Utensils harvested from the heart of a desert spoon
Quail Creek desert spoon stalks after flowering
Ron Sullivan
Bounties harvested from desert landscapes 7000 years ago may not have looked or tasted much different than what’s in today’s Quail Creek kitchens, xeriscapes and liquor emporiums.
Some hard evidence can be found at the Fate Bell Shelter located in Texas’ Seminole Canyon Park and historic site along the lower Pecos River. Sotol, also known as desert spoon (Dasylirion wheeleri), is depicted in paintings on rock walls. Sandals, baskets, ropes, mats and even eating utensils along with many other items of sotol fiber show that it was a highly important resource to Ancient Pueblo Peoples of the Basketmaker culture.
Sotol flower stalks used as atlatl dart hind shafts were found in Ceremonial Cave in the Hueco Mountains near El Paso, Texas. The sotol stem was used as a tool to create fire. In its simplest form, it is two sticks rubbed together creating friction and heat.
Desert spoon typically grows on rocky slopes in the Chihuahuan Desert grassland between 3,000 and 6,500 feet above sea level. It also grows very well in our Sonoran Desert landscape. Unlike agave, which flowers only once in its lifetime, sotols produce a flower stalk every few years. Once the plant matures, it is harvested like agave plants used in distilling mescal and tequila. The outer leaves are removed to reveal the center core, which is taken back to the distillery. The core can then be cooked, steamed, shredded, fermented and distilled. The stalk takes approximately 15 years to mature and yields only one bottle of sotol per harvest.
For millennia, sotol utensils were harvested from the heart of the desert spoons. They really do look like spoons.
For more information about harvesting utensils from desert spoon control-click on this YouTube video at http://www.swordofsurvival.com/2010/11/sotol-desert-spoon.html.