Recipe - Hoosier Poke Sprouts

16 to 20 poke sprouts
2 tablespoon Butter
2 tablespoon Flour
1 cup Milk
One half teaspoon Salt
Black pepper; to taste
One half cup Mild Cheddar cheese; grated
12 sl Crispfried bacon or
4 sl Canadian bacon
4 Squares buttered toast or
4 English muffins
buttered and toasted
1 tablespoon Chives; chopped

Gather poke sprouts in the early spring when they are 6 to 8 inches tall,
snapping off the entire stalk with its unfurling leaves above the ground,
as you would pick asparagus.

Clean the poke sprouts and boil them gently in salted water to cover, until
the stalks are just tender. Drain sprouts and keep them warm until served.

While poke sprouts are cooking, make a white sauce of the butter, flour,
milk, salt, and pepper. As the sauce thickens, stir in the Cheddar cheese;
continue cooking until cheese is blended.

Have ready and keep warm the slices of bacon, drained well, and the
buttered toast.

For each serving, top a toasted bread slice with 3 slices of bacon and put
4 or 5 poke sprouts on top. Cover the poke sprouts with cheese sauce and
sprinkle with chopped chives.

Note: Poke sprouts can be forced indoors in a flat in wintertime. In late
autumn, dig the roots of at least two dozen pokeweed plants. Chop off each
large root about six inches from the crown and plant in a large,
earthfilled box with the crown portions barely covered. Take the box
indoors to the cellar after freezing weather has set in, and keep it
watered. Or place in a garage or on a porch where the temperature does not
go below freezing, and invert a cardboard box over the top. In a few weeks,
each crown will produce several crops of blanched poke sprouts which can be
cut for use as soon as they have reached a height of about eight inches. Do
not let the sprouts grow tall enough to develop purple coloring in the
stalks. After the sprouts are cut, another crop will grow.

Use the sprouts in recipes calling for asparagus. Dandelions and chicory
can be forced by the same method. The blanched greens are very tender and
mild.

From "The Wild Flavor" by Marilyn Kluger. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher,
Inc., 1984. Pp. 79, 8889. ISBN 0874773385. Posted by Cathy Harned.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini