This plant grows in my yard. My neighbor calls it a weed. I went on to the internet, curious to learn its name and to discover more about it. I felt that Mother Nature doesn’t make useless things. It is a thick, watery plant, with nice big leaves. Looks like it will make great compost.

It seems that this plant is called “pokeweed”, or “poke.” It was used by aboriginal Americans and comes from the aboriginal American word “pocan.” Poke also forms the basis for a traditional Southern dish called poke sallet.

After the small amount of sleuthing I did, the consensus seems to be that the plant is poisonous if it is not properly prepared, especially: the seeds in the berries, and the roots.

This farmer says that pokeweed brings up minerals from deep in the ground. On that basis alone, I want pokeweed growing around my yard.

Jeff Webb has a video on how to make poke sallet. He is quite adamant that curious viewers should bring a friend who knows how to make poke sallet and learn from that friend, instead of trying it out alone.

Georgia Gleaners shows how to harvest fresh poke berries and how to make poke berry jelly.

There is a poke sallet festival in Tennessee.

Other web forums indicate that pokeweed seeds can only germinate after being eaten by wildlife. So even if it produces a lot of berries, it can only proliferate via birds and whatever else eats them.

Pokeweed and its uses by mehron is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International