Sonoran Desert: Cactus

When you’re chopping and slicing in your own kitchen, you might well be cutting up onions or garlic or carrots. But the cook we’re listening to is preparing a desert delicacy — cactus. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. Our chef is Jessie Emerson, a clinical herbalist at the Sierra Alta Herb Institute of the Southwest in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jessie teaches people about the plants of the desert and how to use them as food and as medicine. Right now, she’s making a meal in an open-air kitchen at the Institute’s base camp in the Sonoran desert of Arizona. One of her favorite ingredients is the prickly pear cactus.

“This is full of a lot of potassium and calcium. When you sweat on the desert, you’re sweating out electrolytes, so you want to make sure that you keep enough salt and have enough potassium around, so that your muscles in your body don’t get weak. This food is a natural. If you ate just one half cupful of prickly pear juice, you would get enough potassium probably for about two days. And this can be used in a salsa. Instead of tomatoes you might chop up the prickly pear, and cilantro, some garlic, some peppers, and you’ve got yourself a good desert salsa.”

As always, when it comes to questions of health and any form of medication, we suggest you first check with your physician. If you’d like to hear some of your favorite Pulse of the Planet programs again online, please visit our web site at nationalgeographic.com. Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sonoran Desert: Cactus

The prickly pear cactus is one of the most valuable ingredients in a desert herbalist's kitchen. It's rich in nutrients such as potassium, and makes a great salsa.
Air Date:06/02/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

When you're chopping and slicing in your own kitchen, you might well be cutting up onions or garlic or carrots. But the cook we're listening to is preparing a desert delicacy -- cactus. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. Our chef is Jessie Emerson, a clinical herbalist at the Sierra Alta Herb Institute of the Southwest in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jessie teaches people about the plants of the desert and how to use them as food and as medicine. Right now, she's making a meal in an open-air kitchen at the Institute's base camp in the Sonoran desert of Arizona. One of her favorite ingredients is the prickly pear cactus.

"This is full of a lot of potassium and calcium. When you sweat on the desert, you're sweating out electrolytes, so you want to make sure that you keep enough salt and have enough potassium around, so that your muscles in your body don't get weak. This food is a natural. If you ate just one half cupful of prickly pear juice, you would get enough potassium probably for about two days. And this can be used in a salsa. Instead of tomatoes you might chop up the prickly pear, and cilantro, some garlic, some peppers, and you've got yourself a good desert salsa."

As always, when it comes to questions of health and any form of medication, we suggest you first check with your physician. If you'd like to hear some of your favorite Pulse of the Planet programs again online, please visit our web site at nationalgeographic.com. Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.