. It worked surprisingly well.
A similar situation is with Rhubarb. Stalks make delicious pies. Leaves are poisonous. Granny made great pies!!
We harvest this in spring when the new shoots “poke” out of the ground. We also make ink from the berries. I’ve covered myself from head to foot in the berry juice….
We keep them around the house.
I was thinking the same thing, as kids we painted ourselves head to toe as well lol 🤷♂️
When I was a kid we use to use it as “war paint” never had any bad reactions (thankfully) I do remember after using you would become a mosquito magnet. (That could be a case of correlation rather than causation though)
Thanks man.... I found this plant the first time in my life on my farm.... Have no idea what it was and where it came from. I live in South Africa.
When I was a kid we'd cover ourselves in poke berry juice never had any problems. My mom always said they were poison so we never ate them. Our neighbor said he cured his arthritis with home made poke berry wine.
Me and my brother did that too when we were young ha
Same here we used to act like this was our makeup and we’d put it all over our face and we did all kinds of things with it our clothes would be stained with that stuff .
Mother cooked it scrambled eggs.
No preboil, she only used leafs
From plants about two feet tall or less, and usually just one time in early spring.
This was in Oklahoma.
Thanks for the info.
Will never try it again!
yes he died
@@fredeaston3988 yeah, so one would think.
I've eat poke salad all my life. Here in Kentucky. You can't find it in the spring for people eating it.
Is it super effective?
@@thenathanimal2909 It`s super effective at keeping you from starving to death and giving your shit some color.
Me too and I'm over 70
And I actually get the craving it bad in the spring
I'm just curious how did you prepare your poke
I live in Georgia and I've always wondered what this plant was called. I remember crushing the berries and dying my fingers all the time when I was a kid. My family told me that it was poisonous to eat so I had no idea that people ate the berries and leaves.
ruclips.net/video/I0dPg0yKhg8/видео.html
Best video on pokeweed by far thank you for finding an expert there is so much conflicting info on this plant
Not sure about the medicinal effects of this plant but I know my grandma used to cook this plant and she called it poke salad trick is to only get the younger leaves the smaller ones and most important is to boil it drain it add fresh water boil it again drain it add fresh water heat it back up and enjoy. I've ate it a thousand times cooked this way still here.
I've always heard it was poisonous but I have eaten it my whole entire life. We always ate the young leaves. It's great to put eggs into it. It is so delicious.
I've grown up eating poke sometimes 3-4 times a week. Poke salad cooked poke greens still do till this day. In my opinion it's the best starting cooked green by far. My grandfather used to make me go and pick garbage bags full
Poke salad is high in vitamins. Have eaten it my whole life. And the berries make great jelly.
These are such great videos, very entertaining and educational, I hope you can make more videos but about medicinal plants I believe it will help a lot of people out. So much to learn yet only a few extraordinary educators such as this man
I literally let them grow to maturity in my yard. The birds love it!
You're a mad man and I love it! 😂 Cool vid, I grew up in South Jersey and they're everywhere, as kids, we always steered clear of eating them, but threw the berries at each for the bloody wound effect
Poke weeds and berries are totally edible. Only the seeds are deadly and the plant when the stalks are red. Other than knowing how to prepare poke it is an amazing plant for your body. Love it
Thanks for this. Highly interesting.
I have this plant growing, flourishing actually, in my yard.
I haven't tried to stop their growth cuz I think they really look kinda cool.
I always assumed that the Declaration of Independence was written in gall ink. Nonetheless, I do know that pokeberries can be used to dye wool with a proper mordant. My husband and I gathered a bunch to give to his grandmother as her friends have wool bearing animals such as sheep and angora rabbits and they would all periodically get together to process, dye, weave and knit wool. His grandmother liked to gather rock tripe to make a lavender dye that she would then weave with her loom. Either way, we had fun gathering the berries as they turned our skin magenta. We even tossed them at each other. Now that you mentioned that you cans get skin contact poison, I feel like we should have been more worried about that.
I found a version by the back gates that are nearly 10' tall with 4" stalks, don't know how long they have been growing because we don't go back there often, but it wasn't there when I bought the property. It startled me because it really stands out compared to everything else that grows here in Oklahoma, it's looked almost alien, weird vibes and that was before I found this video. Thanks for taking the time to produce this content, I feel informed.
I too live in Ok and have about 4 or 5 of these on my property. I will start harvesting this plant.
Had young pokeweed greens when I was growing up. They taste great and are nutritional when young.🐶⛏️🇺🇸
By older brother used to pick poke berries, freeze them and swallow one or two each morning, he said it helped his prostrate problems, I never tried it myself, because I was skeptical about it.
What the hell is a prostrate problem?
@@philipdru9290 … OK, I’ll admit that I accidentally added a “r” …. it should have been prostate. Do you feel better now. .
Childhood memories for me. Grandma always had polk salad at the table. I remember going out in the woods to harvest some for dinner. Little did I know up until a few years ago that grandma had been feeding us a potentially deadly plant. It’s no wonder I had a great immune system growing up!
My father liked to eat poke. We would take a walk in May (Delaware) and pick the young shoots similar to asparagus. I forget all the rules for when it's too big. We blanched it, threw away the water, then boiled it again and ate it with a little mayonnaise.
My mother still cooks poke salad in the spring time with some eggs and onion mixed with it and it’s some damn fine eating.
When the plant is young and the leaves are small you can make a salad out if them or fry them up in a skillet like spinach or mustard greens,kale.
