Wintersown.org is offering free seeds for anyone who wants to try sowing their seeds during winter months.
The site includes free seeds, but also donated heirloom tomato seeds a some great information for beginners.
Also, Ed Hume Seeds is offering free seeds for anyone who wants to participate in Plant A Row for the Hungry program.
Pokeberry or Phytolacca americana grows in nearly any available spot of disturbed land in Arkansas. You will see it sprouting in fields, along hedges and near any pasture border. And when ripe those plump, nearly black berries look oh so sweet.
Don’t dare eat them though. Though the plant does have some medicinal properties, only a skilled practitioner should use this plant.
Historically, the plant has been used for Poke Salet, which is the green leaf boiled several times and mixed with other ingredients. According to some accounts, the leaf must be prepared this way or it will poison any who ingest it.
In Lowell, there are more pokeberry bushes than we know what to do with, though I know what I’d like to do with them–no I don’t do the Salet.
I have to admit the bush is beautiful while the berries are fully ripe, but to be honest the asthetic doesn’t ease my mind when children stop to look at those plump, black pearls.
So I think this year, the poke is going the way of the dead branches we just cut from the apple tree. Perhaps a public burning. That’s an idea.
This fruit is growing wild in the Lowell area.
I’ve eaten the fruit before it changed color and it’s very good. Once the color changes, the skin softens and the inside becomes quite mushy.
I tried one after it had darkened and it is rancid! Not only did it burn my mouth, but the flavor is so pungent, it overwhelms.
Be careful if you’re eating wild fruit. It could be poisonous.
update:
For more information about this plant, check out Deane Green’s information page on Melothria Pendula
and watch the video.
