Howdy folks!
I haven't really posted much about the desert since moving here. I went for a while thinking it was just about the most inhospitable environment possible, but research told me I was wrong! Yucca is a marvelous plant - the root is edible, the stalk is edible when young, then the flowers are edible and then the fruit is edible. Even after the fruit dries up, the seeds can be made into a flour (I haven't tried it myself!). The leaves can also be fashioned into makeshift sewing needles or cordage can be processed from the fibers in the leaf. The leaves are VERY pointy (drew blood from my buddy as he accidentally backed into a smaller one!) and could easily take an eye on these taller ones as you try to harvest stalk or fruit. Disclaimer: I don't know if that's true of all yucca, as I know it grows in many places. So research before you eat!
After the yucca has borne its fruit, the stalk dries up and falls off, growing a new stalk each year. The stalk is extremely light (somewhat like balsa) but surprisingly hard - quite brittle, though. And when I say dry up, I mean it is bone dry very quickly! Last night I went out with a buddy and harvested a piece of yucca.
The tall one in the center is a huge one - all tolled, probably in the region of 15ft high and the stalk was almost 2" thick. Most of the ones around here are not that big and it was still green with fruit - I didn't want to cull the biggest in the herd and I wanted a dry one, so I took the dead stalk lying at 45 degrees in the bottom right. It was bone dry. I chopped it off with my new Condor parang, which is a monster!
Since it was late at night and pitch black, I took it home to play with today. This is what I took home after trimming the branches and thin end:
This is a modest size, but plenty large enough for my needs. I made a drill out of the thin end and split down part of the thicker end to make a hearth.
Glorious fire! This thing goes really, really easily.
I didn't catch the flames while they were going, but it also takes sparks from a firesteel very easily and goes up like a shot, so you have to keep more tinder ready. The wood is quite brittle as I said, so the feathers are fragile and not very curly.
It might be almost 40C but I do love the desert sometimes
Pete
I haven't really posted much about the desert since moving here. I went for a while thinking it was just about the most inhospitable environment possible, but research told me I was wrong! Yucca is a marvelous plant - the root is edible, the stalk is edible when young, then the flowers are edible and then the fruit is edible. Even after the fruit dries up, the seeds can be made into a flour (I haven't tried it myself!). The leaves can also be fashioned into makeshift sewing needles or cordage can be processed from the fibers in the leaf. The leaves are VERY pointy (drew blood from my buddy as he accidentally backed into a smaller one!) and could easily take an eye on these taller ones as you try to harvest stalk or fruit. Disclaimer: I don't know if that's true of all yucca, as I know it grows in many places. So research before you eat!
After the yucca has borne its fruit, the stalk dries up and falls off, growing a new stalk each year. The stalk is extremely light (somewhat like balsa) but surprisingly hard - quite brittle, though. And when I say dry up, I mean it is bone dry very quickly! Last night I went out with a buddy and harvested a piece of yucca.
The tall one in the center is a huge one - all tolled, probably in the region of 15ft high and the stalk was almost 2" thick. Most of the ones around here are not that big and it was still green with fruit - I didn't want to cull the biggest in the herd and I wanted a dry one, so I took the dead stalk lying at 45 degrees in the bottom right. It was bone dry. I chopped it off with my new Condor parang, which is a monster!
Since it was late at night and pitch black, I took it home to play with today. This is what I took home after trimming the branches and thin end:
This is a modest size, but plenty large enough for my needs. I made a drill out of the thin end and split down part of the thicker end to make a hearth.
Glorious fire! This thing goes really, really easily.
I didn't catch the flames while they were going, but it also takes sparks from a firesteel very easily and goes up like a shot, so you have to keep more tinder ready. The wood is quite brittle as I said, so the feathers are fragile and not very curly.
It might be almost 40C but I do love the desert sometimes
Pete
