I'm From Around Here, I Really Am.

The Poke Salat Festival. If it were anything other than Poke Salat, it wouldn't be a big deal. But because a town celebrates a weed, which is poisonous and people eat it, it is something different.

It's become a Channel 19 tradition to broadcast live from Poke Salat Headquarters, the L' Rancho Cafe, on the first morning of the festival. It's fun. People seem to enjoy watching me eat the first official Poke Salat of the year.

But for some reason people have this idea that because I'm a news reporter, I must not be from around here. That's a good guess, seeing as how I actually am the only reporter at our station who grew up here in North Alabama. But everyone who comes through the door at the L'Rancho wants to explain to me exactly what Poke Salat is and where it comes from. The truth is that I'm very familiar with Poke. If you grow up around here you can't help but know. I used to pick the stuff when I was a kid for my grandmother. She liked it. My mom actually has a picture of me picking Poke Salat when I was about six.

So why's it called Poke Salat? Well, people used to call a bag or a sack, a poke. They would go pick this stuff and put it in their poke, thus poke salat. Why is it spelled with a "t" instead of a "d". That I don't know.