Two Indigenous food educators showcased the abundance of the Sonoran Desert during a tour for the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual conference on April 25.
Their wisdom, while better in person, could be used in any hiker’s self-guided tour.
The group started in Papago Park, public land in the middle of metro Phoenix, looking up at a butte formation called Hole in the Rock before going deeper into the desert and looking for palo verde trees.
“These flowers, you can make tea out of them,” said Twila Cassadore, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. “The pods, which you maybe find on some of the more younger trees out here, they taste like edamame.”
Twila Cassadore demonstrates how the seeds are harvested from palo verde trees during a tour for the Society of Environmental Journalists conference on April 25, 2025, at Papago Park in Phoenix.
Cassadore identified a domed nest made of sticks and weeds under the tree, a home for a woodrat. She said they build two within a 30-foot radius, and they will never leave that habitat. She also said they were delicious.
“Using this beautiful animal that’s been gifted to us by the Creator … young people engage in this hunt,” Cassadore said. “And when they engage in this hunt, it’s like watching a full soccer game.”
To find a woodrat nest, look for a mound of twigs under a larger tree, like a mesquite. On closer inspection, the mound is a complex arrangement of interlocking branches.
Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns, who is Pascua Yaqui and Cora, found another common occurrence in the desert, a nursery plant.
When seeds sprout under a more established plant, they are protected from the sun and may live to adulthood. Look for a smaller plant growing at the base of a larger one. There may be even smaller seedlings at the base of the protected plant.
Lazos-Ferns and Cassadore filled the tour with stories of their casual desert plant consumption, as typical as picking up fruit from the grocery store. Lazos-Ferns identified several barrel cactuses, a common desert fixture with pineapple-shaped fruit.
“I use them in my salsa, because whatever the makeup of that thing is, they prevent stomach problems or indigestion when you’re eating really hot food,” said Lazos-Ferns.
Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns shows off a tree on a tour for the Society of Environmental Journalists conference on April 25, 2025, at Papago Park in Phoenix.
The fruit are ready to be picked when the cactus gives them up easily, and the plant’s spines no longer curl over the fruit, Cassadore said.
The secondary purpose of the tour was to highlight the value of Indigenous knowledge for society at large. Native desert plants are common in landscaping across Arizona to use less water, a practice called xeriscaping.
“Science now is coming up to par with Indigenous knowledge,” Lazos-Ferns. “Plants have feelings, they move, they fear.”
Sophia Ramirez is a senior at Arizona State University and is part of a student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
Coverage of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference is supported by Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism, the University of Arizona, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and the Arizona Media Association.
These stories are published open-source for other news outlets and organizations to share and republish, with credit and links to azcentral.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Indigenous food educators share their knowledge of desert plants