Poke weed grows wildly across my area and is considered an annoying weed. All of the plant is quite poisonous- with the berries and roots being the most poisonous. The leaves when prepared properly are edible, but it requires work. That said, I’ve heard it’s delicious. There are other native edibles that are easy to prepare and I’d rather forage those. I watched a video on dyeing with these berries that sparked the idea to make ink.

The berries look black on the plant and the plant has pretty little flowers that bees and other pollinators love. Birds love the seeds and after consuming them leave brilliantly purple poops on my car that can stain the clear coat. Gross.

I don’t generally care about poke weed but leave it around my yard for pollinators and the birds, despite the staining poop. This year I decided to harvest some of the berries and attempt to make an ink. I knew the ink would be purple or pinkish but also hopefully worth the effort.

I picked about a cup of berries, I didn’t want to go too far into it as I wasn’t sure how the ink would or would not work. I added in the same amount of water and then some to really cook the berries down. I brought the berries and water to a rolling boil and then lowered the temp to a gentle simmer. I let them simmer for roughly a half hour. I wish I had done this outside as the smell of the berries was quite unpleasant. Bitter and herbaceous in an unpleasant way. I am not a fan.

After the simmer I allowed the mixture to cool off and then I strained it through a mesh strainer for paint. I squeezed the liquid from the seeds and pulp which I added into my compost pile.

I then returned this to the burner and brought it back up to a gentle simmer. I checked it every 15 minutes and then when it reduced down to about 1/3 the original volume I checked it every 5 minutes. I brought it to about a quarter cup of liquid. I allowed this to cool before decanting into a vinegar cruet. I added about a teaspoon of gum arabic powder and shook it well. I then added in a drop of lemongrass essential oil.

The resulting ink is a brilliant magenta. I have no doubt that this color is fugitive and will change color over time and eventually disappear. The color does seem to react with some papers and turn a bit blueish in tone. That said my intent with this ink is sketchbooks only.

Some notes- Again I believe this has a fair amount of sugar content. It’s not visible in the image but there is sheen in the areas where the ink pooled even in small layers. I believe a fermentation stage would reduce the sugars. I know some makers of homemade ink use vodka or other alcohols for preservation and to inhibit molding, but that impacts how the ink moves on the page- it acts as a flow agent and causes the ink to soak into the paper more. I’ll experiment with it at some point. I need to check and see if the poke berry pigment is PH reactive, I suspect from the blueish-ness on one paper that it is. If I make this one again I will boil this ink down a lot more.

It is extremely important that the poke berries are prepared in a container that will not be used for food. The berries are quite poisonous. In the future I will cook this sort of ink outside as the smell was quite gross to me.