SEARCH Travels With LD

HomeTravels With LDNight CampsPercha Dam State Park, Arrey NM

Percha Dam State Park, Arrey NM

Onions, Arrey NM, April 26, 2008
Onions, Arrey NM, April 26, 2008

Percha Dam State Park in Arrey NM is about 60 miles north of Las Cruces NM.

Percha Dam State Park, Arrey NM

Nights I've camped here

Sweet, Rich Hickory Milk

Hickory was another favorite. Rambling through the Southeast in the 1770s, the naturalist William Bartram observed Creek families storing a hundred bushels of hickory nuts at a time. "They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid" to make a thick milk, "as sweet as fresh cream, an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially hominy and corncakes." Years ago a friend and I were served hickory milk in rural Georgia by an eccentric backwoods artist named St. EOM who claimed Creek descent. Despite the unsanitary presentation, the milk was ambrosial - fragrantly nutty, delightfully heavy on the tongue, unlike anything I had encountered before.

more...