Food Security in the Desert

March 25, 2014 / Savor Blog Partners / 3 Comments

A small water-harvesting tank from Home Depot.

Carolyn here. This is an extra mid-week post regarding not only harvesting food in the desert, but growing it as well. The issue, of course, is water. Tucson community activist Tres English is prodding Tucsonans to look to their food future and consider how we can become secure by growing more of our own food. A hundred years ago this would not be a novel idea but family business as usual. We are moving in the right direction as a communty. Tucson already has 44 community gardens, thousands of fruit trees, and over 100 experimental aquaponics systems. Nearby farms are keeping are farmers’ markets well stocked. But still, the vast majority of our food is imported from far away.

Because I get deep satisfaction from gardening, my husband and I have installed three rain water tanks on our property. In a really good rain, I should be able to catch about a thousand gallons. I have watered most of my winter veggies this year with rain water from our first tank. Unfortunately, it hasn’t rained much since we installed the last two tanks, but when (if??) it does rain, I should be able to take care of the flowers as well, leaving only the trees and the house on city water.

Our biggest tank drains water from roof of guest house and provided water for my winter vegetable garden.

We need to pull more people into growing their own food. Whether you catch the rain in big tanks, 55 gallon drums, or 5 gallon paint buckets (like I did until recently), you can water your garden at least partially with rain water. You can read what Tres has put together on his website FeedingTucson.org, but here are some of the points:

We have vast, untapped resources

Every square foot of Tucson receives an average of over 6.5 gallons of rain every year (that’s before Global Climate Change), or about 175 million gallons per square mile. That’s 80,000 gallons of harvestable rain per person.

We have about 40 square miles of rooftops in metro Tucson and over 80 square miles of paving. If we harvest (and use) water very near where it falls, we could potentially have over 50,000 acre-feet of “new” water that isn’t currently being used for any productive purpose.

When combined with directly used rain and net natural recharge from mountain fronts and river beds, our maximum potential renewable, harvestable, local water supply is close to 260,000 acre-feet per year — compared to 192,000 AF used by all municipalities.

Tres English says: “We are not alone in developing local food systems, so we don’t have to start from scratch. What are some of the most innovative approaches in the world to creating all elements of a complete food system? What will it take adapt them for our needs?” These are the answers he will seek but he needs a little money to do it. To that end, he has set up a crowd-funding site at StartSomeGood.org/FeedingTucson. Or you can also donate on the FeedingTucson.org website. If you want to see all Tucsonans have access to fresh, local food, go to the site and chip in a few bucks.

Cholla Bud Workshops.

If you enjoyed Martha Burgess’s post on cholla harvesting, perhaps you’d like to go gathering with her. Sign up through Native Seeds SEARCH. It’s been unseasonably warm here in Tucson, and the chollas are budding a bit early. Choose one of two dates: Saturday, April 12 and Friday, April 25 8 – 11 am $30 – NS/S Members $40 – Non-members

How Nopales Become Nopalitos

March 23, 2014 / Savor Blog Partners / 1 Comment

Pick prickly pear pads when they are the size of your hand.

Pick new prickly pear pads in the spring when they are the size of your hand.

Carolyn Niethammer with you this week. In our last post, Martha Burgess wrote about how early cholla buds were appearing this year. I have seen pads beginning to form on the native prickly pear, but not yet on my Ficus Indica, the tall Mexican variety. But they will be out soon, so let’s talk about how to prepare them for use in salads and casseroles.

Scape off the stickers with a serrated steak knife.

First thing is to don your rubber gloves. Even though these cactus pads don’t have large stickers, they do have the tiny glochids that can be awful to get out of your hands. Then using an old-fashioned steak knife with a serrated edge, go against the grain to scrape off the stickers. Keep a paper towel nearby to clean the knife and keep your working surface clean.

Trim off the edge.

There are an abundance of stickers on the edge of the pad, so just trim it off and discard it.

The nopal becomes nopalitos.

At this point you can put the whole, cleaned nopal on the grill next to some chicken pieces or pork chops. Or you can chop the pad into smallish pieces. The Chicago restaurant owner, TV star and author Rick Bayless coats the pieces with oil, puts them on a cookie sheet and bakes until done. You can also do it in a frying pan. Cook until the color changes to a more olive hue. The slippery substance that is so healthy for your blood will dry up and become less noticeable.

Cook nopalitos until they turn olive colred and loose some of their moisture.

I watched my friend Amy Valdez Schwemm do a nopal cooking demo at the Mercado last year. Her method is a little different. After cleaning the nopal, she cooks it whole and cuts it up later. If you are cooking in a frying pan, this eliminates having to flip each piece individually.

Amy cooks the pads whole then cuts later.

At this point you can add to a salad (maybe picnic-style potato salad) or a casserole such as this one with lentils from my cookbook Cooking the Wild Southwest.

French Green Lentils with Nopalitos

Although prickly pear is a New World plant, it has spread over the globe. The Spaniards originally took it back to Europe from Mexico. I was fascinated to learn that it has colonized in Ethiopia in a big way. Some impoverished groups live on the prickly pear fruits for months when they are ripe. But people do not eat the pads there, although they feed them to their livestock. Here are some photos my friend Seyoum took showing prickly pear and his family in Irob, Ethiopia.

A very large prickly pear plant in Irob, Ethiopia.

Preparing nopales for the livestock.

All prickly pear pads are edible; it just depends on how much time you want to spend getting the stickers off. I usually wait until the Ficus Indica pads develop. Those with access to a Mexico grocery store can usually find them there, sometimes already cleaned. Once they are cleaned, they tend to deteriorate quickly, so buy just before you want to cook them. The very best tasting prickly pear pads I’ve ever eaten are grown on the foggy slopes of central California by John Dicus at Rivenrock Gardens. You can find him at http://www.rivenrock.com. He will go in the morning and pick you a boxful and it will be on your porch the next day. They are so fresh, they will last for many weeks in the refrigerator. He grows a variety he found in Maya country in Mexico and they are virtually spineless. And delicious!

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Excited to try prickly pear? I give you lots of recipes in The Prickly Pear Cookbook and Cooking the Wild Southwest. Very helpful for controlling blood sugar and cholesterol.

They’re here–they’re ready! Cholla buds’ grand opening!

