Incredibly, I may have the secret to the vibrant red of
Santa’s suit right outside my front door. I had been noticing that the thornless Prickly Pear
cactus that grows next to the front porch is not only a delicacy to the deer
who eat it to nubbins each fall, but also home to a tiny little scale insect
called Dactylopius coccus. The green pads that sprung from the
stumps of eaten cactus in the spring gradually developed a white looking fungus
all over them. However, what I
thought was a fungus, turned out to be the white webbing of this little scale
insect. Trying to wipe it off one
day I was startled to see streaks of red, like blood as soon as I wiped it. Yikes, a bleeding cactus, what else
will Texas have?!
Ah, but what I was seeing was something called carmine, a
crimson dye, a toxin really that is produced by the female scale insects to
protect themselves from being eaten by predators. And the white looking fungus part was the webbing they use
to cover themselves to keep them from frying in the heat. What I didn’t know, but would
learn later, is that these insects and their vibrant red color were the secret
ingredient to the red, red robes of the Aztecs, they put the red in Redcoats,
the Red of the Royal Canadian Mounties and who knows, maybe the red of Santa’s
suit himself!
It goes by the name “cochineal” and this little insect and
its color which was painstakingly extracted was, get this, the number two
export from Mexico after silver in the 1600’s! The Spanish admired the Aztecs scarlet robes and start
exporting it as far away as India.
Row upon row of Prickly Pear cactus playing host to the moisture sucking
insects and then delicately scraped and boiled then dried to 30% of their
original size so they can store without rotting. From that comes the
powder that would give you a red that would keep on giving, not run in
the rain and just dazzle the socks off anyone who saw it. Isn’t that amazing! Who knew?
But it is never wise to put all your insects into one basket
for the bottom fell out of the cochineal industry in the 1800’s when artificial
dyes, which were ever so much simpler to produce, took their place. After all,
it took 70,000 insects to make 1 pound of dye. Yet, it must have been sad for
those who had invested everything in the ruby-producing insects.
But, guess what, they’re back! Remember awhile back, red dye # 40, was found to be
carcinogenic? Being from the Cape,
I had heard that cranberries were being used to produce a safer red color. It turns out not only cranberries were
put to the task but our little scale insect got pressed (no pun intended) back
into service. Insects once again
were being raised and exported from Peru and Mexico to be used in food coloring
and cosmetics. And, even at
Starbucks, in their Strawberry Frappachinos! And the way I know that is from an article complaining
that outraged Vegans and Vegetarians had not been properly warned that they
were consuming insect life along with their caffeine treat. Poor Starbucks, they were trying to do
the natural and healthy thing but found, of course, that you can’t please all
the people all the time.
Now it is the season of the deer eating these moisture-laden
pads down to nothing again, which turns my husband about the same red as the
cochineal. It also makes me wonder
if I should turn a sharper eye to the copious amount of deer scat in the front
yard, might they be as red as the cranberries I miss? Perhaps, and if Santa needs a touch up job on his suit, he
is welcome to help himself to what is left by my porch.
Ironically, I
find I am writing this on St. Nicholas day, so Happy St. Nicholas day and Merry
Christmas to you all! I am
thrilled to be heading to my daughters in Maine for Christmas so lets hope if
another blog comes it will be from a winter wonderland.
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