Nope ! Boil and dump water three times !
So it is like pufferfish sushi basically.
Read this book called "Charaka Samhita", it'll give you sooo many plants and their medicinal values
We have those plants growing up where I live here in Arkansas and my grandmother told us about it years ago and made a meal out of the leaves of the young plants and it was boiled three times to remove the poison in it, but never ate the berries from it.
My Grandmother use to pick it and cook it up every year even though they didn't have too. They used it with meals to get through the Great Depression and continued eating it throughout their lives.
Correct AND it was canned and sold during that time as well. That only stopped because it was harvested by individuals who would bring it to the cannery. Once they stopped bringing it in, it stopped being canned. It's COMPLETELY edible when cooked properly.
When I hiked the Appalachian trail I found places in eastern Pennsylvania where a bear apparently was eating lots of poke berries and defecating furiously at each location (evidence looked painful) but they were apparently convinced they were eating a useful berry. Many of us hikers saw the aftermath and wondered if the bear survived.
That ain't Pope bridge it's elderberries it looks like pokeberries
Sometimes black bears use certain berries/herbs to make themselves throw up or poop out something they ingested that very bad for them. Kinda like how humans would use ipecac. And pokeberries could have an extreme diarrhea effect on bears. But trust me…they don’t eat berries they don’t know. Black bears have eaten the berries since time immemorial, they know good vs poisonous. So there is a reason they ate the poke to poop.
Also…Delaware Water Gap trail head?
@@Lenape_Lady very close to that, maybe even the same! I did my thru in 2009, btw. Southbound, so I was there in mid September.
Lmfaooo
LOL that kids Reaction to Elivis is priceless!
I've eaten poke shoots in early spring - think boiled asparagus for texture, spinach for taste. I've used the berries to make ink, also a purple die I used to stain wood.
Dye
In early history purple dye was for very high authority and select Royalty, for it was very difficult to find....This, may of been the plant used ??
Just as red was used for Polynesian Royalty.
I'm planning to make dye for fabric or use it as paint.It hasn't ripened yet.I remember as kids, we crushed the berries and smeared it on my neighbor's house.We got in trouble for that.We had no idea it was poisonous.
Thanks, @ David Zemba. Really didn't register with me that I misspelled the word- also shows other things that must be on my mind.
I pulled up a young plant in the early spring. It had a root the shape of a carrot, but white. I thought it was a parsnip. I rinsed it off, and took a few bites. I thought it taste OK. About 1 hour later I got dizzy and started to vomit. Last time I ate that. I just read that the root is a remedy for poisin ivy. I will try it the next time I get that.
I live in Alabama and we have have eaten polk salad leaves my whole life, what I've always been told is you need to pick the leaves when they're young before the plant flowers, then you boil it lightly drain the water and eat it like spinach or saute it with onions and eggs (after boiling)
This stuff grows along our pasture fence. I try to keep it cut back. It’s a mess to keep under control.
I'm in the city and it pops up in the yard around the fences. Hate this shit, chop it with the shovel and toss it.
You have to harvest the weed when its really young. If you can quickly snap the stalk off at the ground like a carrot, its safe to eat.. after boiling a few times of course.
It's everywhere around here but we always just thought it was a senseless risk, so many other things you can forage that won't potentially kill you.
I call them ink berrie. As a kid I whittled a quill from a feather and drew some pictures with their juice. It turned brown upon oxidizing, but it looked very striking initially.
I used some around a year ago in my journal and it's still as bright as it was the day I used it! Maybe it's just not light fast?
@@mistyroller3470 I've also seen people use salt and vinegar (together) with the juice as a fixative. I'm not sure if that makes it more light fast or not though.
I’ve been eating Polk for my entire life. It’s a wonderful edible . Boil it the drain once and then boil it again drain then add to scrambled eggs.
We used to put the juice all over us when we wanted to be "indians" or you act like we were bleeding. Mom would get pissed. Maybe that's what's wrong with me now haha
😂😂😂
War paint
@@rebeccabryant8915 exactly
Yep 👍🤔😂😂🥰
@@rebeccabryant8915 yep 👍
I've got this growing in my yard in southern Alabama. My Great Uncle was still alive when I moved here and I seen that Bush growing and all the berries so not knowing what it was I asked my Great Uncle because he grew up in these woods. When I called him to come by and tell me what it was. As soon as he stepped out of his vehicle he yelled at me.. He said You haven't eaten any of them berries have you !!!! I told him No. He said that he has a baby boy in the family graveyard from eating them. I've tried to tell my mom and brothers not to handle the bearings or eat any because they will be dead by morning.. I live in southern Alabama so we have the more potent verity here.
I swallowed 1 whole berry a day for chronic pain(don't chew the seed). It now works for 3 days at a time; working on my 4th month. Your experience is likely causing someone misery for the rest of their life. Poke root tincture is the other option.
I'd be extremely careful with this. If it touches my skin I bust out in a full body rash that is excruciatingly itchy and have to get steroids to stop it
Yep. you are allergic to it then.
Nice this randomly show up in my feed.
We have a lot of these plants grow in our yard wildly and had no idea what they were.
Man , you never go grazing out in your yard or field and forest lol . I do love your show , keep making these great videos .
I used to play with those berries as a kid I used to stain everything in sight, I even tried dying fabric with it
we walked around stained from it lol
Makes a very pretty pink and purple depending on how strong the mixture is.. also used for ink in colonial times. Turn brown as ink dried. Set with vinegar as a dye