Answers to Go with Susan Smith

Q. My mother gathered and cooked pokeweed greens. I think there may be some growing wild near my house. Can you help me identify pokeweed?

A . I used “edible wild plants” to search our catalog and found that pokeweed was listed in the index of most of these books.

It is easiest to identify pokeweed at this time of year, but the edible tender new leaves are harvested and eaten only in the early spring. Let me repeat, no part of the plant is edible in the late spring, summer, or fall. However, this is a good time to find and note the location of pokeweed plants.

The pokeweed flower cluster bears flowers, immature green berries and mature, shiny red/purple berries simultaneously. The stalks are bright red when the plant is mature. This perennial can grow to more than 6 feet in height. Color photos are found in many of our books on foraging.

In “Edible and Useful Plants of the Southwest,” Delena Tull includes pokeweed on her chapter on poisonous and harmful plants.

She writes: “The young spring shoots are gathered wild for food throughout the eastern United States and are cultivated in Europe and northern Africa.

“As most people who grew up using the greens know, if the plant is collected at the wrong stage or if it eaten raw, it can cause poisoning. But poke greens furnish a fine vegetable for those who can positively identify the young spring growth.

“Gather only the very young shoots, less than about 8 inches tall, taking care not to collect any of the highly toxic roots.

“Don’t let the common name ‘poke salet’ confuse you. The term ‘salet’ does not have the same meaning as ‘salad.’ Poke salet is a potherb, not a raw vegetable.”

In “The Joy of Foraging,” Gary Lincoff writes, “Uses: Young shoots as a potherb thoroughly cooked; recommended boiling several times, changing the water each time — the boiling removes the toxins, and multiple boilings remove any residues still present; eat in moderation.”

Let’s return to Tull. She also recommends a boiling/ draining process to eliminate toxins.

She writes: “Then pour off all water and throw it out. Re-cook the greens in a small amount of water, adding seasonings such as onions and bacon fat. Cook the greens slowly for about 30 minutes, and serve them with cornbread and pepper sauce.”

If all those warnings haven’t put you off harvesting wild pokeweed next spring, you can find seven pokeweed recipes in Marie Villjoen’s “Forage, Harvest, Feast: A Wild-Inspired Cuisine.” They range from “Pasta with Pokeweed Shoots and Mushroom Sauce” to “Sloppy Josephinas” and “Kentucky Egg Rolls.”

If you’d like to look online, go to Nadia’s Backyard's website.