Once there were festivals dedicated to it. Elvis sang about it in the song "Polk Salad Annie". At one time you could even buy it in a can. American pokeweed is a fascinating edible plant with deep roots in the South, and a culinary tradition that deserves to be rediscovered. Confusingly, it's also a poisonous to humans improperly prepared. Years in the making, today I'll explain everything you need to know to prepare pokeweed (poke salad) safely.
Per usual, I need to thank Sam Thayer. In 2020 we planted poke roots he'd harvested. Without his book the the plants he brought, I wouldn't have been able to get thick pokeweed shoots to peel, which are the best part of the plant to eat.
What is Poke Salad?
American pokeweed (Phytolaca americana) is a perennial plant native to Eastern North America, The South, and The Midwest. The common name poke salad or poke sallet is derived from the old French word for salad. Historically sallets weren't raw, but instead referred to cooked greens. The plant is highly poisonous raw, but edible, and delicious when properly prepared.
The plant has a history of being used as food, medicine and a coloring by indigenous people long before others ate it. Daniel Moerman writes that the Cherokee crushed the fruit with grapes to make a sweetened drink, and that the shoots and greens were eaten as a food by Mohegan, Malecite, Iroqouis, and undoubtedly many other tribes. For the record, I cannot recommend eating pokeweed berries. Besides being dangerous, they don't taste good.
If you want to read some striking, real-world accounts of people poisoning themselves by improperly ingesting the plant, read this article.
My friend Kayce at Health Primitive shared with me the Algonquin / Powhatan name Puccoon, meaning red dye. She said indigenous people may ferment pokeberries in pumpkins to make a thick coloring used on the body or for war items.
Above: common pokeweed native range in North America. Although not on the map, I harvest it in Minnesota. Sam Thayer grows it in Northern Wisconsin.
Harvested along fence rows and ditches, poke was, and is seen as a poverty food. But, unlike a block of government cheese, eating pokeweed is far from a punishment. The mild, pleasant grassy flavor of the greens and tender shoots is easy to love. It's also one of the easiest edible wild plants to harvest in large quantities.
There's also a famous song about the plant. My first introduction to it was Elvis's cover of the song Polk Salad Annie. It's about a poor woman who collected poke.
For many years the plant was so popular that poke greens were sold canned in the South. Allens of Arkansas appears to be the last company to sell the greens. Unfortunately, they discontinued selling canned poke in 2000.
Like ramps, there's even spring festivals dedicated to the plant to this day, like the Harlan County Polk Salad Festival in Kentucky. Sadly, just like canned poke, It's now a music and arts festival, with no one eating pokeweed.
Pokeweed Identification
An incredibly fast growing plant, pokeweed grows in clumps of shoots that can grow 1-3 meters tall. The shoots come from a fleshy taproot under the ground, and are light green when young, turning red at maturity. The berries attract birds which help it spread where it's established.
As the plant grows and matures, the stems typically change color from green to purplish red, although the stems of some plants in shade may stay green. The stems of tall plants in full sun are almost always red.
Both red and green stems are edible, despite the common misconception red stems are not. With taller, thicker shoots, I find red-stemmed plants can be tougher than green stems and I recommend peeling them if possible.
There's not a lot of pokeweed look alikes, but some people confuse the plant with Japanese knotweed. Knotweed resembles bamboo where pokeweed is more of a leafy green with a thick stem. I made a little side-by-side comparison for you below.
When to Harvest Pokeweed
There's lots of confusion about when poke can be harvested for cooking. Here's a few key points.
- The plant can be harvested any time it's meristematic (young and tender) which means you need to harvest the plant before flowers appear.
- Older plants are not more poisonous than younger plants.
- The height of the plant is not necessarily an indication of age. The larger the poke root is, the larger the shoots will be.
To harvest poke, simply cut the plant at the base. Some people can get dermatitis, rashes or blisters from touching the cut portions or getting the sap on their skin. I've never had an issue or reaction from it but it appears well documented.
How to Cook Pokeweed
There's a lot of well-intended, but misinformed folk wisdom surrounding how to safely cook poke. In my mind, the most important things to know are this:
- The plant must be boiled multiple times to be safe to eat.
- The root is the most poisonous part of the plant, ingestion, especially raw, could be fatal.
- Plants with developed roots will make shoots a few inches wide which are the best for eating.
- The toxins are stronger in the leaves and skin of the shoots than in the peeled shoots.
- Peeled shoots require less cooking than young plants where the leaves and shoots are cooked together.
