I have harvested poke shoots to eat as a vegetable many times. It must be thoroughly cooked in at least two changes of water, but is pretty good after that, if one can get past the roof-of-the-mouth itchiness like what happens with spinach and chard. I have also made pickles from the young shoots. But one year I froze some batches of young shoots by blanching them first as one often does with vegetables. Later, in haste, I cooked the frozen product only till it was a little more than thawed. I found out what kind of poison it is and could never eat it again. In herbal literature it is known as a "cathartic," and, wow, is it ever! Read Euell Gibbons. In all of my poke collecting, however, I did not suffer any skin irritation. When I was a kid, we sometimes used the mature stalks as clubs and beat one another over the head with them; hmm. OT, Dell