THE FOLKLORE OF PLANTS: Poke

Lisa Karen Miller

“She’d go out in the evenings to pick a mess of it… Carry it home and cook it for supper, ’cause that’s about all they had to eat.”

“Polk Salad Annie,” Tony Joe White

          Our Declaration of Independence was written in ink made from poke berries, and soldiers fighting in the American Revolution often wrote home with their juice.  They were readily available and made a dark, lasting ink. Native Americans made a paint with them to decorate their horses.

          Growing up to 13 feet tall, poke is a common sight in late summer. With its magenta stems and purple berries, common poke (aka polk or pokeweed) looks like it would be delicious.  But beware: the leaves and berries are poisonous to humans (even though birds and some animals may eat it), and even touching the plant can cause a rash in some.

          Children picking blackberries (which often grow in the same vicinity and bear fruit around the same time) have sometimes been poisoned by poke berries.

          Still, the leaves were a staple in the diet of pioneers and sharecroppers for centuries.  Some people around here still eat it.

          I remember being sent out, even before I was old enough to go to school, with a big paper grocery sack (remember them?) and told not to come home until it was full of young poke shoots.  The leaves were boiled vigorously, then the water was changed and they were boiled again. Anything less and there would be a death at the dinner table. They were then prepared much like turnip or collard greens, with bits of pork added for flavor.

          Now, you know people had to be dirt poor to figure out how to make a poisonous plant edible.

          In Arkansas, the Allen Canning Company even sold “poke sallet” in cans, only stopping production in 2000, as demand dried up.

          Modern science is finding out that the dried, ground root is anti-inflammatory, and can be used to treat swollen throat glands. It also soothes arthritis, kills sperm, and treats fungal infections. Research has uncovered a component of poke that boosts the immune system, and proteins that inhibit flu. Pokeweed Antiviral Protein is showing promise in the fight against both HIV and cancer.

         Associated with the god Mars, its dried berries are used in spells for courage.  Shamans use it to expel evil spirits from the possessed. It is also used to break hexes and rid a house of demons.

          Poke – quite literally, a part of our history.

© Copyright 2023 Lisa Karen Miller