FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
SAGUARO or SUWARRO, SAHUARO, GIANT CACTUS Cereus giganteus
Ward, Artemas. 1923. The Encyclopedia of Food. New York, Number Fifty, Union Square.
is a tree-cactus (Carnegiea gigantean, Cereus giganteus) common in Mexico and the southwestern states. It consists generally of a single straight trunk, frequently one to two feet in diameter and from fifty to sixtyfeet high. The fruit, gathered from the bigger plants by means of long poles, is oval or oblong, and two or three inches in length, with green outer skin a crimson, rather insipid, pulp. It is locally consumed in large quantities both raw and preserved.
Berzok, Lindsa Murray. 2005. American Indian Food. Food in American History. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.
is a very tall cactus, sometimes with arms, that grows throughout the Southwest.
These crimson cactus fruit with tiny black seeds grow in late spring on the crowns of the towering saguaro cacti in the Southwest and are a challenge to harvest. In June, entire villages of Pima and Tohono O'odham moved to the saguaro forest for two to three weeks, a time that signaled the beginning of a new calendar year. Using two ribs from a dead saguaro spliced together and mounted with a transverse stick of the creosote bush, the fruits were knocked off, splitting when they hit the ground. Pulp was scooped out, then tossed into a basket and soaked in water to loosen the seeds so they could be sun-dried separately and ground for bread or mush. The pulpy part was spread out on a mat to dry after most seeds had been removed. It was then cooked and strained through loosely woven baskets that allowed the juice to pass through into a pottery vessel. This was slowly boiled until it was reduced to a thick syrup that became the basis for a fermented drink described in the beverage section. Each saguaro fruit contains about 34 calories (2 tablespoons of dried seed have 74 calories) and a high amount of protein, fat, and vitamin C.
Niethammer, Carolyn. 1974. American Indian Food and Lore. Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc., New York.
ALSO CALLED: Giant cactus and sahuaro. SCIENTIFIC NAME: Cereus giganteus (formerly Carnegia giganteus).
HABITAT AND DESCRIPTION: This huge succulent grows only in the well-drained desert soils of southern Arizon and Sonora, Mexico, and in a small area in southeastern California near the Colorado River. The highest recorded altitude at which it has been found is 5,100 feet but generally it does not grow about 3,500 feet. The largest plants attain a height of more than 50 feet and evelop as many as 50 arms. Some plants are believed to be 150 to 200 years old.
Cereus giganteus is not only great in stature but also in importancew in the lives of the Indians. The harvest of the juicy, crimson fruit of the giant saguaro was so important to both the Pima and Papago Indians of southern Arizona that it signaled the beginning of the new calendar year for both tribes.
The saguaro flowers appear in may and the fleshy fruits ripen five to six weeks later. At harvest time in June, entire villages would move out into the saguaro forests and set up temporary camps for two to three weeks. The event was an occasion of great jollity and preparation for the yearly wine drinking ceremony, which was believed to bring the rain. it was also a time to lay in a large store of food for the months ahead. There was much gorging: the saguaro was almost the first fresh food of the year and the first taste of anything sweet.One colonial priest, writing in the seventeenth century, reported that some Indians became so corpulent after eating huge quantities of the sugar-rich fruit that he was sometimes unable to recognize at first sight individuals otherwise perfectly familiar to him-and this was after feeding for about three weeks on the fruit. This is understandable, as each fruit contains about 34 calories (two tablespoons of dried saguaro seed have 74 calories), and is also high in protein, fat and vitamin C.
Early morning in the Papago saguaro camps would find everyone out athering the fruit. To knock the fruit off the top of the tall plants they used two saguaro ribs spliced together with a short traverse stick of creosote bush or catclaw affixed on the end.
If the fruit did not split open on hitting the ground, the gatherers split the fruuit with the sharp edges of the circular calyx attached to the fruit stalk. The pulp was scooped out from each half of the rind with two motions of the thumbs and thrown into a basket, while the shell was thrown to the ground, care being taken that the red lining feel uoppermost, for this hastened the rain.At midday, when it became too hot for gathering, the morning's harvest was taken back to camp, where the pulp was soaked in water to loosen the minute black seeds that were then sun-dried, to be gorund and used for bread or mush. The remaining pulp was further prepared for syrup or jam. The mother or mother-in-law always officiated at this occasion. Whenever a large clay jar or olla was filled, it was sealed air-tight with a potsherd (piece of broken pottery) cemented over the opening.
At the end of the harvest it was time for the great celebration: much drinking of saguaro wine accompanied by dancing, singing, and speechmaking. For the wine-making, every family contributed a jar of boiled saguaro juice to the large jars ceremonially guarded in the council house. As soon as the juice was poured from its air-tight container it was mixed with four times the amount of water-the ideal being a mild intoxicant that could be taken in quantity. A small fire was lighted in the council house to keep up a steady, moderate heat and official tasters directed the fermentation process; the usually length of time was about 72 horus. The wine, called navai't, is almost impossible to keep, so traditionally the entire supply had to be consumed in 24 horus. The drink was sort of a cider (considered by some to have an unpleasant taste) whcih, when drunk in ritual quantities, induced vomiting. Women did not become intoxicated but looked after the men when they did.The Maricopas, a central Arizona tribe, also welcomed the time of the saguaro harvvest, not because the fruit formed a considerable portion of their staple foods, but as an occasion for celebration and debauchery. The giant cactus did not grow in the Maricopa territory proper-they had to travel a little way to get it. Some of the fruit was eaten fresh in the field, but the main point was to collect as much juice as possible. Sometimes as many as a hundred large pots of juice were set in the meeting house to ferment.
