Desert Harvesters June Events

June 17, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / Leave a comment

010 Though newcomers to the Sonoran Desert sometimes miss the abundant fruits, berries, mushrooms, and greens of wetter forests, one Tucson organization wants you to know the desert is full of food: You just have to know where to look for it. Desert Harvesters is a nonprofit grassroots group that promotes the harvest of native, wild, and cultivated desert foods and also advocates for the planting of indigenous, food-bearing shade trees (such as the Velvet mesquite) and understory plantings within rainwater harvesting “gardens” in the landscapes where we live, work, and play. Funds raised at these events support the group’s educational efforts in the community, including demonstrations, publications, and tasting events.

The group announces its summer season of harvesting workshops and activities, which aim to help the public learn how to plant, harvest, process, and prepare wild, native, and local food items, including mesquite pods, ironwood & palo verde seeds, and saguaro fruit. Currently the group is raising funds to support the publication of a revised and expanded version of its 2010 cookbook Eat Mesquite! This new cookbook will include recipes for mesquite and other desert foods, as well as information about how to grow, harvest, and prepare native and local foods. Desert Harvesters is also seeking volunteers to help with (and learn from) these and other events.

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June 18 & 19, 2016

Workshops on Mesquite Pod Tasting, Inspection, and Ticketing and Hammermill Operation for those who want to become Desert Harvesters volunteers or staff, or others wishing to expand their mesquite-related skill sets. Visit http://www.DesertHarvesters.org or email volunteer@DesertHarvesters.org to learn more.

June 23, 2016

DESERT HARVESTERS’ 14th ANNUAL MESQUITE MILLING & WILD FOODS & DRINKS FIESTA Santa Cruz River Farmers’ Market at Mercado San Agustín, 100 S Avenida del Convento, Tucson

Bring your clean & sorted mesquite pods to be milled with our hammermill (fee applies) and taste an array of wild foods.

Harvesters can have their milled mesquite flour tested for aflatoxins (see below) at our 14th Annual Mesquite Milling on June 23, 2016, in Tucson. The cost per test will be a special subsidized fee of only $5.

We will also be serving craft beers (Smoked Mesquite Apple beer as well as a beer finished with creosote flowers) from Iron John Brewing Co. with proceeds going to Desert Harvesters.

June 24, 2016

Desert Harvesters’ Happy Hour at Tap & Bottle

403 N 6th Ave #135, Tucson

5–8 pm

Enjoy great regional brews, some infused with locally sourced native wild ingredients. A percentage of all happy-hour sales goes to Desert Harvesters! A local food truck will also be on site with delicious offerings including native wild ingredients.

BE IN SYNC WITH THE SONORAN DESERT’S NATURAL PATTERNS

To encourage harvesting before the monsoons, and to be more in sync with the Sonoran Desert ecology’s natural patterns, Desert Harvesters has shifted its annual harvesting and milling trainings, along with its mesquite millings and fiesta, to the month of June—BEFORE the summer rains. This is also when our native bean trees (mesquite, desert ironwood, palo verde) are ready to harvest (they produce before the rains so their seed is on the ground ready to germinate when the rains arrive). Regularly check our Calendar of Events for more such event info.

FOOD SAFETY: Aflatoxin and how to avoid it

Aflatoxin is a toxic natural compound produced by certain molds; it can cause liver damage and cancer. Aflatoxin is found in many common foods, but only in small quantities is considered safe (U.S. ≤ 20 parts per billion (ppb), Europe ≤ 2 ppb). We at Desert Harvesters are specifically concerned with the invisible mold (Aspergillus flavus) that can produce aflatoxin B1 on mesquite pods, as well as on other food crops (legumes, corn, etc) that have been exposed to moisture.

HARVEST MESQUITE PODS BEFORE THE RAINS (at higher elevations, harvesting in dry autumn weather may be an option)

Desert Harvesters is now recommending that, as much as possible, harvesters collect mesquite pods BEFORE the monsoon rains. (This can be more difficult at higher altitudes due to later ripening. In these areas the best practice may be to only harvest in dry autumn weather.) The reason for pre-rain/dry-season harvesting is to reduce the pods’ exposure to moisture, and thus the risk of the development of an invisible mold (Aspergillus flavus) and the aflatoxin it can produce. Aflatoxin poisoning can have serious health consequences over the long term, so we want to harvest in a SAFE manner. To further avoid moisture issues with the pods we recommend you do NOT rinse or wash pods.

In the small number of batches of mesquite flour we have tested thus far…ALL mesquite pods we tested which were harvested BEFORE the rains have tested SAFE.

