The Nutritional Bounty of Desert Plants
Surviving and Thriving within the Chihuahaun Desert
Recently my husband and I took a small road trip to explore West Texas which took us into the Chihauhaun Desert and Big Bend National Park. If you have the chance I highly recommend taking a trip to this area.
The desert is an intriguing place. And the history here of how the early settlers lived and worked the land is also very intriguing to me. I mean, it’s the desert and I asked myself numerous times, what was the attraction?
Early settler families moved in and placed their homesteads along the shores of the Rio Grande river. Where on one side is the Mexico border and one side is the United States of America. The land was fertile enough for them to have livestock and also grow certain crops like corn, melons and cotton.
The early settlers were hunter and gatherers, farmers, chefs, doctors, using all that the desert provided them to survive. This is really the epitome on Back to Basics of Living.
Every part of the animal hunted was used for food, shelter, clothing, tools and the native plants gave them the supporting back up if the animal was not available. The plants were used for food, clothing, shelter and medicinal purposed.
Benefits of the Native Plants
The native plants had many benefits:
No irrigation was needed and these plants just naturally exist in the desert.
They product their own pesticides and defenses against threats and predators
They are self seeding and perennial for long term growth
Now let’s look at a few well known desert dwelling plants and their individual uses and benefits.
AGAVE
Most parts of this plant are edible. Flowers can be boiled and leaves and stalks roasted and eaten immediately. They can also be pounded in cakes and dried to be preserved for weeks. Seeds were ground into a flour and the juice from young stalks could be extracted and fermented into a mild alcohol called Pulque. Not to be confused with the other agave liquor, Tequila
Pulque is a traditional Mexican alcoholic beverage produced from the fermentation of the fresh sap known as aguamiel (mead) extracted from several species of Agave (maguey) plants that grow in the Central Mexico plateau. Currently, pulque is produced, sold and consumed in popular districts of Mexico City and rural areas. The fermented product is a milky white, viscous, and slightly acidic liquid beverage with an alcohol content between 4 and 7° GL and history of consumption that dates back to pre-Hispanic times.
The leaf was eaten like an artichoke, where you suck the innards out and when the charred outer leaves were discarded, a brown juicy mass that tasted like molasses was revealed.
Prickly Pear Cactus
All portions of the prickly pear are edible. They produce a fruit (called tuna) that is produced on the top of the pads or nopales. The jellied insides of the pads were also used medicinally for wounds and burns (similar to the aloe vera plant).
The pads were broken off and the glochids (spikes) removed off by rubbing the pads on rocks or sand. They were then boiled for eating immediately or the pads could then be dried for rehydrating for later use. Another way of preserving their food. The prickly pear is high in vitamin C as well as magnesium, potassium and calcium and contain beneficial compounds that were used for medicinal purposes.
The large seeds inside the pads were ground into a flour and mixed with water to be eaten like porridge.
Mesquite Trees
This was one of the most important plants of the native people and early settlers. Homesteads were often selected depending on their access to these trees. A good rain could have the tree produce 20 pounds of bean pods. These pods, beans and all, were ground into a flour. The flour was nutty, sweet and high in protein and monosaturated fat. The pods were used for food and nutrition throughout the winter months.
Yucca
The yucca plant was also very versatile for the natives and early settlers of the area. The root contains a compound called Saponin.
Saponins are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water.
The saponin acts as a detergent or soap when mixed with water. Pounding the yucca roots in a basin with water provided suds to wash clothes, skin and hair.
The flower stalks of the yucca produced seeds that were once again ground into a flour and mixed to make a porridge or dried into cakes for later consumption. The fruits of the yucca we boiled or baked and then dried for storage. The native peoples used yucca for relief of arthritic symptoms.
Living off the land and clearly with only the basics, the early settlers managed to survive and thrive. Many continued to live in the area until the 1960’s.
Imagine a world with no convenience foods processed with ingredients that our government deems as GRAS (generally regarded as safe), getting all the nutrients our bodies require from the earth and the animals that roam it.
There is a lot to be learned from our ancestors.
Danni
Wow how fun I learned a lot!
Great roundup! I have seen prickly pear popping up in skincare formulas recently, which makes sense with the benefits you described for wound healing.