The premier star of the edible plant world. IIRC, not native to North America, but originally imported as a food crop.
Young leaves are good in salads, older ones can be used in soups. Like older lettuce, they tend to get bitter as it gets bigger.
Polk Salad must be washed and cooked, washed and cooked, washed and cooked at least three times before it is edible as a green (like turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens)
POKE SALAD
2 pounds freshly picked, young poke salad leaves (or other greens such as dale, turnip or collard)
1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon
1 medium onion, chopped
Hot sauce
Hard-cooked egg, optional
Wash the poke leaves well. Parboil the leaves and stems twice in a medium saucepan, pouring off the water each time after parboiling. Boil a third time in clean water for 20 to 30 minutes or until tender. Rinse and drain well.
Fry the bacon and remove from the pan. Add the onion and the greens and cook in the bacon dripping about 15-20 minutes or until tender. Add the hot sauce to taste, and serve topped with the bacon and a sliced hard-cooked egg, if desired.
Let me know if you need pictures. I’ll try to find some now.
Yup, Oleander, when Jo-anne’s future husband picked oleander
for her wedding bouquet, you knew the marriage was DOOMED!
Like Sand through an hourglass bump.
POLK SALAD ANNIE
Tony Joe White
(words & music by Tony Joe White)
(Recitation)
If some of ya’ll never been down South too much...
I’m gonna tell you a little bit about this, so that you’ll understand
What I’m talking about
Down there we have a plant that grows out in the
woods and the fields,
looks somethin’ like a turnip green.
Everybody calls it Polk salad. Polk salad.
Used to know a girl that lived down there and
she’d go out in the evenings and pick a mess of it...
Carry it home and cook it for supper, ‘cause that’s about all they had to eat,
But they did all right.
Down in Louisiana Where the alligators grow so mean
There lived a girl that I swear to the world Made the alligators look tame
Polk salad Annie polk salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her mama was working on the chain-gang
(a mean, vicious woman)
Everyday ‘fore supper time She’d go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess o’ Polk salad And carry it home in a tote sack
Polk salad Annie ‘Gators got you granny
Everybody said it was a shame
‘Cause her mama was aworkin’ on the chain-gang
(a wretched, spiteful, straight-razor totin’ woman,
Lord have mercy. Pick a mess of it)
Her daddy was lazy and no count
Claimed he had a bad back
All her brothers were fit for was stealin’ watermelons out of my truck patch
Polk salad Annie, the gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her mama was a working’ on the chain gang
(Sock a little polk salad to me, you know I need a mess of it)
Jerusalem artichokes were a favorite when I was a young ‘un.
Do not eat anything that is yellow, red or black.
Most green bugs are ok because they are green because of just eating plant material. The white stuff inside the bugs is either fat or eggs.
Stay away from the legs and wings as they can make a log jam in your intestines.
Remember, you do not have a chitinase, which is the enzyme required to break down the outer shell chitin. Some diet stuff has chitin in it as it will not break down inside a human.
I'm sticking with chocolate and Dr. Thunder.
When I was young I worked for a farmer who made wine from Dandelions. No sense just concentrating on salads.
Purslane:
“Purslane just happens to contain alpha-linolenic acid, one of the highly sought-after Omega-3 fatty acids. Why pay money for fish oil when you can grow your own Omega-3 fatty acids as part of your edible landscaping? Especially when it takes little effort to grow purslane, since it does grow like a weed.”
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/weedsdiseases/a/purslane.htm
Cucumber-purslane-yogurt salad
5 large Cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into quarter-round slices
1/4 pound Purslane, large stems removed, washed and drained well
2 tablespoons each, Fresh chopped mint, cilantro and chervil
4 cups Whole milk yogurt
1/4 cup Virgin olive oil
3 cloves Garlic, puréed with the blade of a knife
2 teaspoon ground Coriander
kosher Salt and ground Black Pepper
Place the cucumber, purslane and herbs into a large bowl. In another bowl, stir together the yogurt, olive oil and garlic, coriander and season to taste with salt. Add the yogurt mixture to the vegetables and mix well. Add a pinch of ground black pepper. Taste the dressed cucumber-purslane salad for seasoning, adding a little more salt if needed. Serve chilled.
I’ve actually read of an oleander soup that is to help cure cancer. Must be about as dangerous as chemotherapy.
pihng
Most of the weeds in Southern California are edible. There is an outfit there that will take you on a wild food outing, the climax of the trip is a salad made from weeds. I think this is the proper web link: http://www.christophernyerges.com/index.htm
You do have to be very careful, do not ever eat anything unless someone who knows says it is okay. Certain plants, like ones from the mustard family can be identified by the number of petals. The mushroom societies are good sources of information.
I had a dog that would eat/chew on orange mushrooms from our forest. I asked a local mushroom guide about it, and he said to keep the dog away from them. But I think the dog had his own instincts which he operated safely from. Cows are known to avoid poisonous plants as well.