Stories of Bioregional Culture
Stewards of Arizona Seedsheds Chris Franco
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n THE FIrST dAy at Seed Library School at the Conservation Center in Tucson, (1) I was already designing what would become the Rio Salado Seedshed Library (rSSL). I knew that I was doing this for the indigenous peoples of my place, the Sonoran desert, and to preserve not seed diversity in general, but the desert’s diverse crops. By extension, this means preserving the cultures of the people who steward the seeds. I am dedicated to the seeds, and also to their stories. These are inherent to the language, farming, foods, history, and interaction of oppressor and oppressed—the whole culture— which is embedded in the seed and which awakens in the indigenous peoples as they behold it.
This is how a sense of place is developed. It is subtle. It is knowing the plants…
Cultivating the diet of the future now People often ask about greens, particularly lettuce. I introduce them to desert, or arid-adapted greens. We are used to buying leafy greens at the store. It takes a shift of habit to walk outside and pull young weeds for dinner. So part of the mission for rSSL is to steer people gently away from spinach and broccoli and towards such desert delicacies as verdolagas (purslane, 2), quelites (wild amaranth), and nopales (prickly pear; Opuntia spp). One of the ways I do this is by selecting seeds and cuttings offered by rSSL. Another way is by pulling those weeds before class and bringing them with me to give people a quick identification lesson. nearly everyone recognizes them from the yard, the sides of the road, the sidewalk cracks, and every neglected lot in the city. The desert, full of food, will never look the same again, will it? This is how a sense of place is developed. It is subtle. It is knowing the plants (and perhaps later them knowing you). It is seeing the mesquite (Prosopis spp, 3) and palo verde (Parkinsonia spp) trees, the creosote (Larrea tridentata) and wolfberry (Lycium spp) bushes, the globemallow (Sphaeralcea spp) and sunflower weeds, and knowing their tastes, smells, and medicines, their dormancy, flowering, and fruiting—knowing their life cycles and having them entwine with your own. Summer monsoon means the unmistakable smell of creosote in the air, the collecting and seemingly endless drying, sorting,
and storing of mesquite pods before the rain. The tiny bruchid beetles fly around the house, gathering on the back door by day and on the indoor houselights at night—they leave nips on my body now and then. This peak gardening season—yes, in the desert summer—brings, at the very least, the corn, beans, and squash that have been staples for thousands of years. Then comes the eerie brightness of the magenta prickly pear, the juiciness of its fruit so incongruous in the plant’s desert home, along with the fresh orange hackberries. The cooling fall arrives, and the peak season of introduced crops begins. rSSL stewards a selection of desert-adapted, non-bioregional seeds to provide off-season fall crops. The winter rains come, returning the pungency of creosote to the air. The wildflowers bloom—different every year. In spring, yellow flowers explode everywhere: the puff balls of the acacia add an exciting variant to the more rare pinks and purples of the riparian desert willow (Chilopsis linearis), jacaranda, (4) and the now sadly unpopular spined ironwood (Olneya tesota). For a short time, the pods of green teardrop palo verde (Parkinsonia microphylla) pop out to offer their edamame-like experience. These, as well as jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) and wolfberry, may be stored for the year. Finally, again, the heavy bundles of mesquite pods can be spotted on the trees as the humidity rises with the returning summer monsoon, repeating the cycle. As you might guess, rSSL offers tree seed and seedlings, cuttings, and wild plants, as well as the more familiar agricultural seeds.
Use it or lose it The slogan for rSSL, “Use it or lose it,” carries multiple
The author’s children surrounded by mesquite pods. Children can be taught early on about wild harvesting and processing. SEEDS • FEBRUARY 2014
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