California Foraging by Judith Lowry

Author:Judith Lowry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: 2014-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

Future harvests

Overgrazing led to the multiplication of mesquite in many arid rangelands, where it is now considered a weed to be attacked with aerial spraying and heavy machinery. Honey mesquite needs to be recognized as the miracle plant that it is. Pruning can help productivity, as well as creating comfortable openings in the scrub, for the honey mesquite is said to produce remarkably pleasant shade, an invaluable commodity in the desert.

Indian ricegrass

Stipa hymenoides, formerly Achnatherum hymenoides, formerly Oryzopsis hymenoides

sand grass, Indian millet, Indian mountain-rice grass, silky mountain grass, wye

EDIBLE seeds

Indian ricegrass is tough enough to handle harsh, sandy, dry conditions, and its seed makes a tasty desert popcorn or breakfast mush.

A perennial bunchgrass found in the deserts of California and in much of the semiarid west, Indian ricegrass was called the Queen of the Desert in a poem by early ethnobotanist Edith Van Allen Murphey, who encouraged its replanting in the early 1900s. Since the seed is relatively large for a grass, it contributed significantly to the diets of indigenous desert dwellers and was probably the most important grass seed food in the Southwest. The ease with which the seed can be harvested and cleaned, its early ripening at a time when not many seed foods are available, its relatively large grain, and its delicate savor were factors in its popularity.

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