In other words, NO mesquite pods harvested BEFORE the rains had results with unsafe levels of aflatoxin. The U.S.-designated safe limit of aflatoxin is 20 parts per billion (ppb), so safe test results will be 20 or fewer ppb.

However, all test batches of mesquite pods that DID have results with unsafe levels of aflatoxin were harvested AFTER the onset of the rains. Again, in the U.S., safe aflatoxin levels of 20 or fewer parts per billion (ppb) are considered safe. However, many other batches harvested AFTER the onset of the rains tested SAFE.

We hope to continue to share more studies and best harvesting practices.

What to do with mesquite flour?

Sonoran Cookies

Here’s a truly classic recipe from the first EAT Mesquite! Cookbook.We’ve made hundreds of these cookies. The author of the original recipe is unknown. The ones in the photo below are topped with mesquite toffee.

mesq cookies toffee

.25 lb (one stick) butter

1 cup sugar (can be reduced to .75 cup sugar, plus .25 cup mesquite)

1 egg

2 teaspoon vanilla (or local lemon extract)

2 cup corn tortilla meal (or whole wheat flour)

1 cup mesquite meal

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

.5 cup pecans, finely chopped (optional)

Cream softened butter. Mix in sugar, egg and extract. Sift dry ingredients and add to the first mixture. Add nuts (optional) and beat until smooth. Roll dough into 2 inch balls and press onto ungreased cookie sheet. Or, roll dough into thin logs, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate or freeze. Slice cold logs into rounds and place on cookie sheet. (Doubled cookie sheets or Airbake prevent bottoms from browning too fast.) Place in preheated 375 F oven and bake 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on racks until crisp, or eat warm and soft. Makes up to 200 tiny (.75 inch) cookies.

Epazote and Garden Herbs Blend Into Delicious Mole Verde

June 9, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / 6 Comments

This epazote plant has grown to over 6 feet. It was a volunteer in the lettuce bed and loved the rich soil.

Carolyn here this week. This spring I have had epazote sprouting between my tomato plants, epazote in the pea pots, epazote in the kale and in the I’itoi onions. I harvested the last of the chard today and there was an epazote plant hiding in that row. For fun, I left one in the lettuce patch and it has grown over 6 feet, thriving in the rich soil and organic inputs in that area. After taking a picture today, I’m going to pull it before it releases a couple thousand seeds and takes over my entire garden.

I bought my first epazote plant from a lovely Mexican woman at the farmer’s market. That one died, but I tried again the next fall. This time I was more successful and now I can supply epazote to anyone who needs it.

Healthy epazote plant earlier in the spring.

Epazote is a New World herb that originated in Central America and parts of Mexico and in the Nahuatl language is called epazo-tl. It has spread north to the U.S. and to the Caribbean. The scientific name was formerly Chenopodium ambrosoides but has been changed to Dysphania ambrosoides. Interestingly, it is related to quinoa, spinach and beets.

Epazote is used as an flavoring herb and its taste changes slightly as the plant ages. Chew on a leaf of a young plant and you will notice a light citrus-y flavor that starts on your tongue and spreads through your mouth. Leaves from older plants intensify the pine-y or eucalyptus flavor notes that underlie the citrus. Some say it tastes similar to tarragon.

In the Southwest, epazote is most frequently used in cooking black beans for flavor and also for its anti-gas effects. Add two or three sprigs during the last 15 minutes of cooking. If you have access to fresh epazote, feel free to try it in other dishes. A little chopped up in a corn relish adds a spritely flavor. If you make your own mole sauces, add a few leaves, particularly to a green mole. It also goes well in filling for tamales and sprinkled on the cheese in quesadillas

Another traditional use of epazote as developed by the native Mayans is as a tea, particularly as a remedy for intestinal parasites. Epazote includes 60-80 % ascaridole, which is toxic to several intestinal worms.

Herbs for Mole Verde from left: epazote, parsley, oregano, and cilantro.

Here are the vegetables you will use: tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos.

As with most leafy greens, epazote also provides some vitamins and minerals including vitamin A, B-complex vitamins (specifically folic acid) and vitamin C as well as calcium, manganese, copper, potassium, phosphorous and zinc.

Mole Verde

Here’s a recipe for a delicious green mole with epazote. This is a chewy, substantial version due to the pepitas. I served the sauce with sautéed chicken breast pieces and fresh nopalitos from my garden. Makes about 6 generous servings.

Ingredients

1 cup pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)

1 cup roughly chopped white onion (about 1 small)

1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 medium cloves)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 pound tomatillos, husked and cut in eighths (about 5 large)

2 medium jalapeño peppers, roughly chopped (seeds removed for a milder sauce)

1 cup packed coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems

1/2 cup packed coarsely chopped fresh epazote

½ cup parsley leaves

2 tablespoons fresh oregano

2 cups low-sodium chicken stock, divided

Salt, to taste

Directions

Saute the onion, garlic, and tomatillos until soft.

