Pokeberry "ink" can improve solar collectors. When I was a

[alfredo]

younger man I ate poke. It was OK, but not my favorite food. Glad to see there is a use for the poisonous (to humans) berries. They are the source of the purple stains on your car in late summer.

Below is the story:

http://inhabitat.com/2010/04/30/purple-pokeberries-could-help-provide-low-cost-solar-for-developing-nations/

Wake Forest researchers and their accompanying company, FiberCell Inc., are the first group to file a patent for fiber-based solar cells. To create the cells, scientists stamp plastic fibers onto large, plastic sheets, forming millions of tiny “cans” that trap light until it is absorbed. The fibers create a larger surface area so light can be collected at any angle from the time the sun rises until it sets. By coating the plastic sheets with a layer of purple pokeberry dye, the fibers can absorb even more sunlight to convert to power.

Designers say the plastic sheets can produce about twice as much power as current flat-cell technology. Because the plastic sheets are flexible and can be rolled up, scientists hope to ship the tech to developing nations like those in Africa. Workers could then coat the cells in dye from locally grown pokeberries. The system could create a low-cost and environmentally friendly method of providing electricity to those who normally live without power.


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My grandmother, ever the fashion critic remarked on a young girl with bright red lipstick by saying, "her lips look like a bird's ass in pokeberry time.

[Liberal Veteran]

1. I remember grandma bitching whenever I got any of that stuff on my clothing.

It was not the easiest stain to get out. But it does grow fast.

[Warpy]

2. Pokeweed salad and sauteed fiddlehead ferns

were free food back east, things you'd eat in spring and early summer because the garden hadn't come in yet and you were desperate for something green and fresh.

I didn't like either of them, but they were free.

[alfredo]

4. I liked the young shoots. You skin the stem and fry them.

I liked Milkweed the best. It was very high in Vit A.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. I've tried pokeweed a few times and I didn't like it at all. I also noticed

that pokeweed was one of the few green things in the pasture that the cows wouldn't touch. That was enough for me and I've never eaten pokeweed again.

[alfredo]

8. You have to get it young, just like most greens. Dandelion is only edible when

very very young. Cows won't eat milkweed because of the latex in it. For humans to eat it, you need to pour the boil water off a few times. Some acorns, the ones from black oaks, need to have the tannins leached out.

Spinach for some, needs to be cooked to break down the oxalic acid. Kale is inedible when raw. It's very bitter raw, same with mustards. Even after they are cooked, vinegar masks left over bitterness.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. I used to pick it for my grandmother and she insisted that I only pick

the leaves that were shorter than my index finger, so it was the young stuff that I tasted. She would change the water at least 3 times when she cooked it, but that didn't improve the flavor, as far as I was concerned. I've tasted it when other people cooked it, too, and it all tasted nasty to me. I like other greens, but I just don't eat pokeweed.

[alfredo]

11. Poke weed is like eating week old road kill, it's an acquired taste.

[madokie]

14. As a kid we used to pick poke and sell it

it went to Allen Canning Company in Arkansas and they did what ever is required and canned it for sale for people food. I don't ever remember being able to eat any of it though. A few years back I was home and looking at the new poke shoots coming up so I picked some and brought it in a boiled it changing the water three or four times but it was so nasty smelling I finally just threw it out without even trying to see if I could eat it. Have to be mighty hungry to eat that stuff.

I'm happy to see they have found this use for the pokeberries though as from the article it sounds like this discovery along with that type of solar cell they're talking about will change the way we look at home grown electricity.

[Catshrink]

3. Poke Salad Annie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEpBdDv0waY

[gristy]

6. I see nothing of merit here

A company with two professors, two grad students, and a CEO named "Bob". A web site with just 3 pages, no links to published papers, and no efficiency claims whatsoever.

:thumbsdown:

[alfredo]

7. As with all announcements of advancements, we wait and see. The encouraging

aspect is that people are experimenting.

[fascisthunter]

12. it's an effort I encourage whether it fails or not

the point is to try.

[mzteris]

9. love your grandma. . . n/t

[alfredo]

13. She was our protector.