Some warn against using or partaking of it at all because of its toxins, but properly prepared poke or polk salad is a delicious dish and its leaves and berries are also used to make juice, wine, jelly, health remedies (from arthritis relief to menstruation aid), dye, and ink. As kids we also used the ripe berries as war paint. It is muse for song and dance and its berries (ink) have been used to write a number of noted documents and correspondence. I see it being used more these days to dye natural yarn and fabrics and its properties are reportedly being studied for use in fighting AIDS. I can attest to at least three of its helpful medicinal uses.
It is fun finding this plant and preparing it for a dish or remedy or using its berries for dye and ink. Pokeweed’s rich roots in the U.S. still inspire festivals in the South. Outside the U.S. a variation of the plant has been venerated as a national symbol. Depending on region, it has different spellings of its name or description.
It is a tradition in my family to prepare and eat polk salad. The way I make the dish and my mother and grandmothers before (and my brothers today), is I boil and drain well the leaves three times, sometimes only twice if an early in the season spring pick. Some only boil and drain it twice and leave more acid in it, but boil it at least five minutes each time. Take the final very well drained, squeezed leaves, which will look similar to spinach, and sauté in a skillet, seasoning to taste with what you have on hand, e.g. sea salt, dried garlic granules, onion powder, adding what you wish, mushrooms, onions, etc. Traditionally, eggs are added to the polk and scrambled with the leaves. You can add them, use a substitute or forego them. Polk salad is a delicious dish and can be eaten alone, in sandwiches as you would any type of egg salad, with or without a dressing, or, the possibilities are endless.
The web is teeming with advice, pictures, and instruction the uses of this green leafy pokeweed plant and its green maturing to magenta colored berries. If you don’t know how to identify and pick polk, typically from fields and woods especially where birds roost (birds deposit the seeds where the seeds overwinter and grow), it’s best to go with someone who does know until you have experience. I haven't grown it in a garden, however a few of my relatives and friends over the years have had plants located in or around their gardens, but I think that is a result of nature because it is hard to grow it without the seeds being naturally processed first. Pokeweed looks something like turnip greens with a magenta (pinkish or reddish) vein in the stalk. Its berries go from green to magenta when it seeds in the fall.
Picking polk will involve a large brown paper bag or two, or tote sack, for the leaves and cutting device, like a clean pocket or paring knife. (As with mushroom harvesting, do not put it in a plastic bag). You will want a good mess of it because it cooks down to a fraction of the bulk.
I have seen fresh poke leaves at certain natural markets in the produce section in the spring and summer. You can find it occasionally in cans before it is sold out for the late spring and early summer, but it is not as good as picking a mess fresh and making it.
Check it out if you are like me and into things like poke, dandelions and acorn flour.
Here is Tony Joe White with Polk Salad Annie. I wanted a different version I like that's even cooler but I couldn't get blogger to load and play it correctly. He also performed a duet of this song with Johnny Cash. Elvis Presley did his version of this particularly song which was probably the most popular version. Conan O’Brien and his Polkettes do a twisted version of it in his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television tour.