To be safe to eat, the plants must be boiled multiple times. There's more than one way to do this. Sam Thayer, recommends two boils in a change of water for about 12 minutes total.
But, depending on if you're cooking greens or peeled shoots, the cooking times and number of boils can differ. With that in mind, lets go over the differences between cooking poke greens and large, peeled shoots.
How to Cook Poke Greens
Young plants with shoots not large enough to peel are chopped up and boiled. I boil them 3 times for 3 minutes each. After boiling the plants are safe to consume and can be cooked like any other leafy green.
Pokeweed Shoots
Older, established poke plants make shoots you can peel and are the easiest to cook. They retain more texture than the greens and have a delicious, mild flavor similar to burdock flower stalks.
Since the toxins are concentrated in the skin and leaves the shoots only need to be boiled once. I cooked peeled poke shoots for 8-10 minutes.
After the greens or shoots are boiled they can be cooked like any other leafy green.
Most of the time poke is simply served as a cooked leafy green side dish. There's one traditional recipe everyone should try though: polk salad with scrambled eggs and bacon.
A satisfying meal, the greens or shoots are mild tasting and meltingly tender. Crisp bacon and tender eggs add a contrast in texture. I like mine mine with hot pepper vinegar or hot sauce.
The shoots, dressed with mixed herbs, butter and lemon make a good all-purpose side dish, too.
Pokeweed Poisoning Symptoms
"If poke is prepared improperly, a burning sensation in the mouth and throat is the first warning. This means your parboiling is inadequate or your poke is too old."
Sam Thayer-Incredible Wild Edibles
Pokeweed must be handled with caution as the consequences of improperly preparing it are more severe than a stomach ache or a phototoxic rash. Ingesting the root raw can cause convulsions and death. Under-cooked, you're likely to have some uncomfortable cramps and peristalsis.
The plant is also poisonous to pets like dogs and cats. My cat snuck some off the cutting board and nibbled a tiny leaf that caused immediate emesis and lethargy for days. Treat the plant with care while it's raw and keep it away from animals or young children.
More Wild Shoot Vegetables
How to Cook Poke Salad
Equipment
- 1 2 gallon pot
- 1 1 gallon pot
Ingredients
- 1 lb pokeweed greens and shoots or large, peeled pokeweed shoots
- 1.5 gallons water as needed
- Kosher salt to taste
- 3 tablespoons bacon grease, butter, or cooking oil
- lemon wedges for serving, optional
Instructions
Young poke greens and shoots
- Cut the leaves and shoots into ½ inch pieces.
- Bring the water to a boil in both a large and small pot.
- Add the poke greens and stems to the small pot, put a lid on the pot and set a timer for 3 minutes.
- Drain the greens, cover with roughly 3 quarts of fresh boiling water, put the lid back on and cook for another three minutes. Repeat the process one more time.
- Drain the greens and rinse in cold water to halt the cooking. Now the greens are ready to cook or refrigerate.
Peeled pokeweed shoots
- Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a pot, add the pokeweed shoots, cover, and cook for 10 minutes at a rolling boil.
- Drain the cooked poke shoots and rinse in cold water to halt the cooking. Now the shoots are ready to cook or refrigerate.
Finishing and serving
- Heat the greens in the bacon grease or cooking oil, season to taste with salt, and serve with a lemon wedge as a side dish, or however you like your greens.
Tim
My grandmother told me about how her parents would fry poke fritters. I never got a chance to have my grandmother explain it better or demonstrate it too me. They are all long passed. I assume they batter fried strips of the tender stalks. No idea if they boiled them first or what they did. But she called them "poke fritters."
Alan Bergo
Hi Tim. There's lots of recipes like this in different cultures. I'd assume that the greens and stems are boiled, mixed with a binder and fried, but that's just a guess.
TargetDriver
Last year, I cooked up some poke salat in late spring. The stalks had already gotten hollow. I did two boils and rinses...should've done more. I experienced some *uncomfortable* symptoms for about a week.
Alan Bergo
Sorry you had to experience that. While I was writing this post over the course of a few years I intentionally undercooked it so I could understand the spectrum of symptoms and toxicity better. But I was very careful and only ate a small amount. While it sucks, I think it's important to remember that it's not the plants fault. A good reminder to eat small amounts of things that are new to you at first too, especially with poke. Don't give up! Great plant with lots of history.
TargetDriver
This batch is young and triple-rinsed. It's chilling in the refrigerator. Gotta get back on that horse.