Prepare all your herbs first and set aside. In a medium heavy skillet over medium-high heat, toast pepitas until they start to pop and turn a light golden brown. Toss constantly so they won’t burn. Transfer to a blender and process until finely ground. You will have to stop the blender every few seconds to redistribute the contents.
In a heavy saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the onion until it starts getting translucent. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the tomatillos and jalapeno and cook, stirring frequently until soft.
Transfer the sautéed vegetables to the blender jar with the pepitas and the herbs. Add one cup of the chicken stock and puree until well combined. This may take a couple of minutes.
Return the blended mixture to the saucepan and put it over medium heat. Meanwhile rinse the blender jar with the remaining cup of chicken broth and add to the pot. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes to let the herbs release their flavors and the flavors to blend. Stir frequently.
Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and store in refrigerator for up to 3 days, reheating before use.

Serve the sauce with chicken, fish, or vegetables.

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You can buy seeds for epazote from Native Seeds/SEARCH. They also carry a selection of cookbooks by Carolyn Niethammer. The books are also available online from Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

It is nearly National Pollinator Week!

June 3, 2016June 6, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / Leave a comment

Linda here this first, and very hot, Friday in June.

June brings us all sorts of gifts. The sun is nearing it’s solstice this month (around June 20th), and the heat is intensifying. It is this very heat helps bring the summer rains here in the Southwest. The moon is a New Moon tomorrow – this Saturday – and will be full again around the 20th – just in time to shine light on National Pollinator week!

Most of us know that pollinators are cornerstone species for planet earth. But lets look a little deeper at a few pollinators and link them with some foods/drinks we might have overlooked as pollinator dependent. And with the references to the sun and the moon above – lets look at which pollinators are doing what, and when.

Bees shown below, for instance, are solar beings. They actually have five eyes, not just the two that we can easily see with our own two human eyes. The other three are on top of their head, and they navigate using the sun. So while they spend much of their time inside dark hives, they forage for nectar and pollen while the sun is out, and are not active outside the hive at night. Keeping this in mind can be very helpful for how a beekeeper moves and where she stands in relationship to the sun,when working with bees is important. More about this another time.

Queen Cups (middle comb) being formed in a friend’s hive.

Bats on the other hand, are evening/night pollinators. Among the many many many pollination activities that bats perform are agave flowers! And from agave flowers, grow agave plants. And from the careful work of bats, to the careful work of people (who harvest these plants and bake the “hearts” in the earth to make liquors) come Agave drinks.

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Agave Liquors are thanks to bats. That that tequila in your hands and that makes such an impression on your tounge is there because bats pollinated the agave flower. The Bacanora. The Mescal. All the Agave Liquors … are thanks to bats. Try an Agave Flight sometime. I did for my birthday just this week and it made quite and impression.

Honey bee at a citrus flower

Citrus along side of Tequila Flight are thanks to bees.

Honey bee at a stone fruit flower – peach and nectarines and plums are examples of stone fruit

Bacanora infused with peaches is thanks to both solar bees and nocturnal bats.

If you have never tried bacanora, consider doing so. It has a smoky flavor that is both surprising – and kind of grounding.The hearts of the plants are cooked in “ovens” in the earth for extended periods of time. I also like that smoke is of the “air” – as are bats and bees and flies – well all pollinators.

The peach infused bacanora infuses not only flavor but a beautiful peach color as well.

And while you are at it, you can thank a tiny fly as well. Why flies? They pollinate the flowers that become CHOCOLATE.

It is a strange and wonderful world: flies and bats and stinging bees offer such gifts. I am grateful for the pollinators who enrich both the earth and my culinary world as well . Please write me if/when you connect a pollinator with a favorite food.

Celebrate National Pollinator week in your own way. And consider checking out and even giving to an organization like XERCES ( http://www.xerces.org ) that is doing powerful, quality work.

Seven Trees Cake

May 21, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / 4 Comments

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My friend Marjorie had the idea for a cake made with products from seven trees, so I made up a recipe for her birthday. She doesn’t eat wheat, dairy or sugar, so it was a fun challenge. But I would be happy to serve the results to anyone.

Our cake included local ingredients, including acorn meal, mesquite meal, pecan meal and whole pecans. We topped the cake with fresh apricots and mulberries from my mom’s tree I froze from last month. The cake is sweetened with maple butter.

Marjorie was inspired to harvest and clean urban cultivated Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) acorns by John Slattery. I’ve used acorns in savory items like crackers or soup, but this was my first experiment in dessert. Marjorie’s acorns were dry enough to shell without further drying or toasting.

