Chiltepin Challenge: Creation Myth

In a Cora Indian creation story, (according to a Franciscian in 1673, and reprinted in, among other places, Gathering the Desert, by Gary Nabhan), First Man's testes turned into chile pods, (shaped just like the chiltepin), and he sprinkled spice onto the food. There is a beautiful illustration of First Man's "Chile Pods", by Paul Mirocha, on page 122, in the book mentioned above.

I love this creation myth because they speaks deeply of the core relationship between food, spirit, and humankind.

At dawn a few days ago, as I was picking wild chiltepin in the foothills of the Sierra Madres, it occurred to me that chiltepin are also shaped like ovaries.

Both ovaries and testes share a "life giving" role for humans. Both are similarly shaped.

I am sure there is some meaning here.

An inspiration tickled it's way to into my mind: why not write another chile/creation story - this one featuring the feminine. So, in the spirit of fun and balance, I propose that anyone who has interest, write a creation myth, for modern times, that welcomes both the divine feminine and chile/chiltepin.

Let it speak to a feminine wisdom (and perhaps wit), that we all might benifit from. It should not be anti-male in any way - there is enough polarization on the planet; let's not add to that. And let's keep them clean.

Are you game?

If so - post and share your story either in the "comments" section (if it is shortish) - or send to crosspollinating@gmail.com and I'll post it in a blog post dedicated to our new myths. Have fun; I am excited to see what your write!

Wild Chiltepin: on being in love with an 8000 year old plant

WILD CHILTEPIN

I am in love with Wild Chiltepin -- the closest known relative to the first Mother Chile. Untold numbers of humans have been seduced by this tiny, but powerful fruit, for thousands of years. How do I know this? Human coprolites, or "pellets", tell us that humans have been ingesting wild chiles for more than 8000 years(Callen 1965; Nabhan 1997, Hodgson 2001)! And while some foods provide empty calories, this wild chile pepper is nourishing. It is a rich source of vitamins A,C,B2, niacin, and potassium.

When we put our fingers around one of these ancient chiles, we are holding a tiny, fragrant, time capsule, smaller than a pea. Picking just one chile connects us to all the other humans who, for thousands of years, have reached for wild chiles, in just the same way today. I am quite smitten with this connectedness to peoples in times past. My mind roams to all the women, men, and children who have picked this closest-chile-relative for eight thousand years! I marvel at the constancy of this wild chile as times of peace and conflict arose and fell, intonations of dialects morphed, languages died out or were born, different technologies, parenting styles, spiritual beliefs, and values arose and fell away. And still this little chile maintained itself. It resisted domestication. It insisted on wildness.

And with it's wildness comes a flavor that cannot be beat.

Tasting chiltepin right off the bush is a surprising experience. Unlike domesticated chiles - that burn with less heat, but a heat that lasts on the tongue - the chiltepin is more like the flame of a match. It's heat reveals itself quickly, but subsides more quickly too.This seems to hold true for the unripe, green chiltepin as well as the fresh or dried red fruits.

Harvesting chiletpin is a fragrant affair. As the fruit ripens from green to dark purple, then from orange to a dark red, it easily separates from the plant. There is a distinct aroma as the tiny fruit separates from the mother plant, and joins others in the harvesting sack. This is definitely an experience to be savored.! A fruity-chile aroma wafts into your olfactory-factory; and it is a smell you can taste on your tounge and feel on your skin.

Looking at the structure of this wild chile (below) reveals why it does not need humans to reproduce. In Gathering the Desert, Gary Nabhan writes, "The domesticated chiles are mostly pendant, rather than being erect on the stem in a position so that birds can reach them. Whereas chiletpines ripen quickly and stick out above the foliage like sore thumbs, domesticated Capsicums like peppers hang to the ground below the plants' foliage...". The quick ripening, and small size, mean that birds have a complete seed package to eat and distribute easily. Compare this strategy to that to larger chiles - which hang down, take longer to ripen, and are larger, therefore harder to carry if you are a bird, and you can see clearly why this chile has thrived for so many years.

If growing this plant is something that you would like to try in your own garden, keep in mind that chiltepin needs a nurse plant. It loves legumes, like mesquite, and large thorny bushes like Hackberry. Wildness appears to require relationship, and the chiltepin will thrive in a guild relationship where it can be shaded from the sun in the hot summers, and protected from frost in the winters. If you plant chiltepin with your domesticated chile annuals, in direct sun, it will likely die. If you nurture it under a nurse plant, it will thrive into the perennial it is - and can live for years, if not decades. I have watched and tracked chiletpin plants on our ranch in Mexico for over 15 years, and they were large and thriving well before we arrived!

Which brings us back to Wildness. To paraphrase Michael Pollan, wildness is more a quality than it is a place "out there". It cannot be bought nor manufactured - but it can be invited in. to invite some wildness into your life and garden with this wild plant can stir you in unexpected ways.

