Here in North Carolina we have been seeing some nice weather in the past few weeks. And some plants are starting to come back to life. One is going to be the poke-root a/k/a The poke-weeds, also known as poke, pokebush, pokeberry, poke-root POKEROOT (Phytolacca americana) The stems are often pink or red. The flowers are greenish-white, in long clusters at the ends of the stems. They develop into dark purple berries.

It seems that many southerners years ago and even now, from my understanding, liked to clean themselves out after being cooped up all winter and not being able to get fresh greens. The above ground leaves sprout in the early spring. Young leaves, if collected before acquiring a red color, are edible if boiled for 5 minutes, rinsed, and reboiled. Young pokeweed leaves can be boiled three times to reduce the toxin, discarding the water after each boiling. In a traditional Cherokee recipe for fried poke stalks, young stalks are harvested while still tender, peeled to remove most of the toxin, washed, then cut into pieces and fried like okra with cornmeal. The practice of brewing pokeweed plant parts with hot water to make tea has caused poisoning. Thoroughly cooking the plant reduces its toxicity.