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Then I ground the meal in a coffee grinder and leached the bitter tannin from the meal using John’s method. Formerly, I had only leached whole acorns or used species that didn’t need leaching. I placed acorn meal in a jar of cold water, shook several times over half an hour or so, strained though a cloth and squeezed out the moisture.

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It’s almost time to harvest mesquite pods to make into meal. To learn all about harvesting mesquite and many other desert foods in the next few weeks, see Desert Harvesters.

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The mesquite in the bottom layer of the cake and the acorn in the top layer shine though. The coconut and pecan are surprisingly neutral as the bulk of the dry ingredients.

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The main wet ingredient is egg, making a very nice moist, dense cake texture, almost like a fruit cake. I used maple butter, a concentrated maple syrup heated and whipped to form a creamy spread, but maple syrup would work. Since maple syrup is less sweet than maple butter, increase the quantity if using. I used ground vanilla pods since someone gave it to me, but twice the amount of vanilla extract would be fine.

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Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. This would make a great muffin or cupcake, too.

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We put a little coconut cream in between the layers to make them stick together.

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The apricots from the farmers market were firm and tart, so we tossed them in a saucepan with a bit of maple butter to glaze them.

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I had mulberries in the freezer from my mom’s tree last month.

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Seven Trees Cake

Makes one 9” cake layer

I made this recipe once with acorn meal to make the top layer, once with mesquite meal to make the bottom layer.

¼ cup coconut flour

¼ cup pecan flour

3 tablespoons acorn meal OR 2 tablespoons mesquite flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla powder

4 eggs

½ cup coconut oil

1/3 cup maple butter

¼ cup coconut cream

Apricots

Mulberries

Whole pecans

Coconut cream to adhere layers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 9” non-stick spring from pan. Sift dry ingredients together and set aside. Mix wet ingredients together. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until pick comes out clean, and cake edges come away from the pan and slightly brown. Remove from pan and cool.

If making two layers, adhere the two with coconut cream. Slice apricots and toss in a pan with a bit of maple butter or syrup until glazed. Arrange fruits and nuts on the top. Store in the refrigerator.

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Brick and Mortar Brownies

May 8, 2016May 8, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / 2 Comments

Linda here. It’s ranged from breezy to downright windy here in the Old Pueblo this spring, affecting the moods of humans and non humans alike. Bees, for example, do not “like” wind, and on windy days I do not check Apis hives. Red eyed and sneezing humans and are affected by the dust and pollen. Like so much in life, winds have a mixed effect on things, both negative and positive.

One of the positives of pollen on the wind is that it can reveal a lot about older ecosystems. I recently learned about this in an article I came across on the science of archeobotany – which is basically the archeology of Things Botanical.

On a windy spring day such as we have experienced here – but in the early 18th century in Colonial Williamsburg – masons were at work laying brick. A mason “slather(s) mortar as he buil(ds) row after row of the buildings foundation”. Unbeknownst to him, he is also building an archeological record of the trees and plants growing at that time. As pollen rode the waves of the winds it came to rest on/in the the mortar and became encapsulated in the building itself.

The mortar acts like a kind of time machine where the pollen of old is extracted and analyzed by archeologists, revealing what plants lived and thrived at the time, in that town: trees, for example, were abundant – (pine oak maple and hornbeam) revealing a tree filled ecosystem in Williamsburg in the early 18th century. Contrasted to pollen from the same town in the later in the 18^th century/early 19^th where/when the mortar reveals that the trees had been cut down – and mostly ragweed and goosefoot pollen are found in that time-frames pollen-mortar revelations. Pretty interesting.

In a similar way Zander (1941) describes honey comb from Apis mellifera (found in a tomb from the Nineteenth Dynasty in Egypt), that was dissolved in water and found to contain mostly pollen from Egyptian avocado and desert dates “which indicate that the plants of Egypt have changes considerably since the time of the pharaohs.”

RECIPE INGREDIETNS: (inspired and amended from the cook book NOURISHING)

-2 medium sized sweet potatoes

– 11-12 fresh dates (pitted)

– ¾ cup cup ground almonds

– 2/3 cup buckweat flour

– 3 tablespoons cacao nibs

– ¼ cup raw cacao powder

– at least 3 tablespoons honey

– zest of one orange – plus the juice

– ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

– ¼ t salt

– 1 tablespoon oil of your choice (olive oil/coconut oil)

– 1 tablespoon almond milk/ or coconut milk if you feel it needs moisture

– Optional 1-2 teaspoons ground chiltepin – seeds and all

HOW TO:

Steam peeled sweet potatoes until soft (approximately 18 minutes) and blend in food processor with the dates and honey.

