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Thursday, February 8, 2018

Poke Sallet--dewormer

Did you ever eat poke sallet? This is a great article about the history of poke sallet? I will disagree with one thing. He states that Poke Sallet festivals use the green as a totem but serve none. At the Poke Sallet Festival in Arab, AL, we did eat poke sallet. A big pot of greens has beaten eggs stirred into the hot poke greens. Several restaurants served poke sallet for the festival.

I have poke sallet in my yard every year. The neighbor who share about 12 feet of fence line never cleans out the poke or weeds of the corner in their yard. They rent. Naturally, poke berries sprout in my yard in those twelve feet.

This story is one I have told here before. My father found poke and cooked it. Mama told him to cook it three times, emptying the water and rinsing the poke between cookings. He argued that his mother never cooked and rinsed it three times. Mama refused to eat the poke he cooked. He spent three days in the bathroom and swore he would never eat poke sallet again. He never did.

Have you ever eaten or cooked poke sallet? Did your parents or grandparents cook and eat it? Are you familiar with the song Poke Sallet Annie?

10 comments:

  1. I haven't heard of poke sallet before but I looked it up. There are multiple warnings about how to eat it safely which would scare me. Of course I wouldn't be concerned if I had eaten it all my life.
    I then looked up the uses of Poke root as herbal medicine, we used to make it at the factory where I worked. It seems to have multiple uses but, again, needs to be treated with care.
    It's all very interesting. Thank you

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    1. kylie,
      A bit of toxicity remains. Some doctors suggest never touching it at all. There are other greens with lesser amounts of the toxic element, but I don't remember what they are. If you ever fear you have worms, a dish of poke will fix you right up. It doesn't kill you, but you wish you were dead. I do not remember eating it when young. After Daddy's experience, I am quite sure it never graced our table. I have eaten it since, however. Glad you appreciated the article.

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  2. Never heard of it! I do like greens though. I just got an air fryer and am going to try it out today so I need to buy some produce like mushrooms and cauliflower. A delicacy in Iowa where I grew up was morrels- people would go nuts finding them in the woods. Dad would dip them in egg and cracker crumbs and fry them in butter. Real healthy haha.

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    Replies
    1. Nan,
      I wrote a reply and somehow deleted the whole thing and was too tired to reply again. Morels sound delicious. I think they would be healthy if you did not eat too many which I would do.

      Delete
  3. I've never heard of it before, either. Learn something new every day :)

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    Replies
    1. One,
      For me learning something new everyday is the purpose of life.

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  4. Yikes! I have never heard of it until now.

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    Replies
    1. urspo,
      It is one of the earliest spring greens. Can you imagine the benefit of poke cooked right with and egg thrown into the pot or eggs? Poor people and people with money ate this all the time.

      I suppose you now have the answer to worms to add to your medical knowledge...lol.

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    2. there is a song called poke sallet Annie.Gaters got your granny

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    3. Jackiesue,
      Elvis did not write it, but sang it often.

      Delete

Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.