Monday, September 13, 2010

Some things in Brooklyn

...that did not make it into previous posts: the sweepings, if you will:

The old New York Port Authority Grain Terminal, in Red Hook.

Scaffolding built for someone's vegetable and herb garden to raise it up into the sun out of a dark alleyway.

Ripe pokeweed. The cooked juice is apparently edible, the raw, poisonous, but reports are conflicting. They sure look delicious. At Storms River Mouth in South Africa I have them to thank for my only sighting of a Knysna lourie (now known as a turaco) in February this year. The gorgeous bird was eating them beside the path and flew off as we approached.

Apparently how the police arrive in Red Hook, when called.

9 comments:

  1. First picture is a bit of a sore spot but I'll fix that soon...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here on the mainland, in the Cretaceous period when I was young, pokeweed was rampant and was called inkberry bush. And the berries -- do not eat! -- were sometimes used for that purpose. I'd like to try it again.

    hmm. the wv is "lowsemop"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow. I saw that first shot of the grain terminal and thought it was from here in Buffalo. We have six or seven of those grain elevators on our waterfront -- waiting to either rot or be developed. I'm assuming rot. It'll take centuries!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beence - Take you flashlight and headlamp. And a snorkel?

    My Croft, yeah, I know...The young shoots are very good (cooked) according to my Learned Leader in Things Foraged: Ellen.

    Hi Jim - really? This one is pretty majestic all on its own. Maybe it will become high income condos...hard to know.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I will make you pokeweed soup. I have frozen young shoots just waiting for a special occasion. I promise it will be better than that carrot soup I should never have served you. I hope to redeem myself with poke.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm fairly sure you can eat Poke Salad made from the greens, but am also fairly sure you want to pick them young and tender. Ellen may know....or Flower Jane?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I know nothing of such salad.

    At work we call if dock and use it in flower arrangements, along with datura and castor beans.

    It's a dangerous business that flower designing.

    Wish I had a little skull and crossbones symbol to sign off. xo

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes, poke salat can be made from young shoots and greens, but don't confuse it with salad. It's NOT eaten raw. Salat is an Appalachian term referring to greens, not the salad that includes raw vegetables.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ellen _ I will be a sacrificial guinea pig to your pokeweed soup. I look forward to it.

    Have ever eaten guinea pig?

    Jane - wow, that's a potent arrangement you do!

    webb, hark ye, cook the polk weed.

    ReplyDelete

Comments on posts older than 48 hours are moderated (for spam control) . Yours will be seen! Unless you are a troll. Serial trollers are banned.