March 18, 2014January 10, 2018 / Savor Blog Partners / 6 Comments

staghorn cholla flower just opening (N.Stahler photo)

Tia Marta here with important news—something I was planning to share with you next month but wow here it is—our staghorn cholla cacti flowered yesterday. That is a herald-horn in the desert for sure—it is cholla bud harvesting time again!

Ever since I was first led into the desert to learn cholla harvesting decades ago now by my Tohono O’odham mentor and teacher, Juanita, I’ve looked forward to this signal and to our ritual, with hope for the return of desert-food-season, and with gladness —not to mention with a little trepidation for the hazards of the business. But in all the years of practicing our ritual harvest I’ve never seen the buds come on so early. This is fully a month sooner than the “old normal.” All through the 1970s,’80s, into the ‘90s, we could predict the cholla harvest to be cranking up about mid-April and ending in the first week in May, a small window of opportunity. Curiously, the cholla season since the turn of the recent millennium has extended in both directions, beginning earlier and lasting longer into May. It is as if the chollas are hedging their bets, not knowing where climate change will lead….In spring of 2013 cholla flowers were open by April 2 and I picked my last bud on San Ysidro Day, May 15. And this year? Buds were showing before March and the first flowers were open on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17!

traditional saguaro rib tongs for cholla bud harvest (MABurgess photo)

These plants are sensing subtle climate signals to which we also should attune ourselves. While we have been basking in this desert’s “winter without a winter,” the chollas have been storing energy and the scant rainwater that fell, in prep for an early show. What this all means for its pollinators, for spiders, ants, packrats, birds—the whole food chain and web of life here in the Arizona Uplands of the Sonoran Desert—remains to be seen.

staghorn cholla bud showing true leaves and spines at aereole (JRMondt photo)

So, time to grab your hat, collecting tongs, bucket (and don your non-floppy long sleeves, pants, tough boots) and head for the nearest cholla-covered hills for the harvest. As Juanita taught, begin your cholla harvesting expedition with respect and a touch of humility. This land can feed us from its prickly productivity if we shed the gimme-gimme attitude of contemporary culture and enter into it mindfully.

first de-spining of cholla buds (MABurgess photo)

All cacti are protected by law in Arizona. However, cactus buds or fruits, harvested with care and frugality, and with the landowner’s permission, is the only part of the cactus which is fair game. Our Native Plant Law is most enlightened and far-thinking. One might go so far as to call it sustainable. Imagine Arizona legislators realizing that our cacti and succulents are important to us! (That decision thankfully happened in an era of greater wisdom and compassion.) While cacti and other succulents appear so tough, and really can withstand extremes of heat and dryness, they are also vulnerable to many forms of human disturbance, to invasive grasses, fire, fungal attacks where tissue has been damaged, insect and rodent infestations. When native cacti or succulents are scraped from desert soil, we are left with aggressive, blah and boring, foreign grasses and weeds. The Sonoran Desert natives we know and love can’t easily re-vegetate.

For best harvesting, Juanita would seek out stands of the gangly staghorn cholla (Cylindropuntia versicolor) growing plentifully over the foothills of the Tucson Mountains, Catalinas and Rincons. They are found on rocky upslopes down to lower rocky ground. Staghorn is the one with the sensational variety of colors—each plant a different brilliant phase of lemon yellows, oranges, rust, reds, wine, or maroon. While you are searching out unopened buds for collecting, give yourself a chance to savor the opened cholla flowers up close. Their petals appear to be made of shiny silk or satin with sparkling surfaces that leave you (and their insect pollinators) visually jazzed, maybe momentarily breathless with their beauty. You might see a tiny beetle or solitary bee bumbling about in a forest of stamens in search of the nectar the cactus pays them for their pollination services. We aren’t the only ones out harvesting.

stamen strands in staghorn cholla flower (B.Sandlin photo)

Juanita would jump at the chance to find a stand of pencil cholla (Cylindropuntia arbuscula, think arbusto in Spanish, referring to its shrub-like shape) because wee’pah-noy (as she called it in Tohono O’odham neok) has the largest bud and the fewest spines of all the chollas she sought, but it also is the most infrequently found. Pencil cholla tends to grow in a few clustered stands in flatter places, like the upper terrace of the Santa Cruz near Green Valley or lower bajadas in Avra Valley.

The buckhorn cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthacarpa meaning spiny-fruited), was Juanita’s least favorite because, despite its large delectable bud, the spines at every aereole on the buds are tough and difficult to remove, making preparation for eating a real ordeal. If left to mature into fruit, they still have a spiny cover.

cane cholla flowers, buds, and last year’s yellow fruits (MABurgess photo)

Another cholla found in higher desert into the grasslands, which Juanita occasionally collected, is cane cholla (Cylindropuntia spinosior)—the one with perky right-angle branches off a single trunk, which sag in winter frost-hardiness. They have recognizable round yellow fruits which may remain on the branch-tips all year. Their bud is a fat round, easily de-spined joy to harvest, and their open flower is a brilliant magenta.

In a neat video by cinematographer Vanda Gerhardt (link on my website www.flordemayoarts.com), and in my recent Edible Baja Arizona article “A Budding Meal” (Vol. 5, pp122-24, www.ediblebajaarizona.com ), I have described how Juanita would initially brush off spines while on the plant, harvest one bud at a time always leaving some for other creatures and for the plants themselves, carry them back home in her bucket to de-spine fully in a wire mesh screen-box with an old broom.

red cholla buds de-spined ready for cooking (MABurgess photo)

yellow staghorn buds in the cook pot (MABurgess photo)

After a 15 or 20-minute boiling, she would discard the water, and voila, there were the delicious buds, tangy and tasty, ready to eat, or to stirfry with chiles and garlic, to pickle, or dry. Drying is an ordeal and takes a full week in dry weather to become stone-hard and safely storable, but it makes them available year round. If you have freezer space, freezing in its own juice is a perfect way to preserve them for the rest of the year’s enjoyment.

When it comes to nutrition, cholla is up there with the super-foods, with highest measures of available calcium and complex carbs–plus flavor like a tangy artichoke. It can help strengthen bones, balance blood sugar, remove cholesterol, and provide sustained energy—wow what more do we need?

