Comments on: Pokeweed: an herb for all things pokey.

By: The Herbwife’s Kitchen » Blog Party: Berries!

The Herbwife’s Kitchen » Blog Party: Berries! — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:19:06 +0000

[…] wrote about Pokeberry, one of the classic Appalachian […]

By: David Pleshe

David Pleshe — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:35:50 +0000

I was introduced to the Poke Berry just last week while visiting a relative in Kentucky. He’s been eating the fresh ripee berries daily—about three a day. He just swallows them and claims that it has help his arthritis.
He offered me some and I actually did what most blogs say you shouldn’t do—crunch the seeds. I haven’t had any ill effects from doing it that one time; however I now realize that that was not a good idea according to most reports I have read on the subject. I take three whole berries a day swalling them whole and have had no ill effects. Seems to help sore joints.

By: THERESA

THERESA — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:07:08 +0000

A little while back I saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers in a magazine that included a berry called “rosy-stemmed caribbean varga” berry. when looking this up online, I couldn’t find such a thing… hence the search for a “pink stemmed berry” and this is what I found, the POKEBERRY seems to be what I was looking for
I am getting married and would like to just use it in a bouquet like the magazine, but I don’t know who or where to buy it from fresh in it’s natural state.

can you help?

By: crabappleherbs

crabappleherbs — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:08:01 +0000

Hmmmm.

I don’t know if any florists carry pokeberries — you could ask around. If you’re getting married in the right season (August - September), you could probably find some wild ones, depending on where you live.

Good luck!

By: darci

darci — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:43:09 +0000

At one time in history tomatoes were considered extremely poisonous. I’m always amused (and irritated) when I see where people treat Poke as if it were something lethal. I’ve lived in the South all my life, and every spring I hunt Poke, boil the leaves (once) and eat them. It’s like my spring tonic. I don’t want it more than once or twice a year, but my mother freezes it and eats it all year long.
There’s a famous herbalist, has a magazine, a forum and everything, to whom I told this, and she responded as if my family and I belonged to some illiterate, mutant enclave, probably living in the backwoods, eating poke and selling moonshine, and that over the decades we had built up a resistance to the poisons within the plant……….not quite. I have 3 college degrees, have taught and counseled in public school and college, and am a digital artist and freelance writer. I won’t say more because Darci isn’t my name, and some would know me if I told what all I’ve done. Anyway, I’m not an illiterate mutant, and I did just want to say that I’ll be glad when “herbalists” stop treating the plant and those who eat it with condescension and fear. My grandmother was a true herbalist and could walk through the woods and pick a whole salad from the wild plants growing there. I’m not as good as she, but I take after her herbal ways.

By: crabappleherbs

crabappleherbs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:27:14 +0000

Hi “Darci.”

Yes, I get irritated about that too. This post was about the berries, though, not the leaves. I eat the young leaves whenever I can get my hands on them. (Soon it will be the season!)

(It sounds like the herbalist you talked to had a serious case of anti-Appalachian prejudice. It’s way too common, as I’m sure you know.)

By: Susan Marynowski

Susan Marynowski — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:17:55 +0000

I’ve been trying to find out if it is OK to make a poke berry tincture. Didn’t get much response on the herb discussion list. What do you think? I was mainly wondering if it was necessary or advisable to remove the seeds before tincturing, as the alcohol would surely extract those alkaloids. I am NOT poke-phobic…just want to make the best preparation to get the benefit of the berries year round! Do folks traditionally remove the seeds when making wine or jelly?

TIA, Susan in Florida (April 2008…my poke is 6 feet tall already!)

By: crabappleherbs

crabappleherbs — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:56:26 +0000

Hi Susan.

I’ve never tinctured the berries — just the root. I generally use the berries fresh or make wine. Pokeberry wine is usually fermented with the seeds for a while and then strained off. I know some traditional herbalists who soak the berries in wine instead of making wine with them — and they don’t remove the seeds. Wine, of course, is a much weaker solvent than straight ethanol.

I’m not sure about the actual sources for the warnings about the seeds — I’ve always been told not to chew them, but other than that I don’t really have any good information.

Have you found any useful information since you posted here?

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:56:17 +0000

I haven’t gotten any more information, except that most people don’t bother removing the seeds when they are making jam or wine, as you say. I also read that some folks just dry the berries and then swallow one or two berries whole for arthritic complaints (in the winter, for example, when fresh berries are not available). Maybe drying the berries is the most natural solution to having them year round. Thanks for your reply! -Florida Susan

By: crabappleherbs

crabappleherbs — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:39:25 +0000

Thanks for posting, Susan.

Drying the berries is indeed an option, though I imagine you’d need to do it in a dehydrator or the oven — the dang things are really juicy.

By: MARY

MARY — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:28:10 +0000

Being an Alaskan, I can’t really say I know much of anything about Poke Weed, though I do remember my mother talking a bit about it (she is from Missouri). Trying to live with arthritis pain makes me ever on the look out for relief. Where would I find acceptable Poke Weed? I am now living in Washington State for the summer.

By: crabappleherbs

crabappleherbs — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:19:47 +0000

Hi Mary.

I think poke grows in Washington state. If you want to find it, watch for the dark purple berries late in the summer — see if you can find a local herbalist to help you identify it.