Poke Salad (Annie)

I Got Some Big Weeds A Big Weed In My Yard


Ever since we wandered up here to the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River from the Georgia Coast, I've been a lazy butt and paid someone to bring a leaf blower and various other lawn implements to my house once a week to cut my lawn.

I cringe when I make that admission because my mother who was born before WWII still cuts her own grass today, but in my defense I did spend most of the month of February in the hospital before we moved and my physical conditioning is only today returning to the level required to stand behind or ride on top of a lawnmower for an hour or so each weekend.

Also, remember that I have lived in condos and rental houses adjacent to the beach since my last personal residence in which I had an ownership stake burned down in 2001--making my lawn mower and the balance of my lawn tools handle less and un-useable by most standards. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the assholes I paid to board up the gaping doors and windows of the burned out hulk of a building helped themselves to my lawnmower and everything else that wasn't tied down and burned up after the conflagration.

Any way, as a result I've only spent a little bit of time wandering around the property inspecting the details--because details bother me and make me want to take action--and without the associated lawn tool I would have to resort to taking my good kitchen knives out in the yard to do some pruning and my kitchen comes ahead of my yard these days regardless of the circumstances.

Last week I was taking a stroll and doing inventory of all the things that needed doing and the lawn dudes with the leaf blowers weren't taking care of when I discovered that most of a shrub I'd been looking at for over four months now was not a shrub...

It was a giant weed.

POKE SALAD...TO BE SPECIFIC. (Que the sound of the kitchen storm door slamming and me going outside to take a picture...)






Isn't that LOVELY?

How in the world did I not notice it before this week?

I can't decide whether to cut it down or wait until the first frost and cook it.


While doing a little googling just now I ran across the song by Tony Joe White entitled "Poke Salad Annie." My musical partner Dave and I used to do a sloppy rendition of the song back in the days when I was assaulting Mexico Beach, Florida with my Harmonicas.

Take a listen to Johnny Cash and Mr. White doing a duet on the song on the Johnny Cash show in the late 1960's or early 1970's:



Here's tony Joe about 35 years later in Japan...ironically singing "Rainy Night in Georgia":



Time to go finish brunch now if you will excuse me...