Post by blackcrowheart on Apr 25, 2006 15:44:07 GMT -5
Harvest Time (native nutrition)
Agave harvest renews tribal food tradition
ROASTED: The plants, also known as a tequila ingredient, are cooked in a
pit for three days.
10:00 PM PDT on Friday, April 14, 2006
By PAUL DeCARLO
The Press-Enterprise
For centuries, Cahuilla men scoured the mountains above the Coachella
Valley, harvesting a plant they would eat, weave into sandals and even
into baby cradles.
The traditional quest for the sweet-tasting agave continues today and
next weekend during the Malki Museum's 12th annual harvest and tasting.
The harvest will be led at 10 a.m. today by U.S. Forest Service
archaeologist Daniel McCarthy along Highway 74, depending on weather
conditions.
On April 22, agave will be prepared at the museum on the Morongo Indian
Reservation.
Both events are open to the public. Each costs $10.
Historic accounts hold that the plants were buried in a hand-dug dirt
pit for three days.
Logs burned under rocks covered with agave, leaves and grass, allowing
the stalks to steam, according to Temalpakh, a 1972 book by Palm
Springs-based anthropologist Lowell Bean and Cahuilla elder Katherine
Siva Saubel.
"It's symbol of a lot of the cultural revival that's going on," said
Bean, a Cahuilla scholar. "It brings people back to the past."
The plant is also an ingredient of tequila, said Jacob Ritchey, a
publications manager for the museum.
As many as a dozen native American tribes will be at the roast, Bean
said.
Agave harvest renews tribal food tradition
ROASTED: The plants, also known as a tequila ingredient, are cooked in a
pit for three days.
10:00 PM PDT on Friday, April 14, 2006
By PAUL DeCARLO
The Press-Enterprise
For centuries, Cahuilla men scoured the mountains above the Coachella
Valley, harvesting a plant they would eat, weave into sandals and even
into baby cradles.
The traditional quest for the sweet-tasting agave continues today and
next weekend during the Malki Museum's 12th annual harvest and tasting.
The harvest will be led at 10 a.m. today by U.S. Forest Service
archaeologist Daniel McCarthy along Highway 74, depending on weather
conditions.
On April 22, agave will be prepared at the museum on the Morongo Indian
Reservation.
Both events are open to the public. Each costs $10.
Historic accounts hold that the plants were buried in a hand-dug dirt
pit for three days.
Logs burned under rocks covered with agave, leaves and grass, allowing
the stalks to steam, according to Temalpakh, a 1972 book by Palm
Springs-based anthropologist Lowell Bean and Cahuilla elder Katherine
Siva Saubel.
"It's symbol of a lot of the cultural revival that's going on," said
Bean, a Cahuilla scholar. "It brings people back to the past."
The plant is also an ingredient of tequila, said Jacob Ritchey, a
publications manager for the museum.
As many as a dozen native American tribes will be at the roast, Bean
said.