CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



27 



usually near the house, where they spread over 

 kitchen roofs, sheds, and fencfes. Planting is 

 in the week of Candelaria. No fruit is borne 

 until the second year. 



The tubers formed on the roots of the chayote 

 plant, called chinchayote, are dug up every 

 third year on New Year's day or shortly after. 

 They are found about a yard and a half from 

 the stalk at a depth of 2 feet. They are boiled 

 or fried and eaten. In flavor and texture they 

 are superior to potatoes, which they resemble. 

 If the tubers are not removed every 3 years, 

 they rot and the plant sickens and does not 

 bear." 



Miscellaneous vegetables and herbs. — Green 

 vegetables and herbs are usually grown in small 

 garden plots within the patio or houseyard. 

 Most important is cabbage, of which two var- 

 ieties are grown, one which heads and one 

 which does not. The latter is the more com- 

 mon, producing a cluster of large leaves along 

 a stalk a foot or more in height. Cabbage is 

 an essential ingredient of the universal meat 

 dish, curipo. 



On rare occasions, other vegetables are 

 grown, such as carrots, tomatoes, and onions. 

 The latter two do not produce well in Cheran, 

 and carrots and other vegetables have little 

 place in Tarascan cookery. 



Almost every garden has a few herbs, the 

 most common of which is silanti-o (kulantro), 

 used to flavor meat dishes. Two mints 

 (kuac'itinis and kuajiitinis kamata akiia) are 

 grown for use in atoles. 



Camomiles, manzanillo, of at least two types 

 are grown as carminatives. 



Agave. — Although agaves (akamba) are 

 planted extensively along the ditches cut as 

 field boundaries to keep out animals, relatively 

 little use is made of them. There is some 

 collection of the juice, agua miel (urapi). 

 Some is consumed locally, but most of it is 

 shipped to Uruapan. No native residents drink 

 the juice after fermentation as pulque. Only 

 wild agaves are roasted. 



To secure the juice, according to description, 

 a cavity is cut in the heart with a knife and the 



pulp is chopped. Three days later the chopped 

 material is removed and the surface of the 

 cavity is -scratched with a rakelike implement. 

 On the fourth day, collection of the juice begins 

 twice daily. Each time juice is collected, the 

 surface of the cavity is scratched with the rake- 

 like implement. The juice is dipped out with a 

 small pottery vessel and poured into a larger 

 container. If the juice is to be shipped to 

 Uruapan it is put in a 25-liter can. A good 

 plant produces slightly more than 2 liters a day. 



The bud of the wild agave is cooked in a 

 round hole, 1 meter in diameter and 1 meter 

 deep. The hole is filled with small stones to 

 within 10 or 15 cm. of the top, and a large fire 

 is built on top of the stones. When the fire 

 dies down, the agave buds are thrown on it, 

 covered with leaves of agaves and trees, and 

 then sealed with earth. On the third day the 

 oven is opened. The thick fleshy end of leaves 

 of the smaller wild agave are also roasted. 

 The season is from November to May. 



Approximately 20 men in Cheran roast agave 

 in season. They must eat sugar when the 

 agave is cooking so that it will emerge sweet. 

 They must also ab.stain from sexual intercourse 

 during the 3 days the agave is in the oven.'" 



Pears. — The most important fruit in Cheran 

 is the pear. It is carried by traders as far as 

 Guerrero. Three types are recognized : leche 

 (uergamote), pardo ((*arapiti), and t'a^Ani 

 (Spanish name unknown). The only signifi- 

 cant difference recognized is that the three 

 types mature at different times, although some 

 say only the uergamote transports well. 



Pear trees are always grafted on a rootstock 

 of wild crab apple, tejocote. (This is a sloe- 

 like fruit which bears a marked resemblance in 

 flavor and appearance to the true crab apple.) 

 The tejocote trunk is cut with a saw and then 

 split. A pear graft is inserted at each end of 

 the split, sealed in with wax, and wrapped in 

 clean cloth. It is believed the grafts will grow 

 only in January, February, and March, but a 

 school teacher with experimental tendencies 

 claims to have grown them at all seasons. 



^ In Paricutin village, chayotes (apupo) are planted in stone- 

 lined pits to protect the seeds from gophers. The pit is about 

 30 cm. deep. The pulp is carefully removed from the seeds, which 

 are then carefully wrapped in maize husks and tied with the 

 same material. 



^^ Agrave is of varying importance in other towns. In Angahuan 

 the techniques are similar. The plant is known here as quiote ; 

 the leaves are called it'lkua, the stalk or bud, samas. Mestizoized 

 Chilchota makes mescal. The leaves are cooked in earth ovens, 

 macerated with clubs in cement tanks, fermented several days, then 

 distilled. The Tarascan terminology relating to the agave and its 

 piocessing survives in part. 