Janos’ Downtown Kitchen has created a stupendous cholla en escabeche, and native foods writer Carolyn Niethammer in Cooking the Wild Southwest (UA Press, 2011) teaches how to use cholla as the primo ingredient in her Cholla-Pasta-Primavera. For a gourmet treat, try my cholla buds in mole sauce recipe, made easily with Amy Valdes Schwemm’s Mano y Metate mole powders (www.manoymetate.com):

Botones de Cholla en Mole Pipian Rojo

2 cups fully cooked cholla buds

2-3 Tbsp organic olive oil

2-3 tsp Mano y Metate Pipian Rojo Mole powder

1 Tbsp minced organic garlic

1-1 ½ cups organic chicken broth or vegetable broth

Sautee mole powder in hot olive oil about 1 minute; quickly add minced garlic and stir-fry; slowly stir in 1 cup or more broth, extending it into a sauce of desired consistency as it re-thickens. Add cooked cholla buds to the sauce. Serving suggestion: serve hot with corn tortillas and heirloom beans. Serves 4.

If you want to try someone else’s harvest, try the Tohono O’odham Community Action’s (www.TOCAonline.org ) Desert Rain Café in Sells, Arizona, serving a mouthwatering cholla picadillo salad worth the trip out for lunch.

For more of my favorite ideas for fabulous cholla dishes and hors d’oeuvres, check out www.flordemayoarts.com. And for my detailed instructions on reconstituting dried cholla buds you can download from the same website. Dried cholla buds will be available for purchase from Native Seeds/SEARCH store (3061 N Campbell, Tucson) and web-store (www.nativeseeds.org) seasonally after April.

Happy harvesting!

On Cows and the Sweetness of Milk (Dulce de Leche)

March 7, 2014March 7, 2014 / Savor Blog Partners / 2 Comments

Tia Linda: It is Springtime and we are preparing for our spring roundup. At a roundup we move all cattle into the corrals, eye each animal, and tend to any that need tending. We talk about pasture and how to work with “the conditions”. Climate and weather are huge topics of conversation, because when you ranch, you first and foremost raise grass and pasture. After that, you can raise animals.

Here a mother cow nurses two calves, one her own, one an orphan.

During roundup we have a few cows set in one area for milking. All milking is done my hand. It is both a reverent and practical act to milk an animal. And one you need to be completely present to, as you are working with big animals with big hoofs who are shifting their weight here and there, while you balance on the balls of your feet, as you grip a cold metal pail between your knees. Working warm moist teats, the humid smell of fresh milk flows, the sounds of the warm liquid hits the metal of the pail and then softens as the pail fills. Most milking happens right before dawn, so the stars are still above, the air is cool, bats are still out hunting insects. As they fly by, I can feel their batwing air currents on my face. The metal pail, initially cold from the morning air, warms as it fills.

We milk some “Vacas de Leche” because they have great udders. Others because they need a bit of “gentle-ing”. Milking a cow can be just as much about a process as a product. You are teaching her – inviting her – to trust you, and every morning as you work with her, the hope is that she accepts your invitation.

To the ancient Celts the beginning of spring was called Imbolic, from the old words for “ewes milk” or “in the belly” as pregnant sheep began to lactate. I love that this ritual is rooted in hoofed animals and milk. I feel a kind of archetypal resonance with lactating animals. Female animals. In Anne Baring’s and Jules Cashford’s scholarly book, The Myth of the Goddess, they write “there was (a) tradition,… in which the Primeval Waters and the High God (was) feminine, and the heavenly ocean was imagined as a ‘great flood’, which was manifest in the form of a great cow nourishing the world with her rain-milk, an image familiar from the Neolithic.” (P252) Isis and Hathor are just two Goddesses that the authors reference, that embody the cow as cosmic mother.

Photo Above: This painting on papyrus is from 1000BC shows Hathor; stars of the night on her. You can find this and other ancient Cow as Cosmic Mother representations, in the book cited above. This photo is on the internet.

The image of the cosmic mother as cow is not one most in people modern life have been exposed to. Nourishment happens on multiple levels, and we see that pasture based animals’ “life giving” energies manifest in the nutritional content of milk. Their milk differs greatly from cows whose lives are spent in the mainstream, industrial food system. In her book, The Grassfed Gourmet, , Shannon Hayes’s writes: “… milk from grass-fed animals offers exceptional health benefits, due in large part to the proper ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids and the high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). As a result of their pasture based diet, the milk from grass fed cows is naturally high in vitamins A and E and rich in beta-carotene, which contributes to its characteristic buttery color.” She goes on to cite “recent research (that has) uncovered significant findings pointing to the cancer-fighting properties of grass-fed dairy products. A recent Finnish study … concludes that a diet composed of CLA-rich foods, particularly cheese, may protect against breast cancer in post menopausal women.” (see p219)

Just like flowers for honey, grapes for wine, and cactus (liquors) for your margarita, milk directly reflects the land on which the animals are raised. The flavor and texture of milk depends upon the condition of the grasses, and forage, and are affected by whether or not we received summer and/or winter rains.

Feeding hard working folks nourishing foods is important during the long “up before sunset -working past dark days” of a cattle roundup. Sweets make it all the sweeter. And one sweet is made with a ranch ingredient: Milk.

RECIPE: Dulce de Leche (Adapted a tad from Marilyn Noble’s, Southwest Comfort Food)

Ingredients:

2 quarts whole cows milk (pasture raised if you can find it)

3 cups sugar (i had good success with organic cane sugar; honey didn’t work texture wise, but it tastes OK)

1 vanilla bean

½ teaspoon baking soda

(Note: the goat milk option is called Cajeta. For a vegan option: try coconut milk.)

In a large saucepan, stir together the milk, sugar, and vanilla bean – and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the baking soda and stir. Reduce heat to low and continue to barely simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Remove the Vanilla bean and continue to simmer for another few hours until the liquid is a golden brown and thickened and reduced to about 2 cups.

I love eating this simple “sweet” by the spoonful. If you have never eaten Dulce de Leche, try it this way first, without any other flavors or on top of any other foods. The flavor and texture are so pure it is as if Life is revealing one of Her simpler riches to you, saying “Ahhhh, you thought it had to be complicated …and all along it was right here, in this very spoon.”

In Sonora, it is eaten on tortillas, cookies, bread, and stirred into in Atole de Pechita (a Mesquite drink). I like in on top of mesquite pancakes, mesquite cookies, ice cream, or fresh fruit.

