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I've Discovered Pokeweed

10/27/2021

1 Comment

 
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Yesterday's homestead harvest.
Well, I'll be! I was ready to wrap up the garden a month ago, but it has been WEEKS without a 32°F frost. I got tired of waiting and cleaned up several of my garden areas even though they were still producing, but I'm leaving the tomatoes, peppers and beans until a true frost. 

Some of our fruit here on the homestead has been acting wonky. The apple trees were re-blossoming at the end of September:
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And then a few weeks later, some of my strawberry plants decided to blossom!
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Wild!

You can see some purple berries in the basket of things I harvested yesterday. Those are pokeweed berries. 


Pokeweed: A Plant With a Long and Useful History

Since our daughter has gotten older and more independent, I've indulged myself in some of my old pre-baby hobbies like foraging and herbalism. While the internet will tell you that pokeweed is toxic and poisonous (and it is, somewhat) this fascinating book, acquired at a library sale for $0.10, states that pokeweed has several uses. Many a Civil War letter was written with the pokeweed berry juice, and the roots were commonly used medicinally. One of my favorite stops at Greenfield Village is Dr. Howard's office; a common country doctor's office from the 1850's. In the building you can see many of the roots and herbs that doctors would commonly use; things modern herbalists don't—like skunk cabbage and pokeweed.

Reading the history of my own area during the pioneer days has been particularly enlightening. One local doctor was not trained at medical school, but was well-liked by his patients, and—as the history book states—"did good for a lot of people." However, the other doctors disdained him and his lack of education. One day he broke his leg. None of his peers were willing to set the leg because they thought he was too far gone and would probably die anyway. The poor guy ended up setting the leg himself and made a full recovery!

But back to pokeweed; the most fascinating thing I've learned is that people used to grow it in their basements. In the fall they would dig up some roots and put  them in a container of garden soil in their basement. The plant would start to grow and sprout a few months later, and produce an asparagus-like shoot. The shoots would be harvested at 6-8" tall and then cooked and eaten like asparagus. According to my research, you can also do this with dandelion plants. I'm going to try it this winter to see how it works!

In a different herbal I'm reading, the author recommends to plant pokeweed seeds every year, rather than only foraging them, in order to harvest roots the next season. So when I saw some beautiful berries the other day, I decided to pick them for seeds. Hey, you never know when you might need some natural narcotics!

Til next time,
Bethany
1 Comment
Allison link
5/14/2022 07:18:39 pm

Just found your blog. Wondering how your poke adventure went and hope you read up on it before using it. I have quite a bit of poke growing in my yard and have encouraged it. The roots, and in essence the entire plant, is very toxic raw. So if you dug up roots, I hope you were wearing gloves. The toxins can travel into the skin. That said, a very powerful tincture can be made with the roots and dosage is 1-3 drops. Not dropperfuls. Drops. The leaves can be eaten when young, in the spring, and usually no taller than about 6 inches. They are boiled 2-3 times to get rid of the toxins that will give you diarrhea and vomiting. Eaten raw, it will kill you. The berries aren't poisonous, per se, but the seeds are. Some people swallow a whole berry, fresh or dried, for the anti-rheumatic effect or for arthritis. Some people do it once a year, some for two weeks, and some throughout the year. Swallowing the berry whole and not chewing seems safe. You can also make poke berry jelly safely. I never tried to grow from seed. Usually the seeds are spread by bird poo and directions include having to soak them for 5 minutes in a sulphuric acid solution for germination, so I just let them spread. One plant will send up several more shoots from the root the next year. I'm pretty adventurous, but poke roots are fairly big and I'm not sure I'd want to bring one bother digging it up to bring it in for blanched poke greens. I DO like your video on the dandelion greens though. That was wonderful to see! Can't wait to read more on your blog.

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    Bethany

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