Human Flower Project

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Flor de Pita, for Lent

During the penitential season of Lent, the yucca of South Texas bloom; their blossoms are a traditional food of early spring.

Spanish bayonet (Yucca aloifoli)
Fayette County, TX
March 13, 2010
Photo: Human Flower Project

Five and more years ago, when we were digging with special dirt-sailing tenacity for specifically Texan flower customs, we heard tell that in some parts of the state yucca flowers were eaten.  But where, by whom, when, why, how? Finally last weekend, the mystery popped.

Cristina Balli, program director of Texas Folklife, and her associate Michelle Mejía, had toodled us down to Schulenburg for youth accordion auditions at the Sengelmann Hall. As we talked (waiting for squeezers to show up), Cristina recalled, “My mom used to cook flor de pita” – yucca—“and right around this time, during Lent.”

Cristina said that her mother, Antonia H. Balli, learned how to make yucca blooms into a meal from her own mother, Quirina Cruz de Hinojosa. Quirina grew up in Jalisco but after moving to Northern Mexico encountered Yucca aloifolia, which grows abundantly on both sides of the border near Matamoros/Brownsville.

Just as the dramatic plant blooms, in early spring, practicing Catholics are looking for meatless foods in observance of Lent. The luscious white and purple flowers, blooming throughout the brushy “monte” of the region, make a fine seasonal dish. One web source we’ve found claims that yucca flowers “have a clean, mild taste somewhat reminiscent of snow peas.” Cristina’s word is “bitter.” She calls flor de pita “an acquired taste.” (The same might be said for penance.)

As we drove prattling back up Highway 77 toward La Grange, Cristina jammed on the breaks just north of the St. Mary’s turnoff. Here was a stupendous stand of yucca in full bloom.

(We’re fairly sure this is Yucca aloifoli, known in Anglo Texas a Spanish bayonet; Spanish dagger, Yucca Gloriosa is lots more common around Austin.)

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