This week we watched a short film about the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, their migration story, and the importance of birdsongs in Cahuilla culture. We learned that in the desert, water is life.
In the kitchen, we worked with three ingredients that have sustained desert peoples in what is now called the Coachella Valley for thousands of years: cactus pads, prickly pears, and agave. The fourth and fifth graders blanched freshly picked cactus pads and made a salsa, which we enjoyed with blue and yellow tortilla chips. They scooped out the flesh from prickly pears grown in Sonoma and donated by a friend to The Breakfast Project, mashed them, strained out the seeds, and sweetened the puree with agave syrup. The puree mixed with fresh lime juice and sparkling mineral water made for a truly delicious and refreshing beverage as we honored and celebrated all the treasures the desert has to offer.
