Desert Chicory — Image by kenne
When I’m in New Orleans, I love to have chicory and coffee at Cafe Du Monde. But here in the Sonoran Desert, I love my chicory desert type — Desert Chicory. These beautiful desert flowers were captured along the Esperero Trail in Esperero Canyon on the 24th of February.
kenne
Show me a piece of land that God forgot—
a strip between an unused sidewalk, say,
and a bulldozed lot, rich in broken glass—
and there, July on, will be chicory,
its leggy hollow stems staggering skyward,
its leaves rough-hairy and lanceolate,
like pointed shoes too cheap for elves to wear,
its button-blooms the tenderest mauve-blue.
How good of it to risk the roadside fumes,
the oil-soaked heat reflected from asphalt,
and wretched earth dun-colored like cement,
too packed for any other seed to probe.
It sends a deep taproot (delicious, boiled),
is relished by all livestock, lends its leaves
to salads and cooked greens, but will not thrive
in cultivated soil: it must be free.
(Source: The Writer’s Almanac)
Desert Chicory
Desert Chicory with Fiddleneck friends — Images by kenne
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- Ingredient of the Week: Chicory (colourfuldish.wordpress.com)
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