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EARLY CUISINE IN THE DESERT
I just inherited some wonderful garden books from the estate of friends of mine.
Few serious gardeners do not know the name Hillier and of his
contributions to Horticulture. The book I received was hard used, with
notes and scraps and check marks throughout. What I did not expect to
find was this newspaper clipping
from the 'Trading Post' in Paradise,
CA. I could not track down the paper or the author. If anyone knows,
please contact me.
"SURVIVAL in the Desert"
"Considering
everything, especially the fact that he didn't know about super markets
and tap water, the deserts prehistoric citizen didn't fare too badly.
For
breakfast he sweetened gourd seed mush with Joshua tree sugar and
squatted at his stone table to watch the rising sun. For lunch he
sandwiched
on bread baked from ground yucca and treated himself to a
sprig of mistletoe candy.
At four o'clock he paused to refresh himself with ocotillo punch- or served himself a spot of squaw ephedra tea.
At
sundown, it was time to dine. After a rattlesnake hors d'oeuvre with an
agave cocktail, he placed a slice of baked mescal on his yucca fiber
plate,
added a fist full of boiled rumex with catsclaw beans and a
tender rabbit haunch.
For dessert he savored beaver tail cactus fruit polished off with a
stored cache of pinion nuts. In lieu of tobacco, he chewed a creosote
twig.
Then he turned off the moon and went to bed.
To induce
strange and delightful dreams, he swallowed a poke of crushed Datura.
But when dawn arrived,
Man groaned and howled and pounded his
Datura-drugged head. That's when he invented soluble coffee."
author unknown