Note: picking up on the theme of nourishment coming in many forms …. the Aroma that wafts through the kitchen while the milk and sugar are reducing is amazing. It is worth making JUST for the pleasure of inhaling such sweetness.

Eclectic Ephedra

February 28, 2014January 17, 2015 / Savor Blog Partners / 1 Comment

Ephedra is a lovely landscape shrub, but not one for you if you want a plant that can be sheared into an abnormal ball shape. Photo courtesy Mountain States Nursery.

For an unusual herb in your landscape, why not try a unique desert-adapted shrub that was around before dinosaurs roamed the earth — Ephedra. In fact, there is some evidence that dinosaurs fed on this unusual herb, and it has lived on while the dinosaurs are gone. You gotta respect a history like that. Human history with this herb is also extensive, well over 5000 years. As with many long used herbs, the common name and scientific name are the same, Ephedra. In the Southwest, ephedra is also known as Mormon tea or joint fir.

Ephedra trifurca is the species most common in the Tucson area. Photo by D. Coetzee

The ephedra around Tucson, Ephedra trifurca, is ideal for the full sun landscape featuring native plants. Its leafless olive green branches reach skyward with a dichotomous branching pattern that is a joy to trace with your eye. Ephedra is a low-water plant, and does best in a well-drained soil.

Ephedra is a “dinosaur plant.” Rather than flowers, it produces cone-like structures that protect the tiny plant embryos. Timing has to be just right to get them to germinate. Or they can be toasted and eaten, as native peoples did.

Ephedra is very easy to grow, but tough to get started. If you find some in a nursery, be very careful to transplant it with the root ball intact. You can try it from cuttings, and I have had the best success with young wood cuttings taken after the first monsoon rain has soaked the plant. You can also grow it from “seed” (technically cone-like structures, not true seeds). As soon as the tiny hairs exerted from the cone have dried up, harvest these cones and plant them in a blend of three parts sand to one part potting soil. Keep evenly moist for three months and you should see results.

Dried ephedra, and all your dried herbs, should be used within the year, before their phytochemicals degrade.

If you wish to avoid coffee or Chinese tea because of the very “ungreen” way these products are grown, harvested, and shipped, ephedra tea can serve as a morning beverage. Steep a tea using one heaping teaspoon of finely broken dried branches per cup of water. This makes a brew similar to green tea in intensity of flavor. Harvest and dry your own ephedra in early spring. Just remember that moderation is key. Another use is to finely grind ephedra twigs and use in an exfoliating skin wash. The plant is relatively high in silica, a compound used to make glass.

Plants like ephedra protect themselves from being eaten by creating phytochemicals that can be useful in moderation. Photo by J. A. Soule

The active compounds in ephedra include ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine. These compounds are used today in clinical settings, including in local anesthetics and surgical vasoconstrictors. A number of drugs contain pseudoephedrine, including flu, allergy and cold remedies. You have to sign for these drugs now because pseudoephedrine can be converted into methamphetamine. In the last days of World War II, many of the Japanese Kamikaze pilots were given injections of a highly refined and potent ephedra extract just prior to their final flights. The excessive dose mimicked the effects of methamphetamine, including, in some cases, death by stroke or heart attack.

Known locally as Mormon tea, ephedra has long been used as a morning “pick me up” by Mormons and gentiles alike who wish to avoid caffeine. In The Consumer’s Guide to Herbal Medicine (1999), Steven B. Karch, M.D., evaluates Ephedra along with 67 other medicinal herbs. He mentions that ephedra is used to treat asthma, bronchospasm, and colds. “. . . [ephedra affects] . . . the heart and lungs, causing bronchial dilation, and the blood vessels in the nose to shrink. [It] also exerts influence on the central nervous system. In very large doses, five to ten times the amounts found in most food supplements, ephedrine produces effects very much like methamphetamine. Ephedrine, like methamphetamine, [can affect] the heart and blood vessels, leading to stroke and heart attacks.”

Ephedra-nevadensis-cones_by_ Joe Decruyenaere

The cones of ephedra have historically been used as food by peoples around the globe where ephedra occurs.

Note: the information in this article is for your reference, and is not intended to be used as a substitute for qualified medical attention.

Jacqueline Soule has a number of lectures on native herbs this spring at various Pima County Public Library locations. Ask at your local library or check the events listing on the library website (http://www.library.pima.gov/calendar/). As well as writing and speaking about plants, Jacqueline works as a garden coach – making house calls to help you with your plants or landscape design. More information at http://www.gardeningwithsoule.com/

Post Script. (P.S.): for the stamp-lovers out there, here is ephedra celebrated on a stamp from Moldavia.

Wondrous Weeds!

February 14, 2014 / Savor Blog Partners / 5 Comments

Tia Marta here to share ideas about our new neighbors—the weedy greens popping up all around us. With those fall rains we had here in the low desert, there is a bloomin’ haze of green on the desert floor– not what you’d call a florid show—but wait—what is happening where November’s mud-puddles were collecting? That may be real food lurking in your own backyard! Now is prime time to take advantage of spontaneous tender mercies and phytonutrients. Interesting tastes await us, to spice up our salads and bedeck our burritos.

“Wild arugula” or London rocket (Sisymbrium irio) provides zesty greens, flower garnish, and later, mustard seeds when mature. (MABurgess photo)

London rocket (read “wild arugula”) is everywhere, its greenery literally growing before our eyes in every low swale, rocky hillside, every ditch where water has run. Sisymbrium irio is an introduced weed which we can enjoy with impunity—the more we eat of them the more we are removing competition for our beloved native plants. So harvest away! (A good rule of thumb is to collect at least 50’ from a road. No need to ingest road dust and pollutants when there is so much to be found in friendly yards or out in the des.)

Prepare for a picante treat, sometimes a picante bite, from these wild mustards. Toss a few wild arugula leaves with baby greens, or in a BLT to liven it up. Try them steamed with your favorite garden greens or added to stir-fry.

Hot February weather is telling our wild mustards, “Summer’s coming. Better go ahead and bloom fast!” Already we see tiny 4-petaled yellow flowers rising from the rosettes of deeply lobed leaves. Small erect spikelets of seedpods (called siliques) stand out from the central stem. Whole flower heads with seedpods are edible, and zingingly picante. Sooner than we think, seedheads will mature and you can harvest their tiny mustard seeds for dressings or salad sprinkles.

