Posted on 03/31/2006 8:40:59 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Tossing a bit of trivia into the salad, the gunnysacks often used to collect wild greens were often referred to as 'pokes'.
In the days before our sophisticated (refrigerated) food distribution system, a lot of wild greems were popular because they emerged very early in the spring--before anything in the garden was producing and folks were plain hungry for something 'green'. The other plus is that it's 'found food'--the labor being only in the finding as opposed to the planting & tending...and collection is something that kids could be tasked to do.
My mom grew up in the Ozarks--they kept hogs, chickens and a garden. But they also foraged for food--from early greens to summer berries to nuts in the fall. And they ate a lot of small game, too.
wonder if they ever smoked any "weed"?
I've been a forager since I was a child. Where I live now, in Soutnern Maryland, pawpaws and serviceberries are particularly abundant.
My Grampa's definition of weed may apply. He used to say that a weed is "A plant growing in a place other than where you want it."
Makes sense to me!
Me too.
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