If you would like to learn to cook with this wild chile, email Cookingfreshtucson@gmail.com. My cooking partner Sally and I delight in using these ancient foods in our lives and kitchens daily. I'll post a photo of our Wild Chile University class, that was a fundraiser for Native Seeds SEARCH (a wonderful organization and a good place to by chiltepin to cook with, or seeds to sow. They are located in Tucson, AZ and on the web at: Nativeseeds.org). Recipes will be posted soon.

Think about experimenting with this tiny chile that packs such a punch - (yet is reported to be BENEFICIAL for the gastric world). It's versatility ranges from salsas, soups, beans and eggs, to adding it to salad dressings, spicy peanut sauces, cupcakes, coco ... I use it literally EVERY DAY!

One note: the oils on any chile can stay on your fingers for a time - and can be easily rubbed into eyes or other parts of the body that are painful. Take care to wash your hands well, or is a spoon or a grinder. (Native Seeds SEARCH sells little grinders made JUST for this type of chile pepper - Nativeseeds.org)

Harvesting wild chiles in Sonora, MX

Chocolate-chiltepin cupcake

"Cooking with Chiltepin" class for Native Seeds SEARCH Jan/10

To buy this special chile for cooking or sowing:

*** Nativeseeds.org

To learn to cook with this fine, wild chile:

*** Cookingfreshtucson@gmail.com

To buy an already established chiltepin plant:

***Crosspollinating@gmail.com

Happy Gardening and Happy Cooking!

Happy 90th Birthday Ray Bradbury!

Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury!!!

In honor of his birthday, I am - (in paraphrase of his words) - going to jump off the cliff and build my wings on the way down. Here goes ...

This evening Time has draped itself, like raw pizza dough, over the mesquite branch in front of the chicken coop. On the very branch where the neighborhood hawk sits, licking it's beaky lips with talon tongue, Time, like a Dali clock, has surrendered itself to gravity, and has gone limp.

This is, truly, way past due.

I am happy - joyous even - to see the limp Time-piece slide slowly off the rough bark. It drops through the mesh of chicken wire, into the coop, landing in one of the dust-bath holes the hens use for bathing. That is where my Time needs to be. If you've never watched a bird Relish it's bathing, you haven't lived. They become one with the earth. Their rigid beaks soften, and begin to turn upward into a smile. They change, literally, the energy around themselves. They remind anything living to "witness and celebrate" (Ray's words).

What I am trying to describe here is Freedom from Time. That the rigid, corseted, shapeshifting, Time that has so dominated me for year upon year is now freeing itself, to become, instead, an ally. It is dropping its Seriousness; it's sense of Importance dissolving; it's choked breath, finally, exhaling.

Letting go of it's old form, it is seems freer to express it's brighter side. When I know more about what that means, I'll write again.

Piggy backing on Time and Clocks, and to CELEBRATE AND WITNESS this remarkable man, a paragraph from Ray Bradbury, in Dandelion Wine:

"The courthouse clock struck nine and it was getting late and it was really night on this small street in a small town in a big state on a large continent on a planet earth hurtling down the pit of space toward nowhere or somewhere and Tom feeling every mile of the long drop. He sat by the front-door screen looking out at that rushing blackness that looked very innocent, as if it was holding still. Only when you closed your eyes and lay down could you feel the world spinning under your bed and hollowing your ears with a black sea that came in and broke on cliffs that weren't there."

Thanks Ray Bradbury! -- for inspiring me to write again, after many, many years.

SummerJoy

Bring the beauty of the garden into the art-space of the kitchen, and Surrender to Alchemy! Gorgeous food, with it's accompanying life force, can feed us on multiple levels.

Click on the photos to see them larger.

Onion Flowers -

open faced, Goat Cheese Sandwich

Squash Blossom and Saffron -

a Squash Blossom Polenta

Elderflowers and Scented Geranium flowers -

Home made ice cream

NOTE: Not all flowers are edible!

Do your homework before putting them in your food or your mouth!

SummerTime ...

Does a ladybug feel the red liquid, berry-waterbed, underneath her beetle feet?

What Beauty do we touch underneath our own SummerTime-feet?

Small things.

Big things.

Same thing.

Crossing out of the studio and into the field with art:

This is an example of taking screen printing out of the art studio and into the field! A thermofax machine was used to make screens (similar to silk screens) of honey comb, honey bees, and chicken images. The images were applied directly onto the wood of our top bar/Langstroth honey bee hives, as well as the hay box for our hens. Bees and hens are artful in their living, why should they not live in and around art as well?

Welcome to Cross Pollinating!

Welcome to Cross Pollinating!

Where love of art, gardening, ranching, foraging, culture, cooking, - and their mysteries - are completely savored.