wildflowers

[James C Stalker]

You question jogs my memory.  As a matter of fact, my mom called the
collection of salad greens (aka weeds) poke salad, even though it was
cooked, not served raw, and was a mixture of greens, not just pokeweed.
(This hot cold thing is interesting as a side bar.  German/Dutch cole slaw,
cabbage salad, can be hot or cold, at least in my wife's German heritage.)
Back to my mom.  She did include young poke greens in the mix.  As these
wild greens got older they became bitter or toxic.  Poke salad was a spring
dish.

Now, as for Tony Joe White.  I only heard the song and never saw the lyrics.
I always assumed that I was hearing poke salad.  (As a matter of fact, I
heard Tony Joe say "salat" rather than "salad.")  I just googled "Poke Salad
Annie," and indeed the "official" title is Polk Salad Annie.  However, the
transcriber of the lyrics that came up first left the title untouched, but
changed almost all of the "polks" to "pokes."  The description of the greens
in the lyrics fits with pokeweed.  Why "polk"?  Possibly a hypercorrection
or an older spelling representing an older pronunciation.  In Appalachian
English /l/ tends to be deleted before final stops.  You can hear the
deletion in Patty Loveless's "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" where 'cold'
becomes /cod/.  You also hear final /l/ deletion, 'coal' becomes /co/. The
/l/ deletion is not unusual.  Dennis can no doubt fill in the details.   I
don't know Louisiana dialects well enough, nor Tony Joe's origins, to know
whether he assumed that "poke" had to have an /l/, just as non-rhotic folks
are never sure where they are missing those /r/s that rhotic folk worry
about so much, so he spelled it that way, or he was more poke/polk literate
than I and spelled it right.  However, MW 11 does not list 'polk' as a
variant spelling.

Jim

Wilson Gray writes:

> Jim, would you happen to know whether poke(weed) and poke/polk salad
> are the same thing? I know what poke(weed) is, but I know the term,
> "polk salad," only from a song. Do you recall a bit of blue-eyed soul
> by one Tony Joe White from Louisiana? He had a one-hit wonder entitled
> "Polk-Salad Annie," i.e. "Poke-Sallid Aynih," described as "a mean,
> vicious, straight razor-totin' 'oman"?
>
> -Wilson
>
> On May 18, 2005, at 10:25 PM, James C Stalker wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       James C Stalker <stalker at MSU.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: wildflowers
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --------
>>
>> In the spring, I used to follow my mother around our ex-urban
>> neighborhood,
>> in development but not developed, as she collected up greens for
>> supper--dandelion, poke, and other stuff.  Even in the spring they were
>> pretty strong tasting, but good.  My regret is twofold: as a linguist,
>> I
>> didn't pay attention to the names; as an eater, I can't replicate her
>> search.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> Arnold M. Zwicky writes:
>>
>>> On May 17, 2005, at 12:01 PM, sagehen wrote:
>>>
>>>> arnold writes:
>>>>
>>>>> and there are strains of some weedy
>>>>>
>>>> wildflowers -- even dandelions! -- that are meant for cultivation,
>>>> though i tend to be wary indeed of them.<
>>>> ~~~~~~
>>>> Those dandelions that are cultivated for food are usually not
>>>> actually the
>>>> same as the wild ones, /Taraxacum/, but are a variety of chicory,
>>>> /Cicchorium/.
>>>
>>> i've seen both offered for sale.
>>>
>>>> Wild dandelions are a wonderful food plant. In our cool New England-
>>>> like
>>>> summers we can eat them from early spring until well after frost in
>>>> the
>>>> fall.
>>>
>>> yes indeed.  in my eastern pa. childhood, the beginning of spring was
>>> signaled by my pa. dutch grandmother going out and grubbing in the
>>> snow for dandelion greens, which she'd prepare with "endive
>>> dressing" ["endive" here = chicory], mostly curdled milk and bacon.
>>> yum.
>>>
>>> arnold
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> James C. Stalker
>> Department of English
>> Michigan State University
>>
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University