Mexico’s Popular But Forbidden Edible Cactus

0:00Support for this podcast and the following message come from the University of Kansas Cancer Center where clinical researchers work tirelessly to turn scientific advances into breakthrough treatments shaping the future of cancer care for this community and beyond. Learn more at KUCancerCenter.org. Today on State of the World, Mexico's popular but forbidden edible cactus.

0:28You're listening to State of the World from NPR. are. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. In Mexico, September is traditionally the season for Chile in Nogada, a stuffed poblano pepper drowned in a walnut sauce. But there's one big problem. One of the key ingredients is a barrel cactus called biznaga. When candied, it's called acetron, and it's used in the Chile and other holiday staples. But the use of that cactus is illegal because it's going extinct in the wild. And as NPR's Eder Peralta tells us, tradition in Mexico is very hard to break.

1:08Here at La Merced, a huge market in the middle of Mexico City, acitrones sold in almost every stall. They're little yellow blocks that look like lemon bars. It's a barrel cactus that is chopped up and then seeped in vats of sugar until it's crystallized.

1:29Edith Hernandez Torres, who runs a shop here, says the acitron doesn't taste like the candied lemon or sweet potato or the pineapple she sells. It has a chewy texture, she says, like something roasted. She knows acitron is illegal, but her clients demand it. I ask her, don't you feel a little bad that you're selling something that's going extinct? She shrugs.

2:00Our whole planet is going extinct, she says, and that does make me feel bad. As she speaks, Maria Julia Gutiete gently picks up a bar. Her husband and this nation were born on the same day, September 16th. So every year she buys the pears, the peaches, the pink pine nuts, and the acitron to make the perfect stuffed chile.

2:30Traditions are the salt and pepper of life, she says. They are that extra something that make life extraordinary. When she says this, her eyes tear up. She never had chiles en nogada growing up because the ingredients were too expensive. She studied, she became a nurse. When you grow up and make your own money, you save for nice things, she says. And so for Independence Day, she wants to treat her family to something special. And the chiles en nogadas, she says, have to be made with acitron. The biznaga has played an important role in Mexico, even before the Spanish introduced the sugar that made it so sweet.

3:11I meet Salvador Arias at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Botanical Garden. He's the biologist who runs this place. In Mexico, there are more than 150 species of biznaga. In Mexico, there are more than 150 species of barrow cacti. Most of them are going extinct. Arias walks me over to a collection of golden barrel cacti.

3:35The five big cacti in front of us, he says, were rescued by helicopter. Mexico built a hydroelectric dam where these golden barrel cacti live, and in an instant their environment was destroyed and this species was almost wiped out. Some of the cacti are 40 years old and they reach to your thighs. Others are eight years old, and they're tiny, just the size of your fist. Vénganse, miren. He moves us toward a darker-looking barrel cacti, the one that a citron is made from. No crecen como el pasto. These cacti don't grow like grass. Porque su metabolismo es particularmente lento. Because their metabolism is especially slow.

4:17Tan lento que pueden crecer milímetros por año. It's so slow, they might grow millimeters each year, so farming is unprofitable and impractical. Yo soy optimista. But I'm an optimist, he says. Creo que las cactáceas han sido capaces de evolucionar en ambientes contrastantes. I believe that cacti have evolved in the past to thrive in contrasting environments. He thinks they can do it again. He walks toward his collection of nopales, the cactus that adorns the Mexican flag, the cactus that is an everyday staple in Mexican kitchens. This species is thriving for one evolutionary reason. Los nopales crecen de forma modular.

5:00The nopal is modular. It means that unlike the viznaga, humans can cut off and eat the newest shoots without killing the whole plant. At the Restaurant Azul, I sit with Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita. His chile enogada is legendary. It's so important that for this season, the tablecloths go black and the silverware goes gold. It's a yearly ritual, he says. The waiters bring out a tray of poblano peppers topped with a green, white, and red bow. And after they place one on your plate, they douse it with a creamy walnut sauce, as silky as melted white chocolate. Muñoz says this plate is the soul of Mexico.

5:48The chiles taste like the motherland, he says, like independence, like Mexico itself. Muñoz serves the recipe from 1821. It's what the independence hero Agustín de Iturbide was served right after signing a treaty that consummated Mexico's independence. Muñoz is a traditionalist, but he doesn't use bisnaga. Instead, he uses candied chila cayota, which is a type of squash.

6:18In a blind taste test, he found the finished plate tasted just the same. But Mexicans, as Muñoz, are diehards about tradition. If you learn to make it from your grandma or mom, and they use da citron, he says, I understand why they would want to keep using it. But he feels a responsibility not to, because he wants barrel cactuses to survive in the wild.

6:50We humans have the great power of adaptation. And in this case, he says, we'd be wise to use it. Edipalta, NPR News, Mexico City.

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