North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]



"When I took a weed identification class a few years ago in renewing my pesticide license, the 'expert' teaching the class was uncomfortable with people eating pokeweed.  She also recommended handling it with gloves as she stated there was evidence that Poke Weed suppressed the immune system."

 

Hmmm.... if that were true, it might explain the pokeberry wine for arthritis, if it were an autoimmune type arthritis. 

 

 

"When I took a weed identification class a few years ago in renewing my pesticide license, the 'expert' teaching the class was uncomfortable with people eating pokeweed.  She also recommended handling it with gloves as she stated there was evidence that Poke Weed suppressed the immune system."

 

None of this is hard and fast information.  I met someone who was from the city and wanted to do country stuff.  When her husband came home one day she showed him a blackberry pie she'd made from some blackberries in their back yard.  He asked her to show him the plant, it was a pokeweed.  She'd eaten a third of the pie already, but as the berries were cooked, most of the toxin was gone.  I don't know if it even gave her the runs. 

    Southerners who use the term "poke sallet" have caused many northerners to try the stuff raw.  I met someone years ago who'd done that, and the whole family spent the night vomiting.  Later, they mentioned the incident to a doctor who said they were lucky, that he had buried a victim or two of pokeweed or pokeberries eaten raw.   

                                                                 Donna