Every part of the pokeweed plant – especially the roots – are poisonous. Severe poisoning has even been reported from drinking tea brewed from pookewed root and pokewood leaves. Even burning the plant before it’s very dry can be dangerous to people – and to sheep.
We have a fair amount of pokeweed growing around the edges of the farm, and I think some of our sheep have occasionally eaten some of the berries – we sometimes find them foiaming at the mouth.
We cut the pokeweed plant and burn it when its dry several times a year, and in all these years, we’ve never lost a sheep to it. But we cut it and burn it whenever we can. It’s a tough plant to kill.
We had a burning this afternoon. In the Spring, we’re planninbg to hire our landscaper to dig it out from the roots up.
My family have always eaten pokeweed … cooked as turnip and mustard greens are cooked. The leaves and even the stalks (peeled) can be cooked without any ill effects. Only the berries and roots are poisonous. The berries can be used to make dye. Nothing better than a big pot of poke eaten with cornbread. Yummy!