Picking Poke Salad (Poke Weed)Unity Consciousness #304

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Coming up as a youth, I remember picking poke salad without understanding much about it. One thing I did know was poke salad was the second-most disgusting thing on the planet next to cow's milk.

That was then. Nowadays I pick poke salad with better understanding. Poke salad was what we called it then and still do. That hasn't changed.

Recently, on one occasion, I picked only the young plants and the tips and and suckers on the older plants. I boiled everything twice but the poke salad didn't smell stinky and disgusting like I remembered. I then stir-fried the poke salad in fry-made grease with creasy greens, chives, Cajun seasoning. Once on the plate, I sprinkled with more chives and sourweed. This sourweed is the small light green clover looking plant that some call sorrel and some call oxalis. The taste was unique and delicious to rival any delicacy. Deer love poke salad fresh off the plant.

On another occasion I only picked the large leaves of poke salad and prepared them as before. Once they started boiling, that familiar funky smell from childhood memory filled the room. Instead of being disgusted, I was delighted. The smell confirmed that the poke salad I picked as a child was the large leaves and not the small plants many websites say are the only ones safe to eat.

Poke salad, no matter the age of the plant, is definitely safe to eat when boiled twice and the water changed each time. Some say it doesn't have to be boiled at all or that much. That I haven't tried. The older leaves are tougher and are also made tender by boiling.

Picking poke salad doesn't require being picky. The older plants are okay and so are those with red or maroon stems. Cutting the leafy portion away from the center vein of the leaf is not necessary. The stalks of young plants can be boiled and eaten with the leaves. I have boiled and eaten the soft insides only of the stalks of older plants.

One thing is certain, each person's level of health and genetic makeup varies. Know yourself. Re-acclimate self to original foods. In stages, build back into your lifestyle ways of consuming these medicines and methods of preparation.