This year, if you spy Lesquerella gordoni (bladderpod), it will stand out like little yellow stars on the bare ground. (MABurgess photo)

In some wet winters, a different native mustard known as bladderpod has made carpets of lemon-yellow flowers on the desert floor. No such show this year. Should you find a patch of blooming bladderpod, try a taste of its petals. Their nice nip will add vivid color, nutrition, and excitement to any salad, garni, or burrito topping.

Better known as tumbleweed, Russian thistle (Salsola kali) is best harvested in this tender stage—and every rancher will thank you for your service! (MABurgess photo)

The most ubiquitous of weeds is the introduced Russian thistle which no one seems to notice until it dries, dislodges, tumbles across the road on a crosswind, and stacks up next to a fence or obstacle. So now, while it is in its infancy, go out to that windbreak and find its progeny! Have no compunction about snipping it at ground level while it is only inches high, young, and tender—before sharp stems develop making it unpalatable to humanoids. You will be amazed at what it adds, snipped in short pieces fresh in a salad, steamed with butter and pepper, or stir-fried with other veggies.

Our many species of saltbush (Atriplex spp.) are tender and ready for picking in late winter into spring. (MABurgess photo)

Find saltbush’s gray greenery along the Santa Cruz floodplain–or plant it in your yard for wildlife habitat. (MABurgess photo)

Now is saltbush’s time to shine—in landscaping and in cuisine. Here in Baja Arizona there are many species of Atriplex, and all are edible. These tough shrubs are desert survivors for sure. They tend to grow in “waste places” where hardly any other plants can make it. The name saltbush indicates its habitat, where soil is salty,heavy, or full of caliche. Quail and other creatures find refuge and forage in the dense shrubs. If you want to attract birds into your yard, go to Desert Survivors Nursery, Tucson, and buy any saltbush to plant—then stand back. We humans can join in the saltbush foraging guiltlessly, as saltbush is plentiful and our harvesting may even stimulate re- growth.

Nearly every Native nation in the Southwest has a tradition of using saltbush in multiple ways. When its stiff salty leaves are youthful they can be picked for cooking with other greens, the style of traditional Akimel O’odham, the River Pima. My Tohono O’odham teacher Juanita would steam saltbush with cholla buds, and told me how “the old people would roast their cholla buds in layered beds of ontk i:wagi [salt spinach].” Hopi cooks make a kind of baking powder out of pulverized saltbush foliage.

Try young saltbush leaves cooked with heirloom cannelini beans or cranberry beans—for a flavorful variation on beans-and-greens. You’ll find that the salts which the plants have sequestered from the soil will add a delicious desert flavoring. Move over, Hawaiian sea-salt! (After saltbushes have flowered, we will “talk seeds”—stay tuned….)

NativeSeeds/SEARCH (www.nativeseeds.org) and Mission Garden (www.tucsonsbirthplace.org) carry seed of a domestic relative of saltbush called “orache” which provides a purple-leafed “green” for a winter veggie garden.

Did you ever contemplate cheeseweed thru the day? (Are you kidding?) Its palmate leaf is a sun-tracker! I discovered these young Malva neglecta in late afternoon with each leaf bent westerly, cupped, facing the setting sun.(MABurgess photo)

Ah, cheeseweed—the “scourge” of gardeners, when it gets established. Malva or cheeseweed, so called for its cheese-wheel shaped seed pod, is another one of those introduced weeds which tend to follow humans. Only harvestable when young– get it while you can. You’ll find it in disturbed flat areas where stock or off-roaders have churned up the natural soil, along fencelines or untended sidewalk margins. Beware, cheeseweed seems to be sought-after by wandering dogs as a “marker plant” so wash your harvest well.

New Malva foliage can make a nutritious addition to steamed collards, kale, acelgas, or turnip tops; or stir-fried with peppers, onion, and slices of winter squash. If you want to explore Malva’s medicinal qualities, try the foliage steeped as a tea for soothing tender digestive tract tissue or urinary tract. It makes a healing topical poultice as well.

Life-giving weeds are all around us, especially now with their ju-ju rising. Really no one need be hungry here. We’d all be healthier if we were eating more of these spontaneous gifts brought by Nature and human mobility. My respect for weeds and knowledge of their goodness outweighs my frustration as I pull them from my garden. Here’s wishing you happy weed harvesting, a new way of enjoying the pulses of life in the desert!

If you are lucky enough to locate Carolyn Niethammer’s book Tumbleweed Gourmet, Univ. of AZ Press, 1987, grab it! Find more info about traditional uses of saltbush in Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert by Wendy Hodgson, Univ. of AZ Press, 2001. Find medicinal uses of Malva neglecta in Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West, Mus. of NewMexico Press, 1989. Mission Garden is open on Saturday afternoons for guided tours, and NativeSeeds/SEARCH store at 3061 N Campbell Ave, Tucson, is open daily 10am-5pm.

Visit me, Tia Marta, for more weedy ideas and heirloom beans galore at the Flor de Mayo booth, St Phillips Farmers Market on Sundays 9am-1pm. (www.flordemayoarts.com).

Cracks and Creation: “How the Light Gets In” Tea Eggs

February 7, 2014February 7, 2014 / Savor Blog Partners / 8 Comments

Cracks and Creation: “How the Light Gets In Tea Eggs”

Tia Linda: Spring seems to be arriving early in the desert, again, this year and egg laying is increasing significantly among my birds. It is less a function of temperature than it is the increase in light to the pituitary glad that increases egg laying. And my hens are broody, feeling strongly the impulse to sit upon and incubate eggs. Broodiness is a trait to be cherished in your birds. This is a great time of year (here in the Southwest) for the poultry aficionado to begin preparing for a new batch of chicks. In fact, it is not too early to have a eggs under a hen or in your incubator already.

For me, eggs have properties that go beyond being beautiful and nutritious. I feel more whole when I am collecting eggs; more in touch with Cycles. Aesthetically, they arrive in surprising varieties of oval shapes, sizes and colors. Nutritionally, they are chock full of minerals, are good for eyesight, and are a great source of (affordable) protein. In Michael Pollan’s book COOKED, he cites research from 2011, that states “ninety percent of a cooked egg is digested, where as only 65 percent of a raw egg” (Page 61n). Whether or not you are raising chicks, today’s recipe is a fun way to cook your eggs to get the most nutrition – and beauty- out of them.