Mix the dry ingredients together and fold in the sweet potato/date/honey mixture.

Add the juice of the orange whose peel you just “zested”. If the batter is still a little dry you might add a little milk and/or oil.

Add this super power batter to a parchment paper lined baking pan – and cook at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Let cool. Sprinkle with cacao powder, or honey, or chiltepin. Refrigerate – the cold brownie has a wonderful taste (whereas the warm are not so flavorful. )

Everybody Cooks Desert Wild Plants

April 29, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / 3 Comments

It’s Carolyn Niethammer with you this April Friday, my favorite time of year when the Sonoran Desert is bursting with life. The rains weren’t as heavy as El Niño had promised, but there was enough moisture so that our arid-adapted plants could produce a colorful and abundant spring. When I was a young reporter for the Arizona Daily Star we used to have a feature called “Everybody Cooks.” I loved going out into the community and talking to good cooks from all walks of life — Mexican nanas, musicians, business owners, Jewish homemakers — about what they made for holidays and everyday family meals. I recalled those good times earlier this month at the Native Seeds/SEARCH Arid Abundance Potluck.

People arrived at the Arid Abundance Potluck with so many creative uses of the delicacies of a Sonoran desert spring that I just had to document the event.

Chad Borseth shows off his cholla bud appetizer.

Chad Borseth, the manager of the NS/S retail store, started us out with a cholla bud appetizer. There’s an old joke about how a cook made chicken soup in 1880. It starts: first you catch the chicken. This is sort of like that. You do have to harvest, clean (meaning remove the thorns) and dry the cholla buds. Or you can go the the NS/S store and buy some already cleaned and dried. Chad boiled the dried cholla buds for about 45 minutes, drained them and then chilled them in white balsamic vinegar overnight. When he was ready to serve them at the potluck he cut each of them in half and arranged them on a plate and drizzled them with prickly pear syrup. Toothpicks are handy for picking up the delicious little morsels.

Nancy Reid serves up her rich and delicious Green Chile-Cholla Bud Quiche

Nancy Reid, a retail associate at the NS/S store, brought a green chile and cholla bud quiche that she had modified from a recipe in a wonderful but out-of-print NS/S cookbook. She began by melting a tablespoon of butter in the bottom of an 8-inch round pan. In a bowl, she beat 4 eggs. Then she added 3/4 cup cooked cholla buds, 3/4 cup chopped green chiles, 1 cup of cottage cheese, 2 cups of shredded colby/jack cheese, and a little salt. It went in the oven at 325 degrees F. for 40 minutes.

Laura Neff , NS/S retail associate, with her salsa.

What’s a southwestern meal without salsa? Laura Neff’s version includes 1/2 cup dried cholla buds boiled for 45 minutes and drained, 1/2 cup diced tomatoes, 1/4 cup diced red onion, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, 1-2 finely minced jalapenos, and 1 tablespoon of lime juice. She combined everything except the cholla buds in a food processor. The cholla buds were chopped by hand and added at the end.

My friend Connie Lauth wasn’t at the potluck but she made this gorgeous quiche recently for company. Connie lives on the desert at the very end of a road into the Tucson Mountains. While Chad and Laura used dried and reconstituted cholla buds, Connie just walked out her door and picked some fresh ones. She used nopalitos from Food City but by now there are plenty of fresh, new-growth prickly pear pads ready for harvest.

Connie’s Nopalito-Cholla Bud Quiche

Here’s Connie’s recipe:

Connie’s Desert Pie

1 cup of cholla buds

1 cup of nopalitos

½ cup thinly sliced red bell pepper

4 large eggs

1/2 cup milk,

1 ½ teaspoons pico de gallo seasoning

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh cilantro

1 frozen deep dish pie shell

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese

Dethorn cholla buds by holding them with tongs and burning them off over a gas stove.. Rinse. Microwave in a covered dish on high for 4 minutes.

Cut gathered or purchased nopalitos into 1/4-inch dice. Microwave with red bell peppers for about 4 minutes. In a bowl, beat eggs and milk, add seasonings. Layer egg mixture with vegetables and cheese in the pie shell. Bake at 400 degrees about 40 minutes until a knife inserted in center comes out clean

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If you are inspired to try your hand at more desert gathering and cooking, my book Cooking the Wild Southwest: Delicous Recipes for Desert Plants can be your guide to 23 easily recognized, gathered and cooked desert edibles. If you want to harvest some nopales (prickly pear pads), you can find lots of recipes in The Prickly Pear Cookbook. Both books are available in the Native Seeds/SEARCH retail store at 3061 N. Campbell or on their website. The books are also available from Amazon and B&N.

Castor for Sonoran Summers

April 23, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / 1 Comment

Developing seedpods on a castor plant are striking.

