Poke Berries

Are poke berries edible? They look so good!

i don't think so. Birds do eat them though.

Thanks Don......Anyone else know?

I was always told they were poisonous. I never pressed my luck for first hand knowledge though!

FOr all, see below, enjoy

Pokeweed. This is also known by other names including poke, poke berry and pokebush. Although birds can digest pokeweed, the berries are poisonous to humans. The berries are dark purple, while the flowers of pokeweed are greenish-white.

Pick65

I thought you could make jelly out of it. The cooking breaks dow the poison. But I could be wrong and usualy am.

i've messed with alot of it and never even like to touch the berries.have always been told they are really poisonous.we grow in giant manure piles and harvest with a skid steer,some roots grow quickly to 30 to 40 pounds this way.always thought it would make a great trap dye the way it turns everything purple.

Heard that two a day would hold off those crosseyed neckbreaking migraines I get but I'm leery even thoughthe old lady was way older than me. Gets bad enough I will try em out

I dug up a couple a week our so ago and was veryu surprised to see how big they are.
I've always been told, and have read, that the berries are poison to humans, but you can eat the young plants when they first come up. I'll stay away from eating any part of them.

The young plants taste great ,especially when you fix it with eggs. We always call it green eggs.

Nope! I was thinking of somthing else. the roots and berries are poisonous.

You could make coon bait out of them. coon must eat the darn things because I have caught and bought lots of coons that have a stain inside their belly that looks identical to poke berries.

any market for the roots?

yepper karl, dried root sells for 50-75 cents per pound.

there used to be a market for poke berries,,,not sure what happened to it.

i'd go grab a bunch of 5 gallon bucket fulls.......then sit at night picking them off as listened to the radio. i'd put them in an old dehydrator lined with wax paper.

Bear eat them, August-september you can find where they've tore patches of the poke berries up.

Where would I sell the roots?

I've always been told that the berries are poison but, I've also seen many children eat them. The only side effect I've noticed was stained lips, and purple little hands. I'm not so certain they are poisonous or not? It's a shame they can't be used for something, they are actually very pretty little berries!

kinda strange that we were discussing this........my buyer called me this evening,,,needs a special order of poke berries............not a big one though....just 10lbs.


i hadn't sold any in years.

Poke berry flesh isn't toxic but the seeds inside the berries are. People usually don't have bad side effects from swallowing a berry, but all parts of poke plant should be considered toxic, esp. leaves stems and roots. I've heard of pokeberry jam, never made it or seen it around though...but seeds are always strained out and never crushed. There is an old folk remedy for rheumatic complaints that uses poke berries, it goes like this:

When the berries are ripe, begin regimen:

Day one, swallow one berry whole. (This prevents the accidental tooth crushing of seeds)
Day two, swallow two berries whole.
Day three, swallow three berries whole.
Day four, swallow four berries whole.
Continue in this manner up to day nine with nine berries, and on day ten begin decreasing by one berry a day, so,
Day ten, swallow 8 berries whole
Day eleven, swallow 7 berries whole
...Continue until you get down to zero berries and that's it. I've heard tell that rheumatic complaints will disappear for a long time following this.

Never tried it, this is just as how it has been handed down to me from folk herbalists with decades of experience.

You can make poke berry water by putting a little cluster of berries in a glass jar of water in a sunny window and let steep until the water turns pink, drink a scant 1/4 c 1-2 times a day to clear out a cold or something that has been "poking" around in your system for awhile. I have tried that, works nice.

Greens are edible in spring but only when shorter than 8" high, if red starting to show despite under 8" the toxins are too high. After collecting spring greens they must be boiled in three separate changes of clean water before sauteing....delicious sauteed with some bacon fat. In the south some towns will have poke greens festivals in the spring.

Root is a powerful lymphatic, drying removes some bit of the caustic nature, should only be administered by a qualified practitioner in small doses.

-HerbWiseWife

This is most interesting and appreciated info. Could you please explain this quoted part? I'm not clear on what the Lymphatic is or used for. I would like to understand it better.

The bears sure like em!

Neighbor burnt his feet real bad and did not go to doctor. He used polk root poultices to draw out the infection. He said you had to be careful because the root is so strong.

I heard or read somewhere a polk berry a day will eliminate arthritis. Quantity is poisonous though.

Deer love'em, too. They're real high in crude protein.

I have eeaten the greens and stalks. I used to think they had to be young and green also, but my grandmother cooks them when they are older also. However the older pithy stalks are no good. You do have to par boil twice before they are edible.
I have never had the berries however I have been told that once the seed are removed they can be made into a jelly. I was told the seeds and roots are never edible.

A lymphatic herb is one that assists the body in flushing toxins out through the lymphatic system.

A buddy and I had a conversation several years ago about rinsing poke in changes of boiling water. He said he never did and ate them his whole 52 yrs of life. I told him that the oxolic acid would cause kidney stones, he laughed. Labor day found him in the ER with more than one large kidney stones.

Poke Berry juice is said to be a good cure for rheumatism. Naturalists have a recipe (it can be found online) for making a wine that they believe helps with many different ailments. I am trying to develop a market for the dry berries. Would anyone be interested in collecting and drying the berries next year?

If you have a market. I have the berries. lol