But, before we get to the recipe.

Many cultures across time and space celebrate the egg. A few (painfully truncated) myths that include the egg show this.

*** The Universe began as an egg and a god (Pangu) born inside the egg broke the egg in two halves – the upper becoming the sky while the lower half became the earth. (Chinese). ***The concept of the universe as an Egg-shaped Cosmos, arose in Vedic thought. And so in Sanskrit, the term for it is Brahmanda. “Brahm” meaning ‘Cosmos’ or ‘expanding’ and “Anda” meaning EGG. In one version, the Golden Womb/Golden Fetus of the universe floated around in emptiness for a time, and them broke in two halves, forming heaven and earth. (Vedic). *** Another myth from Europe reveals the world being created from fragments of an egg laid by a diving duck perched on the knee of Ilmatar, a goddess of the air. (Finnish)

I sense a theme arising here. Cracks. And Creation. They seem to have something to do with one another.

Whether or not your believe myths to be literal or metaphorical, an explanation of mystery or a reflection of the human psyche, is yours to decide. Regardless, we can act as creators within our own pots and kitchens, and enjoy where the cracks take us. In our lives, “the cracks” are often involuntary and unasked for. Often, it is only later that we realize that it is these very cracks that allow some needed shift or change to occur.

With this recipe we can actively crack some shells. Let in some flavor. Some color. Create some beauty, all while being nourished.

The Recipe:

Put 8-10 eggs in a pot and begin to hard boil them.

While you are doing this, begin making a tea/spice bath for the eggs to go into after boiling. I use a handful of whatever tea I particularly like at the moment (or 3-4 teabags if you prefer). Lately I have been using black tea, but have also experimented with oolong and green teas. Experimentation is the key, and you, being the creator, can shift and change your recipe as you like. To the tea, I add about three tablespoons of Chinese Five Spice. This is the basic recipe.

To this basic recipe you can add, fresh ginger (chopped) and/or some chile (I use chiltepin). Whatever spices that want to play on our tongue are the ones to use. Remember you are the creator, and the choice of spices and how you use, is completely up to you.

When the eggs are just boiled, cool them enough to handle them, and crack the shells. (above)

The tea and spice mixture, dry.

Place the tea and spice mixture in another pot, and add enough water to just cover the cracked eggs.

Simmer the eggs in the spice bath, for a good half an hour. Then turn off the heat, and let them sit for at least another hour. Do not rush this; steeping-time is needed to really absorb the flavor and color. Check the eggs while still in the bath; the membrane right under the shell will have a deeper color than that on the egg itself. (above)

Peel and enjoy both their beauty and flavor. I included this photo to inspire you, as well as to show that if you peel off chunks of the shell you can create darker patterns (and deeper flavor), as in the egg top left.

These also make a great egg salad, as they impart a great flavor.

If you do not eat them all right away, store the eggs in a glass jar, in the tea bath water (strain out the spices/tea), in the refrigerator.

Sonoran Flat Enchiladas, a demo by the experts

January 17, 2014November 24, 2014 / Savor Blog Partners / 28 Comments

Elda Islas and Armida Islas as sisters-in-law who make Sonoran flat enchiladas according to directions handed down by Elda's mother and their mother-in-law Josefa.

Elda Islas and Armida Islas are sisters-in-law who make Sonoran flat enchiladas according to directions handed down by Elda’s mother and their mother-in-law Josefa Islas.

Hello. It’s Carolyn here with you this week. First I want to welcome all our new followers. Always feel free to leave a note, an observation, even a qibble. We want this to be a community conversation.

When I heard that Slow Food was considering nominating Sonoran flat enchiladas as a vanishing food tradition, I knew exactly where to go to document what in the Islas family is a recurring staple. Elda Islas and Armida Islas are sisters-in-law who are married to brothers who ran the American Meat Company on South Fourth Avenue in Tucson. Their families and their husbands go back many generations in Tucson and Sonora.

Elda’s husband Filiberto told me that Sonoran flat enchiladas were traditionally served on Fridays when Catholics were prohibited from eating meat. Since fresh fish wasn’t always available in the desert, this was a hearty substitute.

For our lesson, we met one afternoon last week in Elda’s comfortable kitchen in the Menlo Park neighborhood in Tucson. First we made the chile sauce. In this case, we used fresh chile paste prepared from plump red chiles by Filiberto. But you can also use canned Las Palmas chile or Santa Cruz chile paste. Elda began by smashing some garlic with a stone with a flat side she had inherited from her mother-in-law. It has been used by generations of women and has grooves worn where the fingers grip it. Then we browned the garlic in a little oil.

Smashing the garlic with a stone.

Brown the garlic in a little oil.

Next we added 3 tablespoons flour, the 2 cups of chile paste and a little broth and let it simmer gently.

The chile sauce should be thick but fluid.

Next we made the masa. She used lard which recent studies have shown is not as bad for you as Crisco. Armida mixed it with her hands.

5 pounds fresh masa

¼ cup soft lard (yes indeed)

2 cups queso fresco, grated

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons salt

(Some cooks also include mashed potatoes, cottage cheese or a beaten egg)

Combine all in a deep bowl and knead with hands until thoroughly combined. It should be creamy, damp but not sticky.

Making the masa patties.

When the masa was ready, we formed it into patties 1/4- to 3/8- inch thick and 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Meanwhile ½-inch of vegetable oil was heating in a heavy frying pan When it was hot (didn’t have a thermometer, but probably around 350 degrees F.), Armida slid in three patties. A bigger frying pan could probably accommodate four.

She fried them until they were golden on the underside, about three minutes. Then she turned them to fry another 2 to 3 minutes until golden. She lined a oblong dish with paper towels and stacked the finished patties to drain. Eventually we ended up with 3 dozen patties.

Sizzling and smelling delicious.

The patties should be crispy on the outside and light on the inside.

Now it was time to assemble the enchiladas. Armida dipped each patty in the chile sauce and arranged them on a plate. Then it was time for the condiments. We used lettuce, grated queso fresco, chopped green olives, radishes, and chopped green onion.

