written by Tony Joe White

Down in Louisiana
Where the alligators grow so mean
There lived a little girl that I swear to the world
Made the alligators look tame

Poke salad Annie, poke salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her mama was working on the chain-gang
(A mean, vicious woman)

Everyday 'fore supper time
She'd go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess o' polk salad
And carry it home in a tote sack

Poke salad Annie, 'gators got you granny
Everybody said it was a shame
'Cause her mama was aworkin' on the chain-gang

Her daddy was lazy and no count
Claimed he had a bad back
All her brothers were fit for
Was stealin' watermelons out of my truck patch

Poke salad Annie, the gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame Cause her mama was a working' on the chain gang
(Sock a little polk salad to me, you know I need a mess of it)

Special Dedication to Cindy of
Cindy's Bayou Designs

This is one of my favorite songs, being from Louisiana,
I think it may be a requirement...lol I've also eaten poke
salad many many times. My Dad used to sing this song
so it brings back some wonderful memories.

There is a delicacy here in the Deep South that is free
and available to anyone.

This vegetable cannot be purchased from a grocery story, but it
can be picked from most any back yard or bartered from a friend
or neighbor. This plant is called poke salad, or poke salit, as
some folks says it. I always thought it was called poke salad
because it has the appearance of salad greens and when you pick
the leaves, you put them in a poke (that is a paper sack for you
non-southerners). As a matter of fact, it grows in my back yard.

My Granny would boil and rinse hers several times to be sure they
were safe for us to eat. Then she would put the boiled and rinsed
leaves in a big cast iron skillet with some bacon drippings with a
half cup (or more) of chopped green onions. She would break eggs
into a bowl and stir them to scramble and then add the eggs to her
greens and onions and cook until the scrambled eggs were done.
Nothing was better than my Granny's poke salad and eggs.
(That was also the only way she could get us kids to eat Spinach too)

Cindy

Song
"Poke Salad Annie"
©Elvis Presley

©Cindy's Bayou Designs

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