Eat Mesquite
/ February 08, 2011Desert Harvesters, 2011. Desert Harvesters.
This is primarily a cookbook, and most of the pages are composed of recipes, although the beginning section talks about the natural history, ethnobotany, lore, and general harvesting and preparation information about the mesquite genus. The book was put together by Desert Harvesters, a unique organization that promotes the use of native food plants in the Sonoran Desert region of southern Arizona, in an effort to connect people to the ecosystem and build sustainable communities.
For those who live in this region, mesquite is perhaps the single most important wild food staple. It is exceptionally abundant, easy to identify and harvest, crops prodigiously (albeit variably), and is good food. There is probably no better plant to partner with to begin the journey of food gathering, and the variety of recipes in this book facilitate that marvelously. Now I must admit, since I do not live in the Southwest, I have collected and eaten mesquite a total of two times, and I have eaten foods made with mesquite flour prepared by one of the book's contributors (Brad Lancaster) a total of two other times. I have not tested out a single one of these recipes. But these people are speaking from a wealth of real-life experience, and it shows in the recipes and their accompanying instructions. This is wholesome food made from a variety of healthy ingredients, where mesquite flour is more than just a token inclusion. The Desert Harvesters have purchased a hammermill for making mesquite flour, and it travels around to various events that they organize so that foragers in the region can have a cheap, efficient way to procure flour from what they harvest. This is just plain awesome. If I were there, I would be ALL IN. In fact, I think I'll have to come down for one of these events sometime.
The beginning of the book includes a brief essay called "Mesquite, Food for the World" by Richard Felger and Neil Logan. The authors talk about mesquite being a potential sustainable, environmentally friendly food crop for arid regions. Their philosophy is to find food crops to fit the environment rather than change the environment to fit the desired crop. Their philosophy reminds me of the concept of ecoculture that I introduced in Nature's Garden: managing functioning ecosystems of native or naturalized plants to produce food while simultaneously providing habitat to wildlife and ecosystem services such as soil maintenance/accumulation and watershed protection. I truly believe that these systems are the key to a sustainable and healthy future--really, any future worth having at all--and commend the authors for their work.
My only complaint about the book is that there wasn't more of it. I could have gone for 40 more pages of cultural and natural history of the various mesquites and the people who lived (and live) with them, and more detailed information about their harvesting, storage, processing options, timing of ripening, etc. But I know, the intent was a little cook book. And it's a good one.
