Once upon a time, the pilgrims landed in the middle of Saguaro national forest (on top of a prickly pear cactus, ouch!) It took them hours to pull out all the spines, but they did and finally hiked down into the Phoenix Valley where summer was just beginning. They quickly built little huts out of Saguaro Ribs and roasted their way through the summer (May to October). When October's nights began to cool off, they were so thankful they decided to have a big feast to celebrate their survival of the first summer in He#@! They looked around, but all they beheld was sage, dusty ground and prickly plants as far as the eye could see. So they roasted cactus paddles, crickets and scorpions and hung dead rattlesnakes from the branches of the Ocotillo bushes. The desert plants were blooming purple and yellow and red, so these became the fall colors along with the dusty green of cactus and the dirty brown of um... dirt.
We celebrate this feast today with some of the same foods as well as prickly pear pie and such festivities as the scorpion squish and the three-legged cricket race across the hot pavement.
1 comment:
Like I always say, nothing says Thanksgiving like hung scorpions and rattlesnakes! Thanks for another thing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving...I can give thanks that the pilgrims did NOT land in Arizona!
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