Gary Paul Nabhan - Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair

PRAISE FOR MESQUITE

By turns informative, playful, funny, and wise, Mesquite is a fascinating, tour de force illumination of the natural, cultural, and spiritual value of a truly remarkable desert tree. Gary Nabhans gift to readers is the imaginative and redemptive suggestion that we still have plenty to learn from the more-than-human world that flourishes even under the harshest conditions. A gem from one of our finest western American writers, Mesquite is a spectacular accomplishment and a wonderfully entertaining read.

MICHAEL P. BRANCH , author of Rants from the Hill and How to Cuss in Western

With a reverently irreverent blend of natural history, magical realism, social commentary, and humor, Nabhan invites us to fall in love with one of the Americas most misunderstood and maligned plants. Masterfully performing the great sleight of hand trick of classic nature writing, Nabhan employs close observation of the outside world to go deeper within.

LIZ CARLISLE , author of Lentil Underground

In this rapturous, provocative, and intimate book, Gary Paul Nabhan takes readers on his quest for symbiosis with mesquite! Its a paean to the venerable desert legume, a humorous meditation on human knowledge, and a somewhat Kafkaesque journey into the deep state of vegetal oneness with a tree. It is full of wry observations, heartfelt hopefulness, and vivid stories with a big dash of trippy fun!

COURTNEY WHITE , author of Grass, Soil, Hope and Two-Percent Solutions

It seems that Gary Paul Nabhan has been experiencing a case of mesquiten identity! In this book we learn how he came to belong to the genus Prosopis . Along the way we also learn about mesquite biology, evolution, ecology, culture, cuisine, and conservation. Like the mesquite, Gary is deep-rooted in our arid landscapes and communities. He crosses borders. He bears blossoms of wit and pods of knowledge. As he finds himself transformed, so does the reader. We become a bit more mesquite-like ourselvesand, somehow, that much more human.

CURT MEINE , conservation biologist, senior fellow, The Aldo Leopold Foundation

Delicious! This book nourishes the soul, home, and palate with stories and characters as alluring and complex as the trees they love and celebrate.

BRAD LANCASTER, cofounder of Desert Harvesters; author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond

Other Books by Gary Paul Nabhan

Ethnobiology for the Future

Food, Genes, and Culture

Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land

The Forgotten Pollinators (with Stephen Buchmann)

Gathering the Desert

The Desert Smells Like Rain

Mesquite

An Arboreal Love Affair

GARY PAUL NABHAN

foreword by PETEY MESQUITEY

CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING

White River Junction, Vermont

London, UK

Copyright 2018 by Gary Paul Nabhan

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Alexander Bullett

Project Editor: Benjamin Watson

Copy Editor: Nancy Bailey

Proofreader: Rachel Shields Ebersole

Indexer: Deborah Heimann

Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Printed in the United States of America

First printing August, 2018

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 118 19 20 21 22

Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Mesquite was printed on paper supplied by Thomson-Shore that contains 100% postconsumer recycled fiber.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Nabhan, Gary Paul, author.

Title: Mesquite : an arboreal love affair / Gary Paul Nabhan ; foreword by Petey Mesquitey.

Description: White River Junction, Vermont : Chelsea Green Publishing, [2018] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018019460| ISBN 9781603588300 (hc) | ISBN 9781603588317 (ebook) | ISBN 9781603588270 (audiobook)

Subjects: LCSH: Mesquite. | Ethnobotany.

Classification: LCC QK495.M545 N33 2018 | DDC 583/.633--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018019460

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, VT 05001

(802) 295-6300

www.chelseagreen.com

I speak of the tree in mind,

its foliage our language.

Do you ask me for an answer?

I have none. I know only

that the tree is ourselves, different

as the instruments of an orchestra

are different, but without which

the symphony is incomplete.

R. S. THOMAS , The Tree, Uncollected Poems (1981)

at home as the years seeds begin to fall

each one alone each in its own moment

coming in its blind hope to touch the earth

its recognition even in the dark

knowing at once the place that it has touched

the place where it belongs and came to stay

this is the place that I wanted to hear

W. S. MERWIN , Ripe Seeds Falling, Garden Time (2016)

crying along the trail

packing her cradle board

Hey woman, you dropped your burden!

No I buried him in a tree.

JAIME DE ANGULO , Shaman Songs, Home Among the Swinging Stars (1974)

Dedicated to my Mesquiteer Mentors: Ivan Aguirre, Juanita Ahill, Jeau Allen, Martha Ames, Esperanza Arevalo, Molly Beverly, Stephen Buchmann, Tony Burgess, Alberto Burquez, Vince Kanai Dodge, William Doelle, Richard Felger, Hugh Fitzimmons, Ed Frederickson, Art Garcia, R. Roy Johnson, Brad Lancaster, Dennis Moroney, Petey Mesquitey, Cristina Monroy, Laurie Smith Monti, Mark Moody, Carolyn Niethammer, Juan Olmedo, Clifford Pablo, Amadeo Rea, Sunny Savage, Amy Valds Schwemm, Humberto Suzn Azpiri, and Raymond Turner

CONTENTS

I was a kid from northern Kentucky seeking adventure when I first arrived in the Sonoran Desert. The application to attend the University of Arizona was easy, and Tucson sounded pretty cool, especially in Kerouacs On the Road. But within minutes of getting off the airplane at Tucson International Airport, I came to the realization that I was in a foreign land. I couldnt even pronounce the name of my dormitory. I still owe a thank you to the cab driver who patiently gave me a Tucson tutorial as we headed to my new home at the Kaibab Huachuca dormitory. That tree with green bark is called a palo verde . Thats Spanish for green stick. Oh, and now those tall cactuses with arms those are called saguaros . Pronounce it right. Nothing worse than folks getting that wrong. Youre gonna love it here.

Well, not right away, but yeah, he was right. I mean, I was a far cry from the grassy pastures and junglelike hardwood forests of my youth. So it took a year or so, but somewhere in that period, something happened. Im not sure I can point to an event or an epiphany, but I do remember going home to Kentucky over a school break and wanting desperately to get back to the desert. I was captured, and Ive never left the borderlands since. Oh, I tried a couple times, but no, I came scurrying home to the desert.