Jacqueline Soule here today to talk about a great plant for the summer herb garden, castor bean (Ricinus communis). It is called ricio or higuerilla in Spanish, and called “blech” by small children dosed with it’s oil. It is a member of the Euphorbiaceae, the spurge or poinsettia family, which is widely considered a plant family to avoid consuming, so who first figured the oil was a good laxative and spring tonic?! Not only for internal use, but the oil was popular 3000 years ago for body lotion, hair dressing, and for lamp oil.

Yes, some highly effective medicines, insecticides, and uses of the oil come from the castor seeds (they are not botanically beans), but it is not a plant for home remedies. All parts of the plant contain both useful and highly toxic compounds. I mention the plant today because it was used in the Southwest starting in Father Kino’s time, indeed was planted in his mission gardens, plus it is a lovely ornamental plant. I like to grow castor in my modern day garden as a link to such ancestral gardens.

The seed pods dry to brown and easily release the seed.

Castor beans are toxic due to ricin, a chemical present in the flesh of the seeds, but not present in the oil. Although the lethal dose in adults is considered to be four to eight seeds, reports of human poisoning are rare as the seed coat is quite durable and can pass intact through the human digestive system. Poisoning occurs when animals ingest broken seeds or break the seed by chewing.

Planting and Care.

Castor plants are striking ornamentals. They can vary greatly in growth habit and appearance. The variability has been increased by breeders who have selected a range of cultivars for leaf and flower colors, including scarlet, bronze, or maroon leaves, topped by large, decorative seed pods in shades of red, orange, or maroon. Plants make an excellent temporary screen or exotic backdrop for the back of the border.

In this North Carolina garden, the castor plants provide a backdrop to the annual beds.

Intolerant of frost, castor plants can be started indoors and planted out once the soils warm, or planted directly in the soil in spring. For best results, soak seeds in water for 24 hours before planting. The large seeds should be buried about one inch deep. Castor plants prefer full sun and should be kept evenly moist to get growing.

Harvesting and Use.

It is not recommended to attempt processing of castor oil at home. But do save some seed of your plants, as there is some effort to outlaw their sale.

The 19th Annual Festival of Kino will be held throughout the town of Magdalena, in Sonora Mexico, 18 to 22 of May. This year the celebration commemorates 50 years since finding Padre Kino’s bones.

If you live in Southeastern Arizona, please come to one of my lectures. Look for me at your local Pima County Library branch, Steam Pump Ranch, Tumacacori Mission (founded by Father Kino), Tucson Festival of Books and other venues. After each event I will be signing copies of my books, including the latest, “Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening,” written for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press, $23).

© This article and photos are copyright by Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. Republishing an entire blog post or article is prohibited without permission. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

Spring Salad

April 15, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / 2 Comments

Amy collecting cholla buds

Some years, spring seems to last about a week in the desert, going from winter to summer too fast. When the weather is beautiful, we know to celebrate these days outside!!!!

Romaine hearts and assorted red lettuces

Winter lettuces are still around for a short time more, and the weather is finally warm enough that I feel like eating a salad. Here is a salad made with ingredients I had on hand. I traded for most items, the exceptions being the items I made. I hope this serves as an inspiration to go to a farmers’ market, use little bits of what you have in the refrigerator, go into the desert near your home, and forage in your yard.

Hakurei turnips, Chioggia and Golden beets, Carrots, Kholrabi, , and French Breakfast Radishes.

Hakurei “salad turnips” are so sweet and tender, they can win over stubborn turnip haters, and are a treat raw for turnip lovers.

I steamed and sliced the beets, peeled and sliced the kholrabi, and simply sliced the turnips, carrots and radishes.

I’itoi onions and dill.

For fresh herbs, I used dill and I’itoi onions. I like the green tops as much as the white parts.

Crusts of Small Planet Bakery Cottage Wheat make excellent croutons. Just chop, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder (my guilty pleasure), then toast in a skillet until crunchy.

Heels of Cottage Wheat.

Cast iron skillet croutons.

Brined goat feta.

Mango Salsa.

Last fall, I goat/house sat for a friend, and this is the feta I made from the milk. Mango the goat has mellowed over the years since I first learned to milk and she first learned to be milked.

The heard on the grassland.

Fresh cheese curds draining whey.

Solar cured olives from Bean Tree Farm.

Pickles! Cholla buds and nopalitos en escabeche.

Fresh flowers for garnish.

Desert Honeysuckle, Anisacanthus thurberi.

Foothills Palo Verde, Parkinsonia microphylla.

Chuparosa, Justicia californica.

Prickly Pear Cactus flowers are a fleshy, vegetal garnish. Opuntia engelmannii

Dress with olive oil and lemon juice. Enjoy!

