The Incredible Edible Desert
Take a trip back in time with me, back to when you were a little kid. What was the first thing you did when you encountered something new? Come on, be honest – you put it in your mouth, didn’t you? It’s okay. It’s what all kids do! Apparently, based on this month’s questions, it’s what some adults do, too. Take Alan D. of Boston, for example:
Are desert plants edible?
In the days before supermarkets, people depended upon the desert for both food and pharmaceuticals. Many indigenous plants, like prickly pear, mesquite pods and tepary beans, can even be good for you. Thanks to their low glycemic indices, these foods absorb slowly into system and can actually protect people from diabetes. Cactus fruits, such as saguaro and prickly pear fruits, are edible and also can be used to make jelly and candy. In addition, botanicals like jojoba, Mormon tea, desert broom, Mexican mint marigold, desert lavender and mesquite also have healing qualities that soothe, calm and cure when brewed into teas or made into poultices (mixtures of healing herbs that are heated, spread on a cloth and applied to the body).
Now, before you get all excited and start chewing on the nearest cactus, let me explain that it is illegal to harvest desert plants in designated preserves (not to mention dangerous, as many desert plants are toxic and most are well fortified with protective spines and stickers). If you’d like to try some of our desert delicacies, visit the award-winning Lon’s restaurant at the Hermosa Inn and try the Pecan Roasted Pork Chop with Prickly Pear Braised Red Cabbage or the Grilled Vegetable and Mushroom Tamales, which incorporate tepary beans. At Anhala restaurant at the Radisson Fort McDowell Resort & Casino, you’ll find Squash Blossom Beignets, as well as a variety of mesquite-grilled dishes. You also can visit www.nativeseeds.org to purchase seeds and start your own desert garden.
Next, we have this from Gary J. of Detroit:
Is it true that you can rely on water from a cactus if you’re lost in the desert and get dehydrated?
How much do you want to bet that Alan and Gary are related? Sorry, Gary – cacti are not Mother Nature’s secret water coolers. If you broke into a cactus, all you’d find are plant tissues with the consistency of a damp, slimy sponge. And, while some moisture can be pounded, squeezed or chewed out of these tissues, most cacti are toxic. You probably wouldn’t die, but the likely side effects of ingesting the toxins – vomiting and diarrhea – are the worst possible things for anyone suffering from dehydration. Only the tissues of the fishhook barrel cactus yield potable moisture and only after a lot of work on your part (in fact, you’d probably sweat away more moisture trying to break into the cactus than you’d gain if you succeeded). The best place to get water in the desert is from a bottle or canteen that you bring with you.
I’ll see you next month with some more interesting facts about the Sonoran Desert. In the meantime, if you’re out in the desert and see Alan or Gary wandering aimlessly about and trying to eat cacti, help them out, will you?
