Native Cultures: Cooking Demo Featuring Seri-Harvested Mesquite Flour and Local Purslane
Saturday, October 13, 2012, 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Speaker: Abe Sanchez
Abe Sanchez will join us again on Saturday October 13, 2012 from 10a-11a. We will be celebrating native foods, featuring two special ingredients: mesquite flour and purslane leaf.
Prosopis glandulosa – common name, honey mesquite, is a tree that is native to the deserts of California, the arid southwest, and Mexico. It is found in bajadas and dry washes where moisture levels are so deep in the ground, that the water is simply not available to other plants. Many wildlife species depend on mesquite throughout the year; for food, browse, nectar, pollen, shade, cover, nesting materials, and protection. The fine-grained wood is incredibly hard and notably beautiful.
Portulaca oleracea – common name, purslane is considered a superfood and has a long-time presence in North America, possibly dating back to pre-Columbian era. In many gardens, Purslane is considered a common weed. Next time you are pulling it out, think: nutrition!
These remarkable plants have been long appreciated by native peoples in the region. Mesquite is highly valued because even in drought years, the trees will produce seed pods and the abundant food source in the seed pods is ground up, traditionally fire-roasted, and made into flour. See our older post from our mesquite flour event from last year for more information, including recipes!
Tree of Life Nursery is very proud to provide a very high quality mesquite product that is collected and prepared by the Seri, an indigenous indian tribe from the coastal desert land in Sonora, Mexico. We are proud to purchase our mesquite flour direct from the Seri allowing the tribe a fair-trade income stream. Incidentally, most commercially available mesquite flour is grown and processed in Argentina, and typically has a much finer texture. Seri flour is preferred for its stone ground texture and superior flavor.
Purslane (Spanish – verdolaga) is readily available at many ethnic food markets. It is a green leafy and succulent type plant, that cooks down much like spinach. We’ll show you what it looks like so you can find it on your next shopping (or weeding) adventure so you can identify it in your garden. It is a warm season grower, so we are presently at the end of the growing season.
Abe and his team will be cooking these ingredients over an open fire, before your very eyes to give you some ideas about what can be done with native foods. Come prepared to try some new things and ready to learn about how to incorporate ancient ingredients in a contemporary manner.
See you here!