“Succulent” Events with Succulent Tastes–and Invitations….

April 8, 2016April 9, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / 2 Comments

It’s show time in the desert–S’oo’ahm masad or “yellow moon” for the Tohono O’odham–the month in which seemingly everything in the Sonoran Desert blooms a glorious yellow, arroyos lined with blooming blue palo verde and mesquite, hillsides covered with paper flower, palo verde and cactus blossoms.

Staghorn cholla (Cylindropuntia versicolor) flower, bud and ant-protector (MABurgess photo)

These spiny, possibly-threatening desert plants have amazing nutritious gifts to pollinators and other hungry creatures, including ants, packrats… and humans.

Tia Marta here with an invitation to learn lots more about our many species of Sonoran Desert chollas, how they fit into the fabric of desert life, and how they have been used by traditional people for generations. Come join Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society’s SONORA XI gathering next weekend Friday-Sunday, April 15-17, 2016, for a rich opportunity to enjoy demos, tastes, lectures, and exhibits. You can learn more about this downtown Tucson event (held at HotelTucsonInnSuites) and register at http://www.tucsoncactus.org. On Saturday, April 16, I invite you to attend one of my ethnobotany demonstrations at the open conference. I’ll guide you through careful “hands-on experiences” with edible and useful succulents, complete with some surprising and yummy bites!

De-spining cholla buds at Mission Garden Workshop (MABurgess)

Cross-section of staghorn cholla flower bud showing stamens and ovules (MABurgess)

Cross-section of staghorn cholla flower bud showing stamens, stigma, and ovules (MABurgess)

Delicious Marinated White Sonora Wheat-berry Salad with Cholla Buds at Mission Garden workshop (MABurgess)

Last weekend we celebrated the beginning of the cholla harvest at Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace’s Mission Garden in a workshop led by Flor de Mayo’s Tia Marta (www.tucsonsbirthplace.org/archives). We explored its ecology, taxonomy, traditional preparation, its culture and archaeological evidence. The class was topped with a feast using cholla buds in several innovative and delectable dishes–one with heirloom White Sonora Wheat. For great cholla recipe ideas, scroll back to an earlier Savor blog post https://savorthesouthwest.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/heres-to-the-budding-desert/. For additional interesting cholla information and dried cholla buds for purchase, check out www.flordemayoarts.com.

Young new-growth stem of prickly pear in leaf (Opuntia engelmannii) ready for harvesting (MABurgess)

Another desert food staple–worthy of being considered a medicine as it is so effective in balancing bloodsugar–is our own prickly pear. With de-spining and preparation you can enjoy its tangy taste as nopalitos, pickled, stir-fried, or in salads. Enjoy nopal dishes at some of Tucson’s favorite restaurants like Janos’ Downtown Kitchen or Teresa’s Mosaic. Attend the demo nopal preparation and tastes at the SONORA XI Conference….(www.tucsoncactus.org).

White Sonora Wheat with swelling seed heads at FOTB's Mission Garden (MABurgess)

White Sonora Wheat with swelling seed heads at FOTB’s Mission Garden–to mature in May (MABurgess)

Seeing the heirloom winter White Sonora Wheat growing tall and green at Mission Garden, its swelling kernels in the “milk-stage,” I’m envisioning the harvest to come, and to plans for La Fiesta de San Ysidro Labrador, when the wheat, first introduced to S-chuk-Shon by Padre Kino, will be maturing and ready to thresh. My mother’s wonderful caregiver Rosa has introduced us to a delectable recipe she created celebrating both White Sonora Wheat and the fresh vegetables currently available at farmers’ markets. Her recipe for Market Veggie Omelette with White Sonora Wheat follows–light as a souflee.

Rosa serving her Market Veggie Omelette with White Sonora flour (MABurgess)

Rosa’s delicious Market Veggie Omelette with White Sonora flour (MABurgess)

ROSA’S MARKET VEGGIE OMELETTE w/ WHITE SONORA WHEAT FLOUR

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp heirloom White Sonora Wheat flour

1 lg egg or 2 small eggs

1 cup market vegetables, sautéed in olive oil (shaved carrots, chopped fresh spinach, minced I’itoi’s onions bulb and tops…)

2+ Tbsp org. broth, veg or chicken

salt to taste; butter for curing skillet

Directions:

Saute chopped vegetables in olive oil, then simmer with broth until soft. Allow to cool. Beat eggs with White Sonora Wheat flour. Mix with vegetables. Pre-heat small iron skillet, melt butter, pour in mixture. Let omelette puff. Turn when slightly brown on bottom, then gently brown on reverse. Serve w/salsa fresca or sliced avocados. (Another wonderful variation on her omelette is to add prepared cholla buds!)

