Agave with Life Sucked Out
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar
This summer I was reading about making mescal from agave. One of the first steps is to find a agave that is shooting up a stalk and snip the stalk. By cutting the stalk the plant will swell as opposed to putting all it's energy into making a giant stalk. Later the agave can be uprooted and the heart harvested. Here is what happens to the plant if you don't cut the stalk.
2 comments:
You can also consider collecting the "agua miel" (honey water). We have several magueys - in the agave family - which are still growing strong but give us the sweet water daily. The agua miel, here at least, is made into pulque (ferment it for a few days and it is a tart, strange alcoholic beverage). The agua miel has several health benefits - it is what agave nectar is made of.
We love agaves! Can likely send you some seeds if you care to plant some agave americana.
if you don't cut the stalk, you can wait for the whole plant to die back, then harvest the stalk from the bulb up and make a didgeridoo out of the whole thing. :)
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