Palm Tree Fruit Harvest - From The Wild California Fan Palm!
Did you know you can eat palm tree fruit? Yes, those little black berries are a wild edible fruit and taste rich and sweet kinda like a blend of molasses and date sugar.
On our travels through the California desert we noticed this abundant wild food hanging by the bunches. They reminded me of acai fruit, which grows from a different species of tropical palm.
Our Oasis Adventure!
The best part about these desert palms is that they are growing WILD right out of a remote desert OASIS!
An Oasis can only exist in such dry, hot climates when it is being fed by an underwater aquifer. In these wild isolated desert regions the only way the water can reach the surface is through fault line cracks in the earth that allow the California fan palm to take in deep mineral rich water.
That means that this water that is feeding the palm is in the fruit!
Not to mention the magical quality of the place they are growing in. (Definitely earning status as a wild, super fruit in my opinion).
When Ken and I hiked out many miles to reach this special part of the desert, we saw the palm fruit hanging by the hundreds just on one palm tree.
Along the hike we noticed animal feces which contain the palm fruit seeds and kept our eye out for the elusive Big Horned Sheep that were known to eat the fruit and sleep in these Oasis'.
Wildcrafting them can be a bit of a challenge because they are so tall. We found, however, that some vine strands are drooping low, just within reach of a knife. This is how we got our harvest.
When I first ate a slightly dried, but soft and sticky-sweet berry, I could taste it's high mineral content. Although I could find no information or studies that have tested the palm fruit for it's nutrient supply, I could feel a tonic-like effect.
After a long hike, munching on the palm tree fruit seemed to be the perfect food to highlight our adventure, knowing that the energy of this special place was now feeding our cells!
A Wild Food Of Native Cultures
We discovered that the native Cahuilla Indians, who called the palm tree fruit "maul", ate both the fruit and the nut(seed), harvesting the high growing strands with long pole-like sticks.
They ground the fruit down to make dried cakes that could be stored for long periods of time. The center seed was sometimes ground with the fruit into a mush.
They soaked them also to produce a sweet beverage and made jelly from the berries.
A prolific fruit, yielding up to 20 lbs each, seems to be a gift from the heavens in such dry and desolate areas.
There are 2,500 species of palms throughout the world, 11 of which are native to North America. This species of California palm trees is called Washingtonia filifera, and primarily grow in arid, dry climates in the Southwestern U.S., Mexico and parts of Central America.
When Ken and I hiked out many miles to reach this special part of the desert, we saw the palm fruit hanging by the hundreds just on one palm tree. 