The condiments

When the Sonoran flat enchiladas are assembled, they look like this. What is missing from the photo is the aroma. Heavenly!

Three enchiladas made a nice meal. You can also add beans and rice.

Should you have any leftovers, they are great warmed up and served for breakfast with eggs. Filiberto Islas said this is called Enchiladas de Caballo.

Enchiladas a Caballo

My sincere thanks to Elda and Armida for the lesson and a lovely afternoon!

_____________________________________

Want more recipes for delicious food with a Southwest twist? My book The New Southwest Cookbook contains recipes from top restaurant and resort chefs throughout the Southwest, using our local ingredients for mouthwatering dishes. You can find it at your local bookstore or order it here. See all my cookbooks at my website.

Wonders of White Sonora Wheat Berries

January 10, 2014 / Savor Blog Partners / 3 Comments

Heirlooom White Sonora Wheat growing at Mission Garden April 2013–Rod Mondt photo

Tia Marta here from Flor de Mayo to share news of an ancient grain newly emerging from its historic quietude as a flavorful and nutritious gift to Southwestern cuisine—a real boon to desert agriculture and health! I’m talking about the White Sonora Wheat, introduced by Padre Kino, kept alive and well in a Sonoran village for 300 years, “rediscovered” and propagated by Native Seeds/SEARCH plant-sleuths, and at last being grown commercially by a few caring farmers in Baja Arizona.

Fresh harvest of White Sonora Wheat Mission Garden May 2013–Bill O’Malley photo

This particular Triticum aestivum variety is a winter wheat for the desert. Now is the time to plant it in your own garden plot through February for a later harvest into May and June.

Precious White Sonoran Wheat grain was provided by Native Seeds/SEARCH as a start-up ag experiment to a local grower, BKW Farms, and it has really taken off. Tohono O’odham Elders may likely remember the Wong family of Marana who provided fresh produce out to the res in the early-mid 1900s. Now in their 5^th generation of attuned farming, the Wong family (as BKW Farms www.bkwazgrown.com ) have turned their attention to growing heirloom wheat—USDA Certified Organic. Bravo for feeding us well AND improving the soil, air and water! With their first crop a real bumper, BKW Farms is returning more than twice the wheat seed back to NativeSeeds/SEARCH than the original “starter kit” quantity loaned to them. Kneaded by the skilled hands of Barrio Bread and BigSkye bakers, their White Sonoran Wheat’s flavor is spreading and exciting many a Tucson palate. Check out www.barriobread.com and www.bigskyebakers.com .

At our Flor de Mayo farmers market booth, a few wheat-sensitive consumers have reported they are actually not affected by this heirloom wheat. (Hey, scientists, there is information in its genes and constituents we need to know more about!)

BKWFarms’ White Sonoran wheat berries cleaned and ready–MABurgess photo

Using whole kernals of wheat in cooking seems to be almost an unknown in modern culinary culture, but health benefits are significant. For one thing wheat berries are “live food” truly sharing life energy. Vitamins in the bran and germ are super-active. In commercial so-called “whole wheat bread” the vibrant living constituents have been removed for transport and storage then added back artificially when baked to make it “whole” again. By eating the wheat berries whole from the git-go, we can enjoy their full nutrition. [For local, fresh, the only truly whole flour (no parts removed) milled from White Sonora Wheat commercially available, we are blessed with the new Hayden Flour Mills in Phoenix (www.haydenflourmills.com) providing packaged flour to the NSS store and to Flor de Mayo LLC.]

Providers of other heirloom wheat berry varieties locally are Ramona Farms (www.ramonafarms.com) and San Xavier Farm Coop (www.sanxaviercoop.org) with Pima Club wheat, and the NSS Store with faro also known as emmer (www.nativeseeds.org).

I made mini “greenhouses” of recycled clear plastic boxes. Try rice bowls, berry or hamburger boxes for sprouting. MABurgess photo

I’ve been having a wheat-berry “hay-day” in the kitchen with White Sonoran Wheat berries. Here are a few appetizing ideas to introduce wheat berries into your culinary repertoire:

Sprouted White Sonora Wheat Berries:

Sprouts will take about 3-4 days until ready. Plan on rinsing them daily. Soak 1 tablespoon of wheat berries overnight in a jar. Prep “greenhouse” box with coffee filter or paper towel cut to size to prevent grains from passing thru any holes as a strainer. Pour wheat berries into “greenhouse” box, wash and drain. Place box on a dishtowel out of direct sunlight. Rinse and drain them twice a day to keep them from getting sour. Within 2 days you will see rootlets like tiny white spiders forming. By the third day greenish stems will rise. That’s when they are ready to eat. Try sprouts as a surprise snack—you won’t believe how its relatively blah starch can change with the magic of living enzymes into the sweetest pleasant sweet you ever tasted! To slow down growth of young wheat sprouts put “greenhouse” box in frig. You can snip or “mow” elongating wheatgrass and add it to green drinks or smoothies. Separate wheat sprouts and toss them in salads. With a hand-crank masa-grinder (such as the one sold at Native Seeds/SEARCH store) grind them fresh to add flavor and texture to bread-baking. [I will be interested you hear your wheat sprout ideas too!]

White Sonora Wheat berry sprouts at 5 days

Cracked Wheat Berries–Speaking of grinders—a masa grinder or meat grinder can be used to crack dry wheat berries for cooking bulgar dishes. If you have a stone-burr hand mill, White Sonoran Wheat berries mill to a beautiful flour for baking. Keep your ear to the ground about upcoming wheat-berry milling events to be announced with my new WonderMill…..

Basic cooking directions for Whole Wheat Berries: (Simply cooking wheat berries ahead makes some tasty recipes a breeze!)

1) Rinse 1 cup dry White Sonoran Wheat berries to remove any chaff or grit. Drain.

2) In saucepan cook washed wheat berries with 3 cups drinking water and ¼ tsp sea salt. Bring to a boil then reduce to low simmer.

3) Check berries after 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary to cover. Taste for doneness every 5-10 minutes thereafter. When done, berries should be round, fully plump, softly chewy (beyond al dente) with no white starch remaining. It may take 45 minutes to an hour to finish taking up water, i.e. to be fully cooked. One cup dry wheat berries yields about 4 cups of cooked wheat berries.

