It kills me to rub it in, but while you were most likely freezing and cold these last weeks, I was having fun in the sun in Baja. OK, maybe I’m gloating.
I haven’t spent much time in Baja and it’s a very weird wonderful place. Despite being Mexico, it’s not "my Mexico" and the focus seems to be more on the wild beauty of the place than eating and drinking.
I went hoping to find a wild bean (frijol silvestre) that I’d heard about but didn’t have much luck finding it. There are some wonderful species of cactus, obviously, and a lot of odd and beautiful legumes, but I never came across a good bean for eating. The markets in La Paz, the capitol, were pretty sad and I’d guess most of the beans were from the American Midwest.
On a hike to a waterfall near a small town called Santiago, I was lucky enough to find some wild tomatillos. About the size of a pea, these sweet, small yellow tomatillos were worth saving so I brought the seeds back and with a little luck, should have them available this autumn.
After finding the seeds, I started looking around our rental property and found a similar, slightly bigger tomatillo. Of course I brought some of those seeds back as well.
Welcome back! Did you eat any of the tomatillos? Or was that implied by them being worth saving? Did you see the Chron today? There’s a new, expensive Mexican place, Zazil, in the Westfield SF Center that looks interesting. You should sell them beans if you don’t already. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/14/CMGRMLJN7A1.DTL&type=food
Thanks. Yes, I ate a single tomatillo. It was sweet. I would have eaten more but tomatillos (and potatoes and tomatoes) are all related to deadly nightshade, a poisonous fruit for sure, I am no naturalist and the nearest Emergency Room was 2 hours via mostly dirt road away.
Thanks for the lead on Zazil. I’ll have to check it out, although the review didn’t inspire much confidence.
You’re brave. And lucky one wasn’t a lethal dose. I think of those poor people who mistake hemlock for fennel and poisonous mushrooms for edible. Death by plant toxin seems to be extraordinarily horrible. Is there much flavor difference between the different tomatillo varieties?
Brave or stupid, I don’t know. But some are sweeter and some even have a faint pineapple flavor. And preserving a little genetic diversity is always a good idea.