Sunday Stills: Signs of Fall

Living so close to Mexico as I do, we won't be seeing too many signs of fall until October or even November. Mostly we are feeling the signs of fall. After an abnormally hot summer, with three entire months of temperatures between 103-110, having 80 degrees at noon feels rather pleasant!

So instead, I will show you some signs of September color where I live. Your life has probably been touched by this stuff, and you never knew about it. This is the time of year that the female Cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus) lays a white fluffy substance containing larvae on the pads of our Prickly Pear  Cactus (Opuntia sp.).

When this white fluff is collected...

...and crushed...

...it produces a natural red dye that is more stable than synthetic colors. The Cochineal is native to South America and Mexico (and obviously this part of Texas which once belonged to Mexico). Cochineal dye was used by the Aztecs and Mayas, and once was the second largest commodity after silver exported from Mexico. The Navajos still use it to dye wool red for their rugs.

After the Spanish conquest, it was exported to Europe, and even was so valuable as to be quoted regularly on the London and Amsterdam Commodities Exchange.

England, wanting to control their own source for the coloring, transplanted it from Brazil to Australia in 1787. Can you guess the use for which the British wanted it?

That's right...there would have been no Red Coats without this little insect and its white fluff.

Chances are very high that you've worn and consumed this insect in your daily life! It is currently used in both the food and cosmetic industry. You'll see it listed as carminic acid, red color E120, and carmine. It's found in alcohol and soft drinks, meats, cheeses, pastries, jams, lipstick, blush, face powder, eyeshadow, hair coloring, oil paint, water colors just to name a few.

Each year people consume an estimated 1-2 drops with their food. This could be of concern if you are vegetarian, vegan, Jewish, or Muslim. Don't like the idea of consuming crushed insect larvae? A new U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation will require all foods and cosmetics containing cochineal to declare it on their ingredient labels as of January 5, 2011. Still, with cochineal red being one of the safest colorants, I kind of doubt there will be much information letting people know its source.

For some classic signs of fall, visit Sunday Stills!

I Say Smut, You Say Truffle

You may be wondering what has become of the crop circle project. I got the corn planted, but never the other sisters: beans and squash (although we have them elsewhere). However, close to 50 tomatoes from incomplete composting (never reaching 140 degrees) came up as the unexpected sister. There you go--more accidental gardening. Next year I suggest we just spread our compost over everything and forget planting.

Farmer Rick just came in telling me some of our Oaxacan Green Dent Corn was exploding open with kernels like long fingers filled with black icky stuff. I had to go check it out.

Sure enough he was not exaggerating. Some of the cobs did indeed look alien with swollen gray kernels...

growing as big as my thumb and as long as fingers...

filled with something looking like chewed up tobacco. Totally gross!!!

We bravely unwrapped a couple of the closed cobs to discover relatively normal looking dent ears in milk stage, but not looking green at all like they should. Maybe dent corn doesn't get it's true color until later?

Anyway, we got ourselves some smut, Corn Smut to be exact! Ustilago maydis, to be exact-er.

It's a pathogenic plant fungus that during times of drought enters the plants ovaries and replaces the normal kernels of the cobs with these large distorted tumors filled with fungal threads and blue-black spores.

Most American farmers destroy the infected plants (um, my thoughts exactly!) but in our neighboring Mexico, it is considered a delicacy! Yup, it's sold in cans called huitlacoche, a Nahuatl (Aztec descendant) word meaning raven's excrement. Mmm, appetizing! ...not! There's been a movement to rename it Mexican Truffle. See how a little marketing can spin something?

As a vegetarian I eat a delicious product called Quorn (suspiciously pronounced Corn) made out of mycoprotein...now I'm beginning to wonder, could there be a connection here?

I don't think I want to find out.