Greetings and Salutations to all you intrepid gardeners out there, welcome back to another installment of the Forage Foods series on Lost In The Farmer’s Market. As you might already know the current Geo-Political situation coupled with inflation and supply shortages has prompted a series on foods you can forage for just in case things go sideways. Even if they don’t, forage foods may have added nutritional benefits and may also have medicinal benefits that can help you out.
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| This picture gives you an idea of what the basic morphology of a Pokeweed looks like. |
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| At this stage of growth the plant is not edible. It's defensive compounds cannot be removed through boiling in several changes of water and it is now dangerous. |
Common Name: Pokeweed
Other Common Names: American Pokeweed, Poke Sallet, Dragonberries, Inkberry, Pokeberry, Poke root, Virginia Poke, Pigeonberry, Redweed, Red Ink Plant, Polk Salad.
Botanical Family: Phytolaccaceae (The Pokeweed Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Phytolacca americana
Season to Harvest: Late spring.
Habitat: Pokeweed is an odd one, it is commonly found on the margins of wooded areas, areas with disturbed soil, waste grounds on roadsides and fence rows. However the specimens photographed were found in none of those areas. You see Pokeweed like other plants with a taproot can often grow in cracks in cement or asphalt, and in the two examples photographed which are just feet from each other they emerged in a gap between a building and a concrete driveway. These two have been appearing there for years clearly and not even herbicide seems to stop them.
Parts to Harvest: Pokeweed is a plant with a narrow harvesting window and you only want to harvest young shoots 6” or shorter as they first emerge in spring for consumption.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None known, however Pokeweed itself is poisonous all parts are dangerous, see recipe section for safe preparation.
Related Edible Species: There is a ‘cultivated’ version of pokeweed that has all the same features as its wild cousin, but it’s foliage is a bright Chartreuse-green. You may find this in some garden centers but I am not sure of its viability in the garden or as a food source.
Description: Pokeweed is a potentially large deciduous perennial herb that can grow to heights of almost ten feet tall. The leaves are roughly elliptical fairly bright creen and have entire margins with no lobes, serrations or other traits. Branching at the ends of the stems will typically be in threes and white non-descript flowers are born in potentially long clusters that can be about 5 inches long. The berries that come after the flowers are typically a deep purplish red and a flower talk can bear dozens of berries which are very attractive to birds that are not affected by the poisonous nature of these plants. These berries are a hazard to livestock and should be kept away from children who may mistake them for safe food. Pokeweed also can form a massive taproot with age and even small plants can have a taproot that goes down almost a foot. The stems of pokeweed can be bright green or bright red sometimes both are present on the same plant.
How to Harvest: Pokeweed shoots should be harvested in spring before they are 6” long and their leaves have unfurled. The process is simple enough, you can locate where a pokeweed plant is by looking for last year’s dead stalks and then cutting those away to find the plant’s crown. New shoots will merge from the top of the taproot and to keep them pale you can cover over the crown with pine straw and check on the emergence of shoots in early spring in weekly intervals. Shoots can be cut off the crown with a knife or a pruner in the same way you would harvest Broccoli, Cauliflower or Asparagus.
Recipe:
Remember folks, this plant is poisonous, LITFM is not responsible for medical mishaps if you opt to make poke salad. It’s risky business but, carefully done it could spell the difference between starvation and survival.
How to make Poke Salad
Harvest as many Pokeweed shoots as you can in spring that are no longer than 6” long. You want shoots where the leaves have not really unfurled and the foliage is pale green. Firstly you clean your shoots as best you can and then boil them for ten minutes in two changes of water. Ideally you want to do this at the four minute and seven minute mark. Afterwards drain off the (second change) then proceed with the third change of water and season the shoots to taste and finish cooking. I recommend serving the shoots like asparagus and topping it with butter, cheese, a white sauce, cream pasta sauce or a robust brown gravy. You can serve the cooked shoots over rice or with actual pasta. An alternative recipe is to cook the shoots in the noted changes of water and then layer the sliced shoots in alternating layers of shoots, white sauce and boiled eggs and then top with bread crumbs to make a casserole. This mix should be cooked for 30 minutes at about 175 degrees. As a final note after the boiling process shoots can then be pickled. Some sources say you need to peel the shoots first but that is really up to your preference.
How to make Dye from the berries
Forage is not just about food, some plants can aid you in ensuring you have clothing to protect you from the environment and Pokeweed berries despite not being edible can produce a nice dye if prepared correctly. Basically the first step is to collect the ripe berries, you need about a three-gallon bucket full and in this case you leave them on their stems. Next, you place all of that Pokeweed stuff in a large stockpot that is not used for food preparation and you cover your berries with water. Then you add a cup and a half of vinegar. Bring that mix nearly to a boil but do NOT boil it. Lower the heat to keep the mix at a simmer and use tool like a potato masher (again use one not intended for food prep) to mash the berries and stems to release more of the red color. Simmer the mix for about two or three hours and turn off the heat and let it sit for about twelve hours.
The next step is to strain the ‘chunks’ out of the dye, make sure to wear gloves for this part. I recommend using ‘retired’ nylon brewing bag for this as it is porous enough to let the fluids through but not the pokeweed bits. Cheese cloth and a few other non-shedding fabrics can be used in this way. This bag of ‘stuff’ is viable; the seeds probably will germinate and so if you are planning to plant more Pokeweed discard the stuff in the bag where you want that to happen, but NOT in your compost pile. The resulting fluid is your color base for the dye; typically you would prepare what is called a Mordant so that your intended yarn or fabric to be dyed can receive the color and so that the color will not wash out/fade immediately. Typically mordant can be salt, vinegar, alum or some kind of rust, mordant is literally an inorganic oxide that exists to fix a dye’s color in a fabric. For brevity’s sake I cannot go into the dyeing process for fabric because that is practically a blog post of its own however there are tons of sites you can look at to get the gist of how to finish the job.
Special Note: The name Pokeweed and its scientific name are interesting. It’s easy enough to ascertain what ‘americana’ means since it’s literally describing where this plant is found. Pokeweed’s first Latin name ‘Phytolacca’ comes from the green word ‘Phyton’ meaning plant and ‘Lacca’ meaning crimson lake. The combined word is a direct reference to the reddish berries. Pokeweed itself as a common name is derived from a few Native American sources; the non-specific ones are ‘Puccoon, Pocan and Poughkone’ which are said to be Algonquin names for the plant.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Special Stuff:
Okinawa Spinach - $5.00
Abutilon ‘Orange Hot Lava’ - $4.00
Garden Stuff: ($3.00)
Tomato – Glacier
Tomato – Sungold
Tomato – Purple Cherokee
Tomato – Black Krim
Tomato – Mountain Pride
Peppers – Ghost
Peppers – Anaheim
Peppers – Cayenne
Elephant Garlic
Softneck Garlic
Lettuce – Cherokee Red
Lettuce – Five Star Lettuce Mix
Beets – Bull’s Blood
Mustard – Red Giant
Kale – Dinosaur
Kale – Redbor
Kale – Ragged Jack
Kale – Tronchuda
Coming Soon:
More Peppers
More Tomatoes
Herbs!
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:
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Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on May 5th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
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