Find dry cholla buds at the Flor de Mayo booth at Sunday’s St Philips farmers’ market, at NativeSeeds/SEARCH store, at the San Xavier Farm Coop booth at Thursday’s Santa Cruz market at the Mercado, or at the Tucson Cactus&Succulent Society’s SONORA XI conference next weekend. You can find the freshest greens for Rosa’s Veggie Omelette, including local baby spinach, onions, etc at our many Tucson farmers markets, especially at Tom’s Marana-farm booth at Sunday St Philips market (www.foodinroot.com), or at the Community Food Bank booth at Thursday’s Santa Cruz market at the Mercado. Easily grow your own shallots for the omelette with NativeSeeds/SEARCH’s I’itoi’s onions–the snappy little spreading onion that keeps on giving.

Come witness ever-growing inspirations for your own garden by visiting Mission Garden at the foot of A-Mountain, Tucson–it’s a must! There are wonderful docents there to guide you every Saturday morning now that the weather is warming. In Mission Garden we see examples of cultivated food and native medicine plants that have fed and helped humans in this valley for over 4000 years! With that track record for desert living, chances are these same plants can help support us into an unsure future of hotter and drier weather–with assurance and nurture. We owe inexpressible thanks to those farmers and gardeners who have preceded us!

[For more info about succulent events, tours, happenings, and products, check out http://www.tucsoncactus.org; http://www.flordemayoarts.com; http://www.tucsonsbirthplace.org; http://www.nativeseeds.org, http://www.sanxaviercoop.org]

On Trees

April 1, 2016 / Savor Blog Partners / Leave a comment

Hello from the Land of Blossoms! Aunt Linda here in Washington D.C. where cool breezes and cherry blossoms are as plentiful as political headlines. The nations capitol is at the very peak of a Cherry Blossom Bloom. These trees were a gift to the US from Japan, in 1912. What I hadn’t ever been aware of is that that these trees (along the Tidal Basin) are from a 1,500 year old tree in Japan. I felt a quickening of excitement as this news reached my ears. And I wondered if that that very tree might still be alive. I did a little investigating, and YES, it lives. Click here to see a photo of this ancient tree. http://taiken.co/single/japans-three-great-cherry-blossom-trees. I believe it is the second tree featured.

My appreciation of trees has grown exponentially.

In many ways they are unsung heroes. They offer so much to us, to wildlife, to the planet. Aside from their Beauty, they provide juicy fruit and nuts; nesting and roosting sites for birds and other wildlife. Pollen and nectar are exchanged for pollinating services of native and european bees, as well as a myriad of pollinators. Trees Purify Air. Create Shade. Take a hike through a forest and you will re-experience Silence. Trees drop litter that nourishes the soil below them. Here in D.C. the trees tower above with canopies of big leaves. In the Sonoran Desert most trees are smaller, and the leaves tiny – as an adaptive strategy to conserve water.

Trees can be a great reminder of the interconnectedness of all things. “The leaf takes from the air its richest food, and from the sun its most valuable property, and in silence changes them into things which our life could not exist.” (The Book of Knowledge, 1890, p3177)

Jut two days ago, an article in the American Forest article (3/29/16) speaks of the “Mutually Beneficial” relationship betweek trees and bees. “Although the cherry blossoms do not produce fruits, bees are still an important factor in their pollination. Bees also help to pollinate local gardens and plants, contributing to the flowers and greenery we enjoy in city parks and squares during the warmer months..

This week, I also I came across the woven bookmark( below ) in an old old bible, and was reminded that many homes in the US commonly kept used a hive or two. I learned this a few years ago, when I was sitting with 10 elder women, listening to their stories. All but one had grown up with a few hives at home. And almost all had “helped out with bees”, as young girls.

It looks like this practice may be coming around again. Even in the Nations capital. This is, for me, great news because both trees and bees interrelate with the environment in very beneficial ways.

An article in American Forests (3/29/16) states:

“Since beekeeping in D.C. has been legalized, the influx of new local beekeeping groups has been incredibly beneficial to the local environment.Bee hives can be found at several government agencies as well as in rooftop gardens in Georgetown and at The George Washington University”.

Want to feel more like an interconnected being, but not sure if planting a tree or keeping a honey bee hive is for you? You might consider “adopting a hive”. I just today found out about this and I kind of wish I had thought about it myself. Click: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/29/472183613/adopt-a-beehive-save-a-beekeeper

I do not have a recipe this week. Rather, an invitation: be inspired by a tree, and Take a Stand for something you care about. And like a tree, Offer something, that only you can give.

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“Succulent” Events with Succulent Tastes–and Invitations….

On Trees

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