Date:  Sat, 7 Oct 1995 16:31:48 -0400

From:  Seth Sklarey <crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IPOF.FLA.NET>

Subject: Re: Polk salad and rampy stuff



>Someone asked, "what is poke salad?"

>

>Polk is a wild green (kin, I guess, to mustard and collards and stuff) That

>is a COOKED "salit." At least one company still cans it commercially, I

>think. When I waas interviewing in Newton County, AR, in 1970, people

>were gathering it to sell to the cannery.

>

>But who knows about ramps? East Tennessee hosts an annual Ramp Festival,

>complete with a Ramp Queen and a band and sometimes the guv. Ramps are

>kin to wild onions and they are traditionally the first spring

>vegetable to poke up from under the snow or ice. They taste

>wonderful, but they have a goddawful smell. The first time I went to the

>Ramp Festival, a group of us went on to Gatlinburg from the Festival

>and we left raw ramps in the ar in the sunlight. The car stank for days.

>Newspapers have carried stories about kids who ate them on the way to

>school and were summarily sent back home after they arrived, not

>bating their breath.

>

>BTW, collards is the "green" I grew up on, and it remains my favorite --

>except when I am having Spinach Maria.

>

>Bethany Dumas

>dumasB[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]utk.edu

>

>hi fromcrissie & welcome to the net