Equanimity
11-05-2008, 03:27 PM
Information on desert edibles is hard to find so I thought I would share what I know. I'll do a new plant once a week or so.
Jojoba is a wonderfully useful plant. It dose need a male and female plant to be fertile. You can tell the male form the female because the male plants will clusters little balls while the female plants will have big nuts on them. The Jojoba nut also known as the goat nut is very edible and tastes similar to a brazil nut. You can also roast them to make a coffee like beverage. The nuts contain valuable oils that are comparable to grape seed oils. They have very similar properties and can be used interchangeably. Jojoba nuts (also known as goat nuts) have been a reliable food source for indigenous people for centuries and can be found in abundance throughout the Sonoran Desert. Look for them hanging like tiny acorns from the grayish green leaves of jojoba bushes. The nuts are found on female plants and ripen from mid-July to mid-September. They are especially large and tasty after a healthy monsoon season. Jojoba nuts to contain higher levels of tannins, 35% so if you plan to eat large amounts of them you may want to consider soaking them in water over night to leach out some of the tannins. Jojoba has been used medicinally by indigenous people for treatment of cancer, fever, abdominal cramps, and to help facilitate childbirth. In Mexico, dried jojoba leaves are still used as a tea for chronic mucous-membrane inflammation, including colitis, vaginitis and hemorrhoids. It’s also used in the treatment of stomach and esophageal ulcers.
Jojoba is a wonderfully useful plant. It dose need a male and female plant to be fertile. You can tell the male form the female because the male plants will clusters little balls while the female plants will have big nuts on them. The Jojoba nut also known as the goat nut is very edible and tastes similar to a brazil nut. You can also roast them to make a coffee like beverage. The nuts contain valuable oils that are comparable to grape seed oils. They have very similar properties and can be used interchangeably. Jojoba nuts (also known as goat nuts) have been a reliable food source for indigenous people for centuries and can be found in abundance throughout the Sonoran Desert. Look for them hanging like tiny acorns from the grayish green leaves of jojoba bushes. The nuts are found on female plants and ripen from mid-July to mid-September. They are especially large and tasty after a healthy monsoon season. Jojoba nuts to contain higher levels of tannins, 35% so if you plan to eat large amounts of them you may want to consider soaking them in water over night to leach out some of the tannins. Jojoba has been used medicinally by indigenous people for treatment of cancer, fever, abdominal cramps, and to help facilitate childbirth. In Mexico, dried jojoba leaves are still used as a tea for chronic mucous-membrane inflammation, including colitis, vaginitis and hemorrhoids. It’s also used in the treatment of stomach and esophageal ulcers.