POKEBERRIES

10/20/07

All of this time I have been talking about the Elderberries getting ripe and Mrs. Groundhog and all the birds waiting for them, I have been wrong. I credit my sister, Arlene for telling me this while we were talking one day standing outside when she was leaving after a visit. She was remembering some ladies quite long ago coming down the road with a bag or basket and asking if they could pick some "Poke!" Not one time did I think these berries could be something different than Elderberries, so you can imagine my surprise and disappointment.What is outside my window at the brush patch is the Pokeberry Bush. In clicking on Google and typing in Elderberry vs. Pokeberry, I find that the Pokeberry bush especially the large taproot parts and large stems should be avoided This plant growing near the brush patch has deep purple berries hanging from the stems. The birds love them and when eaten the birds become intoxicated! These bushes grow in Northeast America as far south as Mexico and are extremely poisonous and cause extreme gastrointestinal distress in mammals. However young shoots from the plant are eaten in salad after being cooked twice in different waters and the berries even used for pie. One warning I have read is that no part of the plant should be touched, let alone eaten, by humans or livestock. I am supposing that when these shoots are cooked twice and eaten in a salad with bacon and eggs that it is done with experienced expertise by those who know what they are doing. So, all this time I have thought that this beautiful plant was an Elderberry (forgetting that when I picked them for my mother they grew on stems with FLAT wide portions to pick) which is wonderful in jellies, jams, for our health (which I will look up and write on) and it has been something I do not even want my husband to go in to and cut down. At least I know the birds like and can use these berries.