Stretching across northern Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil, the vast plains of Gran Chaco, meaning Hunting Land in the Quechua language, are the home for various indigenous forest fruits including white carob, chañar, and mistol trees.
The tradition of gathering, processing, and preparing these fruits into numerous traditional specialties, such as flour, bread, sweets, and beverages has been strongly interwoven with the life and culture of the indigenous people in the region and is believed to date back to pre-Colombian times.
Although they’ve long been staples of the indigenous peoples’ diet and an indispensable part of traditional medicine, Gran Chaco wild fruits have started to disappear due to many factors, including globalization, deforestation, habitat loss, and import of foreign goods such as sugar and wheat flour. Read more
Resembling bean pods, the yellow-colored, oblong white carob fruits (Prosopis alba and Prosopis chilensis) are characterized by a sweet, plump pulp with hard seeds in it. Carob flour is used for the preparation of a wide range of regional specialties, while carob pods are commonly used as animal feed.
Called patalcas, the small, orange-red fruits produced by the chañar tree (Geoffroea decorticans) are distinguished by a smooth skin that surrounds the soft flesh which has a distinctively sweet flavor. Aside from being an incredibly nutritious source of food, chañar fruits, along with the tree’s bark, have long been appreciated for their curative properties.
The small fruits of the mistol tree (Ziziphus mistol) are reddish-brown and have a pleasant, sweet pulp that can be enjoyed fresh, sun-dried, or boiled, or as a part of various traditional specialties, while the roots and bark are used for making soaps or dyes.