Glata
Growing up in a far west corner of NC I can say that poke salat a lot during the growing season, and sometimes mama would freeze some for winter months. I never did appreciate poke u til I married and had kids of my own. We ate a lot of it. We have a 22 acre growing spot for poke and it does well here. I’ve never eaten the berries, though. My mother in law always told me that if the stem was hollow or sort of like styrofoam to leave it alone as it was past harvesting.
Supper is on here and poke with eggs is draining from the second boil. I cam taste it already!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Glata
Anne Mooneyham
Poke weed will propagate by simply tossing some of the leaves and or stems on the ground.
Steve Bigelow
I had no idea you could eat the stems as well. In size and shape they resemble okra. Is it possible to bread them and fry them as you do with okra? Would you need to boil them first?
Alan Bergo
Hi Steve, you can absolutely fry the stems, but you need to get ones that are big enough to peel, and they must be boiled (8-10 min-no change of water needed) to be safe. Make sure to dry them off between a towel or paper towels after boiling to get out as much water as possible before you bread and fry.
Steve Bigelow
Thanks
David
Looks good, I'll try it. We have a single plant in our garden that we have cultivated after the birds dropped it off. If we cut it off to serve it, does that kill the plant? Do we need to leave some of the foliage up?
Alan Bergo
Hey David, great, just make sure to follow the recipe and start with a small amount as this plant is definitely a learning curve. Poke is a very sturdy weed and you could raze it to the ground or mow it-it’ll be fine. The root is robust and the plants will return.
David
Thanks, and we cooked it and mixed it with bacon and eggs following your recipe. It was great, but what is not with bacon and eggs.
Alan Bergo
Glad you had a good experience.
DrivebyQuipper
You must be a Yankee. Lol! Not Polk Salad ... Poke sallet.
Daisy Murray
Living in Mississippi I ate this growing up lol. Nothing new. I'm now 56. We lived in Smithville Mississippi with my aunt Mattie poole. Then moved with her sister my grandma Lucille Brown in Arkansas still eating poke salad.
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks for commenting Daisy. I love hearing all of the stories that come with this one.
Ronaldr
I never boiled it used to walk around the woods and pick it with my grandfather throw it on grill.that was fueled by wood let it cook for a couple minutes and then eat it. Never had a poisoning issue. Used to.have battles with my friends with the berries.
Alan Bergo
This is a great way to poison yourself, no matter what you remover Grandpappy doing I can assure you cooking poke like that will make you and anyone who eats it very sick.
Sherry Withers
Loved this article. Have been eatting for years.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Sherry. Years of work and searching for plants up here in MN, which are hard to find.
Nathan
"To harvest poke, simply cut the plant at the base." When the plant is meristematic right(bends, breaks easy)? I assume the plant you have in your garden is an older plant, so it grows longer and bigger before flowering and getting tough? "Both red and green stems are edible, but red stems are tougher and should be peeled." Doesn't that go against what Sam says in Incredible Wild Edibles about not harvesting them after they turn red(he does say that they are good to harvest when young and red)? Thank you for this well written article.
Alan Bergo
Hey Nathan. Sam doesn't say they shouldn't be harvested after they're red. Here's a quote directly from Incredible Wild Edibles, pg 266: "Poke shoots are sometimes found that are purely green, especially in shade, and especially when taller...but very young shoots usually have reddish-purple highlights, especially in full sun. This does not mean they are too old to eat". Your comment helped me clarify my wording a bit there, since some people might assume I was saying all young, red stemmed plants should be peeled, when what I meant was that they should be peeled if they're thick enough, which isn't feasible or economical to do with tiny, thin shoots that are red.
Nathan
I guess to clarify that is what I was saying too. You can eat when they are young and meristematic, but not when they get old and tough and turn that magenta color. Would you say you only cut them so far as they are meristematic and not always to the base if they seem tough?
Thank you Adam. You put a lot of time into this blog and replying to people. I appreciate it.
Alan Bergo
Hi Nathan. Ok so this gets a little confusing. Instead of color, I tend to go by if it's meristematic or not, meaning has the plant started to put energy into making seeds. The color may or may not turn magenta at that time (I suspect full sun vs shade can play a part but it's a speculation) but noticing seeds forming always means the plant is passed prime. This is also why it's better to search for older, established plants as they have very thick stems (as illustrated here) which can be peeled if they're on the tough side. If you're looking to just cook the greens then I look for the youngest most tender plants. Hope that helps.
Sam
This may be one of the best resources on the internet about pokeweed greens. I especially like how a huge plant that is still in a tender meristem phase is shown as edible.