Then…you can eat hot wheat berries right away (or zap them later) as a hot cereal. Or, refrigerate them for up to a week for use in pilaf or marinated salads—recipes follow….

wheat berry cereal makes a wonderful hot breakfast

Berry-Delish Hot Wheat Berry Cereal

1 cup hot white Sonora wheat berries cooked

2 T dry blueberries and/or dry cranberries

1 T chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Pinch of sea salt

½ cup warmed milk, rice milk or almond milk

1 pat of butter on top (optional)

Serve hot and enjoy the soft crunchiness. My elderly mother got a nostalgic look of bliss after tasting this hot wheat berry cereal, saying that it reminded her of what her mother served her as a young child.

hot and tasty White Sonora Wheat berry pilaf-MABurgess photo

Perfect Wheat Berry Pilaf

In 2+ Tablespoons flavored olive oil, sautee 1-2 cups chopped fresh vegetables, such as red onion, yellow or winter squash, red sweet pepper, carrots, celery, greens (optional).

When veggies are al dente in the pan, add 2 cups cooked wheat berries to the mix and 2 more tablespoons flavored olive oil. Stir-fry until hot through.

Add 2 T pine nuts (optional—they won’t show) and 1 T chopped tops of I’itoi’s Onion (or chives)

Dress with salt, pepper, and spices, such as Santa Cruz Chile and Spice Company’s “zapp.” Serves 3-4 generously. Enjoy!

[A cool idea is to make extra pilaf (more than recipe) and chill it to use later as a flavorful salad.]

Wheat Berry Salad Supreme

Marinate 2 cups cooked wheat berries in your favorite Italian, balsamic, or Asian dressing overnight (8-12 hours) then toss with fresh chopped romaine, carrots, celery, sweet peppers, olives. Serves 4. As Mom says, “It’s so chewy—you know you’ve eaten something!”

* * * *

Three cheers –for our local seed-savers and growers bringing this ancient grain afresh to our tables! For our local bakers helping it rise again! And for our creative Baja Arizona chefs honoring pre-industrial wheat with their culinary alchemy!

Local, heirloom, organic—wow, what more could we ask? That is White Sonora Wheat. Come taste a White Sonora wheat berry sprout. Stop by and see me, Tia Marta, at the St. Phillip’s Sunday Farmer’s Market where I’ll have the BKW organic White Sonoran Wheat berries for sale in 6oz and 1 kilo size packages ready to use. Or you can find them packaged at the Native Seeds/SEARCH Store, 3061 N Campbell, Tucson. Order online at www.nativeseeds.org. Please visit my website for other desert food products and scheduled events at www.flordemayoarts.com.

DIY cheese, yogurt, chiltepin, edible flowers, simplicity, mystery

January 3, 2014August 7, 2018 / Savor Blog Partners / 6 Comments

Written and photographed by Linda McKittrick http://www.timecapsulekitchen.com

After all the the hoopla, meal sharing, and resolution making of the season I am ready for some simplicity. This “do it yourself” cheese making recipe echos the cheese making “en el campo”, but requires no milking of a ruminant animal (at least not by you). It is simple and, allows for some mystery to unfold as well. It is best made in small batches.

Presently, I am making this kind of yogurt cheese, rather than Queso de Campo, as we are letting our cows recondition right now. I share these photos of previous cheese making times on the ranch so you feel connected to the larger process. In the recipe that follows, you will have whey (the liquid-y part that separates, as the cheese forms – photo below) as well. It is HIGHLY nutritious for all of us animals, whether two or four legged, so do not toss it. At the ranch we add it to foods, or share it with the dogs or the chickens. In the yogurt recipe, the whey is salty, so best not to share with your animals, but great to add to your own salads, fermented concoctions, etc. Yours will look clearer than that in the bucket below.

I’ll give you the base recipe, then suggest some fun ingredients; 24 hours later, as you unfold the cheese cloth towel, tune into the tastes and colors and textures that emerge. The magic comes as your tongue tunes into the eddies of taste that happen as the chile, or herbs, or flowers that you added, undergo an alchemy. It is an alchemy that you set in motion, but then must let go of. Good practice for life generally.

THE BASIC RECIPE: Line a colander with a dish towel. Place colander over a bowl. Combine the yogurt and salt in the dish towel and make sure the salt is mixed in well. Bundle up the towel and either place it in the fridge for 24 hours, or, hang it over a bowl. Either way the yogurt and salt interact, while the whey drips below. Try making the “basic” recipe to give you a baseline taste for your tongue. You could then add mint or herbs from the garden on top, with a bit of olive oil.

1 32-ounce container yogurt (note: you can use your own home made yogurt. But whether you make it or buy it, it needs to be Full Fat. Try goat or sheep yogurts if you can find them. Variety is important.)

1 tablespoon rock salt ( the culinary rock salt, not ice cream making salt)

Olive Oil

ALCHEMICAL RECIPE : begin with the Basic Recipe: line colander, add theyogurt and salt, and then try adding:

1 teaspoon dried crushed chiltepins (not only the chile flavor, but the COLOR, infuses into the cheese as well.And each batch is a little different) for a Chiltepin Cheese.

A few tablespoons of fresh herbs from your garden. Rosemary is in high season in the SW right now, and you you can use both the herb itself as well as the flowers as well. Edible flowers are really a delight to use as the flowers add both flavor, often not what you expected, as well as beautiful colors.

Then with all the ingredients mixed, tie up your cloth, place over bowl, and let the magic happen. In 24 hours, when you open the cloth, the transformation will be yours to savor. Eat by the spoonful. It is great on sliced radishes, or rolled in fresh greens from the garden (both growing robustly in our gardens right now, here in the SW). Or add to a lightly sauteed vegetable dish.

I place my finished cheese in a glass container (so I can enjoy it visually) and add olive oil to seal it, even while I cover it with a lid. It seems to stay fresher. Keep it in the fridge.

Below: The Chiltepin Cheese Version

Below: Using edible flowers right before tying up the cloth.

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Savor the Southwest:

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Author: Savor Blog Partners

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Cracks and Creation: “How the Light Gets In” Tea Eggs

Sonoran Flat Enchiladas, a demo by the experts

Wonders of White Sonora Wheat Berries

DIY cheese, yogurt, chiltepin, edible flowers, simplicity, mystery

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