Poke Berries Devine

Male Purple Finch

                                                 
For two weeks the birds have been flitting back and forth across the yard like crazy.  They would land in the magnolia and from there dart into the forsythia hedgerow.The shrubs were planted along what at one time was the driveway leading into a garage underneath the house.  I wake to the birds loud chirping as they fuss with one another.  There are many finches,  gold and purple, a pair of cardinals, a mockingbird that lives in the crab apple tree and, of course, the big black birds that don't bother with anything in the yard as there are plenty of corn fields around us.  They do love to add to the chorus though.  I found the menagerie were trying to get the last of the poke berries left on a what  once was a fine specimen of the herb growing through the hedgerow.  It was on its last leg and had only a few berries left.  But, the little ones wanted to fill their bellies with the delectable berries.

                                              
When I was little I would go out into the yard and along its edge  with  my Grandmother while she picked tender young leaves from the poke weed and the small light green leaves of dandelions to use as a salad.  She would add lettuce if she had it and  then pour hot bacon grease over the leaves to wilt them.  That, a cold biscuit left from breakfast, or a slice of last nights cornbread and a glass of buttermilk would be lunch.  Sometimes there would be fried country ham to reheat and stick between a sliced biscut or  to break up and 'garnish'  the greens with.