How To: Process southwestern desert plants for eating

In this video, Ruth Greenhouse teaches us how to process native plants for eating. The Mesquite desert plant is a great fuel as well as good for beans in the summer months. One way to use the beans is to pick the dry beans when they are ripe (they will be tan) and you can grind the pod into a fine powder, which will make a flour that is healthy. You can mix this flour with water and it can be a healthy beverage. It can also be added to cookies and breads to make them sweeter. Another plant is the Prickly Pear which is edible if handled correctly. To handle these, first use tongs and a knife to scrape the prickly spines off, then trim the edges off. After doing this, cut off the ends and you can slice or dice the middle of the Prickly Pear. There are a number of different recipes to use this in. You can grow these right in your own garden and make delicious new recipes!