Notes on Agaves of Continental North America, by Gentry
p. 4- Agaves were considered by Sauer to be part of the beginning of agriculture in North America. In an early system of plant husbandry, the plant could be moved, whole, from one place to another. Note that this was exactly what was done by the Paiute.
p.5
Agave supplied food, fiber, drink, shelter and other things. When planted round a camp, the agave forms an "armed fence".
Agave use goes back at least 9000 years.
p. 6: Because agave was moved, and semi-cultivated, hybrids resulted when two species were planted close. "Even though he has no concept of genetics, he quite innocently fostered an explosive evolution in agave diversification."
>------>Is "Explosive Evolution" a good paper title?
The main part eaten is the meristem.
Cooking converts the starches to sugars. Most stems were charred in coals, half-burnt and half-raw, and agave shoots were cooked so as late as the 1970s in backcountry Mexico.
Castetter has mapped pit-baking of agaves. 1938
"Agave pit baking was a family or group effort...men and boys collecting the wild mescal heads (cabezas), the woman and girls gathering firewood and cooking."
The cooked heads were cut up, eaten or stored, pressed into flat cakes which could be traded (as sweets?); the juice was cooked down into syrup and made into candies.
Mescal baking pits are found as far south as northern Sinaloa and Durango and baked agave in Mexican markets.
Miguel de Barco wrote a book on agave baking in Baja.
In Gentry 1978
Flowers boiled or scrambled with eggs.
Cuticle used as wrapper, as in El Taco de Huitzilopochtli. Nice.
Where leaves are seen with rectangles "skinned" from them, then this has been done. Coahuilans make bread with pulque. Hm.
Vinegar, distilled alcohol.
p. 30: lots of botanical terminology on agaves. Suggestion that thick agave plantings not only repel grazers but might shield other species.
p.5
Agave supplied food, fiber, drink, shelter and other things. When planted round a camp, the agave forms an "armed fence".
Agave use goes back at least 9000 years.
p. 6: Because agave was moved, and semi-cultivated, hybrids resulted when two species were planted close. "Even though he has no concept of genetics, he quite innocently fostered an explosive evolution in agave diversification."
>------>Is "Explosive Evolution" a good paper title?
The main part eaten is the meristem.
Cooking converts the starches to sugars. Most stems were charred in coals, half-burnt and half-raw, and agave shoots were cooked so as late as the 1970s in backcountry Mexico.
Castetter has mapped pit-baking of agaves. 1938
"Agave pit baking was a family or group effort...men and boys collecting the wild mescal heads (cabezas), the woman and girls gathering firewood and cooking."
The cooked heads were cut up, eaten or stored, pressed into flat cakes which could be traded (as sweets?); the juice was cooked down into syrup and made into candies.
Mescal baking pits are found as far south as northern Sinaloa and Durango and baked agave in Mexican markets.
Miguel de Barco wrote a book on agave baking in Baja.
In Gentry 1978
Flowers boiled or scrambled with eggs.
Cuticle used as wrapper, as in El Taco de Huitzilopochtli. Nice.
Where leaves are seen with rectangles "skinned" from them, then this has been done. Coahuilans make bread with pulque. Hm.
Vinegar, distilled alcohol.
p. 30: lots of botanical terminology on agaves. Suggestion that thick agave plantings not only repel grazers but might shield other species.