Regarding the berries, I've eaten them raw for many years, spitting out the seeds which I don't know if is necessary, but I just have a few at a time and really not that many per season. They have a sort of bitter and other off taste, yet there is some sweetness and positive taste. How would they be if properly prepared? Eating cacao nibs is very different than eating a chocolate bar that has sugar in it. How would a pokeberry jam be? What about the famous pokeberry pie? The North Carolina extension states the berries are poisonous, yet they say they are edible when cooked.
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/phytolacca-americana-var-rigida/#:~:text=Cooked%20berries%20are%20safe%20for,plant%20material%20should%20be%20discarded.
Coop
This is one of the few wild edibles that I leave strictly alone, and I have refused to supply it to my restaurant customers due to the risk. Just as some people have an allergic reaction to getting the juice on their skin, some of us can't tolerate eating this no matter how long it's cooked. I've tried poke several times. Even after multiple and very thorough boilings, this stuff makes me extremely sick. I've never experienced the mouth irritation. I recommend that people try just a VERY small taste and wait 24 hours to check their tolerance level before making a meal of poke sallet. There is an old joke about native Americans calling Europeans by a name that meant "those crazy people who eat poke".
Alan Bergo
Personal allergies are definitely a thing. With so many interesting greens out there I prob wouldn't serve it to the general public either. At home I can eat multiple pounds a week, and I did while writing this.
Carla Beaudet
Ok. What you did in the video with the greens and the small stems resembles what I did in 2020 when we talked. Still had minor GI issues with it. The huge stems, though, that has me re-thinking what to do with the big poke plant in my garden; I WANT those stems this year. So I'll harvest them before I move it. Thanks for the inspiration.
P.S. You mentioned celtuce in the video. I agree, that's probably a good comparison. I'm currently in NOVA (Northern Virginia) picking up my husband at Dulles Airport, and there is celtuce from one of my favorite Korean grocery stores in the cooler out in my car. Never considered it, but yes, it's a good comparison. I already have seeds and will be growing celtuce in the garden this year.
Alan Bergo
Thanks for chiming in Carla. And thanks for sending me the email that nudged me to start gathering info on the plant years ago now.
David
Tony Joe White wrote Poke Salad Anne, also A Rainy Night in Georgia made popular by Brook Benton. As far as I know Elvis never wrote anything. That doesn’t in itself detract from his singing.
Steve
Your knowledge of foraged foods is without peer. Your music knowledge is not so much. Tony Joe White was the songwriter and original performer of “Polk Salad Annie”.
“ sock a little Polk salad to me, you know I need a mess of it”
Thanks for all of the knowledge.
Alan Bergo
You're right, and I stand corrected!
Gilbert
Elvis forgot the lyrics! Takes out a crib sheet midway. Before teleprompters.
I like Johnny Cash Tony Joe White version. It's TJW song?
Long intro covering uses of Poke Sally, starting with:
JC: “Sadie Fox says there was 14 kinds of weeds good to eat”
TJW: “What’s one of em?”
JC: “Poke salad”
Sally, salé, salad, sallet, etc. Deriving from Cajun French salé or Latin salad, add salt.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Gilbert.
Marbran
I don't know if he forgot the words, rather I thought he was maybe looking at a note from the audience containing requests, only because he handed it off to his guitar player. That tells me he was okaying it to be teed up.
Sam
This may be the best information on the entire internet about using this plant for eating. By the way, I've been eating the berries for many years, and I've given them to others to eat, but because it taste Isn't So Good, not a lot of eating at a time. I also split the seeds out, though I suspect I could easily swallow the seeds without chewing them. https://agardenerstable.com/playing-with-pokeweed/ states the North Carolina Extension shows you can cook the berries: "cooked berries are safe for making pies.”
Alan Bergo
Thanks Sam. I defer to Sam Thayer here but I'm interested in seeing more references on them, especially first hand ones.
Pete Hautman
Nitpick: "Poke Salad Annie" (originally "Poke Sallat Annie") was written and recorded by Tony Joe White. Huge hit back in '68. The Elvis cover came later, and didn't sell so well.
Alan Bergo
I changed that, thanks Pete.
Emily
Poke salat Annie was famous before Elvis recorded it. It was written and first recorded by this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polk_Salad_Annie
One of my uncles nibbled a root of one he'd pulled while weeding his yard years ago and immediately went into convulsions and later died. Dangerous stuff if you don't know what you're doing.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Emily.