A desert sage adventure

Desert hills, sage in foreground

In the Mojave National Preserve, desert sage is everywhere, acres of it, whole arroyos full of it, great gardens spread out lengthwise over hillsides. Its leaves smell recognisably like common sage, only stronger, spicier, and more like armpits (hmm, maybe I'm not overselling it here?) Some plants have an almost coyote-pee stink to them.

This is not the world-famous white sage, used for smudging. Nor is it the giant Mojave blue sage, whose flower spikes have huge magnificent spheres of blue rising up out of the grey-green foliage, one of the only Mojave flowering plants that you can buy in nurseries. This is the desert sage, salvia dorrii, also called Great Basin sage or purple sage. It grows all over the place around here, but in very specific kinds of terrain: not too high up, not too low (too hot in the desert valleys), usually on sloping ground, often in wide washes.

Close up of sage in bloom at Cima

In April, May, and June, desert sage flowers with delicate deep purple-blue blossoms and golden yellow anthers. The bees go mad.

So ought photographers. Desert sage in bloom is lovely at any scale - from the tiny serrations on the petals, bees dancing nearby, to the desert hills awash with colour.

I've seen and bought sage-scented lip balm, soap, even deodorant. It's often blended with southwestern 'cedar' (juniper, actually.) And of course, I wanted to make my own sage things. It's good, strong medicine for all sorts of things - antimicrobial, good for sore throats, breaking a fever with sweating.

Michael Moore says you can use it in cooking, too, with due consideration of how strong the flavour is (mmm, coyote-pee roast pork, anyone?) A little goes a very long way. Unlike ordinary garden sage, I think desert sage is better with chicken and not so good with pork, though I have successfully roasted pork belly over the twigs left after rubbing the dried leaves. And the gins of this region, which often feature sage, are amazing. I used to make a sage and orange cordial with garden sage - maybe I'll try one with desert sage.

Sage in bloom near Wee Thump

But due to the oddities of the System, while you can hunt in a national preserve (if you have a permit), you cannot pick a flower or a leaf. Last May when I wanted to actually collect, and not merely admire, some desert sage, it seemed like I looked everywhere except where it grew, as folks can attest who kindly joined me in random roadside stops to sniff the air and get close to various purple flowers or grey-leaved shrubs. (Huh, do you know how many grey-leaved shrubby herbs there are in this region? A lot.)

Finally I found some that was not in a national preserve, and was so excited. I am careful to take a little from each of many plants, to spread the load and not to threaten the survival or reproduction of any. Although this stuff doesn't look like it's struggling too much, I guess it's a better practice.

A few branches scent the whole car for the whole day. Of course, living in the desert, it's not hard to dry herbs. You just spread them out and keep the dust off them, and they dry themselves. The dried leaves macerated in coconut oil made a good base for home-made concoctions.

We made a trip out there again this month to cut another supply for the year, wandering plant to plant until the bag was full and my knife was sticky with resin. A cool, dry breeze was blowing, so that the warmth of the mid-morning sun was very welcome. And as always, it was good and peaceful to be out under that wide sky, walking among herbs and flowers, and the Seussian shapes of Joshua trees stretching out towards hills blue with distance.

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*This mad quest (to find something out in plain sight right near where we live) inspired the name of the blog.