Pokeberries. Those little dudes are pretty controversial. I have had folks tell me how their mommas or grandmas used to make jelly out of them. I have also had other folks tell me that they are poison. I was just curious enough to want to know for myself. So, I picked a nice ripe one and rubbed the juice on my lips and waited to see if anything happened. The juice was sweet and, after about a half hour, nothing had happened to convince me that they were acutally poison. So, the next bush that I came to, I picked a handfull and put them in my mouth. The juice was sweet and very nice but when I chewed up the seeds and tried to swallow them, it was like trying to swallow dry sand. They stuck in my throat and irritated it to the point that I thought I was litterally going to choke to death. It took about an hour before I had finished coughing. If there is any poison in those berries, it is in the damned seeds. I can see where the juice could be made into some delicious jelly but don't put any of the seeds in your mouth. Throw those things in the garbage. In the woods, I will pick and eat the berries but I just suck the juice and spit the seeds.
