The Agave Americana - A Plant for All Seasons
Jul 11, 2020 12:14:16 GMT
Post by tod2 on Jul 11, 2020 12:14:16 GMT
Yesterday we had another power-out during the afternoon. No Internet, No Wi-Fi, no electricity, period. So I grabbed an old magazine, sat in the sun with a glass of wine and was delighted to find an interesting article on the wonderful Agave plant. Now we all associate this spiky blue-green succulent with Mexico and wider Central America. So how did this plant arrive in South Africa about 150 years ago?
One of the local stories of the agave, is that the young daughter of a pioneering sheep farmer, found some agave plants lying on a beach at the mouth of the Great Fish River. We can only guess that the plants had been used as ballast on one of the South American ships that may have met it's fate somewhere along the treacherous South African eastern shores.
She also noticed some foraging goats seemed to have taken to the plants and were nibbling at them. She took three young agaves back home to the farm where they were planted and thrived. Before long the local farmers realised the agave was quite useful. Their bulk stopped erosion on contour lines, their poles made good fences and when one family went into ostrich farming they found that chopped up agave leaves gave the large birds glossy feathers and resilience .
During the wool boom in the 1950's an Agricultural College did a study on the plants usefulness as drought fodder. Subsequently the government of the day ordered all Karoo farmers to plant a section of their farm with agave.
The more vivid part of the agave's history in the Karoo involves a flirtation with a clear fiery brew, triple-distilled, with a kick like a mad mule from Guadalajara. This was when a farmer realised that these plants were related to the much smaller member of the agave family, namely Agave Tequilana. It must be noted that Mexico holds the copyright of the name Tequila and Mezcal. Therefore the distillers in South Africa named their product The Three Agaves.
Back in 2008 the distillery sold over 400 litres of their Karoo spirit to an Australian company who were mixing it with beer and selling it as an outback cooler cocktail.
There was a whole lot of experimenting going on in the farm kitchen too. The ladies of the farm developed a delicious dill pickle recipe for the agave buds, and produce about a 100 cases a year of this pickle. Since then they have taken the agave down the cosmetic and medicinal route developing an anti-itch solution, a foot spray, a deodorant, an insect repellant and a popular pain reliever which is mixed with cannabis oil.
At Christmas time the agaves go into a most festive bloom. Like a rag-tag array of Mariachi players who took a wrong turn somewhere, ended up in Africa and decided what the heck, let's have a fiesta anyway!
One of the local stories of the agave, is that the young daughter of a pioneering sheep farmer, found some agave plants lying on a beach at the mouth of the Great Fish River. We can only guess that the plants had been used as ballast on one of the South American ships that may have met it's fate somewhere along the treacherous South African eastern shores.
She also noticed some foraging goats seemed to have taken to the plants and were nibbling at them. She took three young agaves back home to the farm where they were planted and thrived. Before long the local farmers realised the agave was quite useful. Their bulk stopped erosion on contour lines, their poles made good fences and when one family went into ostrich farming they found that chopped up agave leaves gave the large birds glossy feathers and resilience .
During the wool boom in the 1950's an Agricultural College did a study on the plants usefulness as drought fodder. Subsequently the government of the day ordered all Karoo farmers to plant a section of their farm with agave.
The more vivid part of the agave's history in the Karoo involves a flirtation with a clear fiery brew, triple-distilled, with a kick like a mad mule from Guadalajara. This was when a farmer realised that these plants were related to the much smaller member of the agave family, namely Agave Tequilana. It must be noted that Mexico holds the copyright of the name Tequila and Mezcal. Therefore the distillers in South Africa named their product The Three Agaves.
Back in 2008 the distillery sold over 400 litres of their Karoo spirit to an Australian company who were mixing it with beer and selling it as an outback cooler cocktail.
There was a whole lot of experimenting going on in the farm kitchen too. The ladies of the farm developed a delicious dill pickle recipe for the agave buds, and produce about a 100 cases a year of this pickle. Since then they have taken the agave down the cosmetic and medicinal route developing an anti-itch solution, a foot spray, a deodorant, an insect repellant and a popular pain reliever which is mixed with cannabis oil.
At Christmas time the agaves go into a most festive bloom. Like a rag-tag array of Mariachi players who took a wrong turn somewhere, ended up in Africa and decided what the heck, let's have a fiesta anyway!
This made my day!
