The Desert Smells Like Rain

This book has been on my shelves for a VERY long time, since we lived in Arizona (at least fourteen years?). I finally only got around to reading it because of a prompt for a reading challenge.

This book made me wildly nostalgic for Tucson and made me wish I'd spent more time hiking/in the mountains when I'd been there. It was also a nice addition to having recently read Death Comes for the Archbishop and thinking about how cultures/agriculture/religion changed among indigenous peoples as Europeans and later white Americans pushed West.

Despite having friends in Tucson who spent a lot of time with the O'Odham, I knew very little about them as a people prior to this book. I especially enjoyed the chapter on cactus wine, because, as Nabhan show more points out -- an outsider's understanding of the annual saguaro fruit harvesting is highly romanticized. Nabhan's representation is both grittier and more beautiful.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. show less

I enjoy this mix of personal encounters with Papago relating to farming and native plants, and his scientific explanations of what they've learned thru experience.I especially appreciate the extensive notes at the end of the book which give more details about his sources, and inspire further reading. If I lived in a desert I would be attempting to put into practice (and learning more details) the practices of the Tohono O'Odham. One thing I can do right here: The Papago practice to use rainwater instead of well water has been supported by a comparison study of the same crop raised both ways. The rainwater foods were higher in protein and other nutrients, and were more productive. The Papago saya the well water just doesn't taste the show more same. So this spring I put containers out during a rain, and drank the fresh sweet rainwater. They are right. show less