McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
It is springtime and the vegetation, with the warmth of the last few days, has seemingly sprung to life and among it there may be many good and tasty wild greens.
During the depression, for many families of McLean County, picking wild greens and berries were spring and summer time chores that provided much needed food. I can’t identify all of them today but I remember curly dock, lambs quarters and poke.
Poke or Pokeweed, whose sprouts look something like asparagus shoots is bland and almost tasteless and though some cooked it only seasoned, it was better mixed with other wild greens that it made it more palatable, even delicious. In some southern areas it was cooked with peppery tasting dryland cress and was called poke sallet. In those areas it is still enjoyed today and there are many Poke Sallet festivals. The folks in Harlan, Kentucky have been gathering for 49 years and will celebrate their festival on June 3rd.
My mother and I gathered along old meadows, fence rows and hillsides and would snip and cut until we had a bucket piled high. It took a sizable amount to make “a mess” for our family. To clean them, we looked at every leaf, turning it over to look at both sides. Then the leaves would be dumped into a large pan of water, rinsed and shaken, then into another pan of water and finally after a third rinse they were put into a large iron kettle to parboil. Parboiling kept them from tasting strong. After parboiling, the water was drained and fresh water, salt and several spoonfuls of bacon “grease” were added. Then they were allowed to cook until all water was gone. Along with the greens country ham or slab bacon, dried beans and cornbread were served.
Blackberries were ripe in July and we got up early before the heat of the day to pick them. The berries left a dark red stain on our hands and we got many scratches from the briars. I usually came home with chiggers and was afraid of snakes, so many times I said “I would never again pick them,” but was always reminded that if we picked and canned the blackberries in the summertime we could have my favorite, blackberry cobblers, all through the winter. So, always, each year when they ripened I was among the pickers of that wonderful wild berry.
The wild cherry, papaw, persimmon, walnut, hickory nut and sassafras trees gave nourishment and comfort to many. The wild cherries from the trees that lined the back fence of our home place were gathered and made into wonderful jelly by both our family and our neighbors.
Papaws, sometimes called wild bananas, were eaten by so many that they became known as “Hoover bananas.” When ripe they are three to five inches long and very dark brown. Persimmons, an orange colored fruit about the size of a walnut is very sweet and is sometimes called possum apples as the possums fatten on them.
Puddings were made from this wild fruit. Walnut and hickory nuts were gathered, stored and used through the winter in cakes, pies and candies. The roots of the sassafras were cut and marketed, sold in small bundles. When boiled the little sticks made a fragrant tasty, garnet red tea. Some people thought it had medicinal value but today it is thought to cause disease and is rarely ever seen.
Wild fruits and wild game played an important part in keeping us fed. Landon Wills, editor of the McLean County News wrote at the time: “Any self-respecting clodhopper ought to be able to get through the summer on blackberries and young rabbits. Then Papaws, persimmons and squirrels come on and should last until hog killing time. If people managed the season right they shouldn’t have to buy any groceries except sugar and salt. If they saved enough molasses from the previous winter, they could use it for sweetening and skip sugar”.
The wild game, greens, berries, fruits and nuts kept us though a harsh time and are just as delicious today.
Don’t forget our spring meeting on April 24th, 1PM at the museum Smith House, 540 Main Street, Calhoun. Anyone interested in the museum is invited to attend.