Date: Sun, 13 May 2018 16:08:58 -0400
From: “N.A. Booko”
Subject: A Little Late For Poke
Poke salat? You never heard of that wonderful wild Southern dish? Why sho nuff poke sallet do get ett by us old timers.
Referred to as Polk berry, ink berry, it grows wild and has be eaten for centuries. The berries were once used to make ink. Birds eat the berries and become sorta drunk.
I can remember in the early 1940s when we were short of food, my mother and I would go out into the wilds and pick polk and dock. Dock was another name for wild sorrel. I don’t thrust eating dock now.
One should not cook and eat polk after the berries form. This spring I forgot to get my spring helping- dang it all. But last week I found an area where it was growing and I took just the top part of three feet plants.
Old timers have told me time and time again to boil it, pour off the liquid, squeeze the greens, then boil it again and repeat the process again. Three boilings. I don’t do it that way. I cut it into about three inch lengths, boil it with a little salt and olive oil for about five mins. Pour off the the liquid.
Enjoy with cornbread, buttermilk and four spring onions.
N.A. Booko
Polk grows in damp grassy places. So so snakes.