I read a post recently
about never eating mesquite sap because it’s “like glue.” Well, yes that’s correct; it’s very much like
glue. But there have probably been a
couple million kids, and adults as well, who have chewed mesquite sap (The
Indian word is Chauite, Chow-wee-teh) over
the past few thousand years. Parents
warned their children about eating mesquite sap because it might, “plug them
up.” But little good that probably did.
I never cared for the
taste of mesquite sap but I have relatives and friends who loved it. Connoisseurs, like my sister, used to say the
tiny droplets formed after mesquite girdlers ply their trade taste better than
the corpulent balls formed after a weighted branch cracks the bark. But I found neither particularly palatable.
Like most tree sap, Chauite, looks jewel-like. The color ranges from light to dark amber and
it hangs from a branch like a growing stalactite. And just like a stalactite it drips slowly to
the ground creating a dark puddle of gummy goo that quickly mixes with the
soil.
In my part of the world
the mesquite is Prosopis glandulosa
and is a member, like all mesquites, of the legume family. The family name, Leguminosae has grown
unpopular and now the name Fabaceae has found favor among those who argue such
points. Leguminosae derives from the
word, legume. Fabaceae derives from the
Latin word faba for bean.
There is perhaps more
misleading information about mesquite in Texas than any other plant. Like political partisans, people either hate
it or love it. I talked to a “range
scientist” once who loathed mesquite.
But his point of view seemed less scientific than economic. He wanted grass to feed cattle. His world revolved around that one thought
and he seemed unable to consider mesquite eclectically. Another fellow I met swore that mesquite was
“not from Texas!” No sir, he said. It’s a “foreign invader.” I guess this sort of thinking is pervasive in
some places. But here are the facts:
Mesquite is a native of all parts of Texas.
It’s been here since before the first colonizers wandered into the area
over ten thousand years ago, end of story.
The name mesquite, by the way, is believed derived from the Aztecs and
was Castilianized into the word we know now.
But there are other hypotheses as to its derivation. Let it suffice to say that, like many other
words in North America, its roots are Native and ancient.
Whole cultures,
particularly in deep South Texas, revolved around the consumption of mesquite
beans and prickly pear pads. In ethnobotanical
terms, the mesquite was for many Indian people in South Texas what the buffalo
was to Indians living on the plains. The
beans were used to make bread and a sort of porridge. They were pounded by using wooden pestles in
either dirt holes or more frequently in concavities carved into fallen mesquite
trunks. An alcoholic drink atole was made from mixing mesquite
beans and water. I’ve slept in dozens of
mesquite-made shelters called a jacal, (ha-kahl). Mesquite branches or saplings form the jacal’s frame both for the walls and
roof and then mud mixed with grass is packed nearly a foot thick to form the
walls. The roof is usually woven grass
or carrizo. These structures, by the
way, are very energy efficient and from an engineering perspective are better
suited to the heat of South Texas and northern Mexico than your conventional
brick veneer dwelling. They are nearly
infinitely cheaper to build too.
Indians used mesquite
charcoal and water as toothpaste. The leaves,
mashed into something reminiscent of papier-mâché, were used to treat headaches
as it was pressed along the forehead.
And yes, guess what: Mesquite sap was used to treat diarrhea. I guess it does plug you up afterall.
An acquaintance called
me up a few days ago and asked what local Indians used to haft arrow points to
shafts. There are documented reports of
the local Indians using mesquite sap.
They used the sap not only to secure the arrow points but to attach
feathers as well. There are reports that
mesquite sap was used as a water-proofing material to line the inside of clay
pots. But I question that report and
consider it inaccurate. Mesquite sap
dissolves quickly in water and thus it’s unlikely it was used in that regard.
My grandmother, Rafaela
Guerra de Valverde would take mesquite sap and drop it in a jar full of
water. It would quickly dissolve and
then the kids would take that to school and use it as glue.
One more thing:
Mesquite honey is nectar of the gods. It
is light, nearly clear, in color. It’s
like no honey you’ve ever tasted. You
will only find one other plant that approaches mesquite in the production of heavenly honey and that is the
huisache, Acacia farnesiana, equally
hated by the “lets knock everything down and plant grass to raise cows” crowd.
