Coontie

[] Ancient Plant Harvested Here caption: One "L" Or Two? Note that Postmaster Dan Killian's return address is for Kendal, Florida, while the postmark is from Kendall, Florida. A map from 1953 calls SW 88th Street "Kendal Road" and calls the area "Kendal." Today, the spelling with two L's seems to have won out, except for a small stretch of 77th Avenue south of 98th Street, which is still called Kendal Avenue. This year, Kenwood K-8 Center will celebrate its 75th anniversary. Kenwood was the first school built in what was then an untamed wilderness known as Kendall. A group of residents working on the anniversary celebration are compiling photos and stories about the school and the area, and along the way they have unearthed some lost nuggets of Kendall history. This occasional column, written by Albert Harum-Alvarez and Pam Lloyd, will spotlight some of those tidbits and invite readers to participate in a history quiz. Earlier columns have mentioned vegetables and citrus as major crops in the Kendall of almost a century ago. But another plant--one that grew wild in Kendall--had been a primary food source for much longer. The starchy root of the cycad Zamia pumila, known as coontie, was a staple food of the Seminoles, who traveled ancient trails between the Everglades and the Kendall area to harvest the root. As late as the 1920s, a Seminole village was located just to the west of where Baptist Hospital now stands, and another occupied the present site of Kendall Indian Hammocks Park, west of Southwest 107th Avenue between North Kendall Drive and Sunset Drive. A grove of oaks across 104th Street to the north of the current Winn-Dixie was a seasonal camp as well. During World War I, it was discovered that biscuits made from coontie flour were one of the first foods that a gassed soldier could keep down. The site of the current Fuddruckers at U.S. 1 and Southwest 104th Street was home to a coontie mill until it blew down in the great hurricane of 1926. Carrier pigeons were released by coontie gatherers to notify mill workers that a mule cart should be sent out--as far as Cutler or Homestead--to fetch a load. Among the customers for Kendall's flour was the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco. But arrowroot flour, as it was called, was a boom-and-bust business. Coontie, which dates from the age of dinosaurs, is very slow-growing, and overharvesting soon threatened to destroy the entire industry. The Atala butterfly, dependent on coontie as a larval food source, was almost driven to extinction and has only recently rebounded. Coontie is also making a comeback, thanks to renewed interest in native planting and a county ordinance that encourages native planting. How well do you know the history of Kendall? Try this quiz. The answers are below. Questions: 1. What well-known Kendall thoroughfare was once known as the “road to nowhere”? 2. Where could Kendall residents and visitors go to gamble in the 1920s? 3. When was Spanish introduced into the curriculum at Kenwood? 4. Where was a frog farm located in old Kendall? 5. What was an early name for Southwest 79th Avenue? Answers: 1. When North Kendall Drive (Southwest 88th Street) was built, Dade County residents derided it as the “road to nowhere.” The small settlement of Kendall had grown up about a mile to the south, around the railroad stop at Southwest 77th Avenue and 99th Street. But Kendall Drive was an unsettled stretch of road. It was flanked by farmland near the railroad tracks, which ran parallel to U.S. 1. But the farms quickly gave way to wilderness as one traveled west. 2. Kendall Feed and Supply was located just east of Flagler’s railroad tracks and north of today’s Southwest 98th Street--about where the Metrorail tracks now end. The store was owned by the unofficial mayor of Kendall, David Brantly Dice. The bolita game he ran upstairs, along with a perpetual card game, made the store a local attraction for decades. Dice was also the owner of the oldest house remaining in Kendall today, located at Southwest 77th Avenue near 99th Street and slated to be moved to nearby Continental Park. 3. In 1948, Mrs. Beth Lyon joined the teaching staff of Kenwood (she would become principal in 1952). Having taught Spanish at Miami Jackson High School, she introduced Spanish-language instruction at Kenwood shortly after her arrival. She gave Spanish lessons to the entire school over a loudspeaker system that enabled her to listen in on each class and correct their pronunciation. 4. Before the tennis courts were built at Continental Park, the county ran a sand pit on the site. The ball fields to the west were once the site of a rock pit. The unusually sandy spot east of 82nd Avenue along 100th Street was the perfect place to raise frogs, good eating in the early days of Kendall. 5. The present Southwest 79th Avenue was once known as Schoolhouse Road, since Kendall School (now Kenwood K-8 Center) faced it. The road was named informally, as most were, after the destination you'd find traveling it. Johnson Road (98th Street) led to the Johnson family's place, and Smoak Road (100th Street) passed by a few homes belonging to the Smoak family. Later, 79th Avenue was officially named New York Street, before the current system of numbered streets and avenues was introduced. Do you have old photos of Kenwood? We are looking for photos and stories from all times in the school's history, but especially from the 1940s through the 1980s. We are also looking for stories about notable Kenwood/Kendall School graduates. If you have contributions, please call 305-273-6096 or write Albert Harum-Alvarez at albert@smallco.


 * The following is from**

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his plant is included in case 1) society falls apart; 2) You live in Georgia or Florida and need starch desperately or 3) someone wants to trade this starch with you. The plant is the Coontie and it can kill you. It can also sustain you. Don't be surprised that it is toxic without processing. Many foods are. Tapioca comes to mind as do cashews, and pokeweed.

When there were few people and a lot of Coonti it was not only a major source of starch (flour) for local Indians in Florida but it was a commercial product with at least eight businessmen producing it for about a century, from around 1836 to 1925. One such mill sat at the corner of now Southwest 104th Street and US1 in Miami. One mill processed up to 15 tons per day. Harvesting and urban sprawl brought the Coonti to the edge of disappearing.

In the fossil record the Coontie family --Cycads -- goes back to the dinosaurs, some 325 million years or so. They were the dominant plant species. The Coontie is the only member of that family in the United States. They are slow growing taking three decades to reach a five-pound weight. Coonti are fertilized by two beetles and they are the only place the brilliant //Eumaeus alata// butterfly lays its eggs. (The butterfly was thought extinct by 1965 thus by governmental thinking it cannot be protected even though it is in reality rare and almost extinct. Because it was not thought to be around it was not and is not covered by endangered species laws. Yes, that is totally irrational but there it is.) Coonties are now a common native landscape plant, replacing the natural population. Thus it is quite common if one needs to find it. Clearly this is not a plant you eat for the fun of it. It is a staple when one really needs it and time is not an issue. Time?

Coontie requires processing that includes leaching and fermentation. Interestingly, fermentation and or the action of enzymes on a food is common and makes a few non-edible foods edible. Many native populations crushed the seeds of the Prunus clan to make them edible after "curing" gets rid of harmful chemicals. The seeds of the Chickasaw Plum are an example as are sloes.

Here is an except from: Starch Making: A Pioneer Florida Industry By Mrs. Henry J. Burkhardt: No date was given.

//"Mr. Mettair's mill was probably a replica of those 1870 mills where no doubt, he had worked as a young man. His grinder was a log of pine, turned to be exact, and spiked diagonally with nails for grinding. The coontie roots were soaked over night and after grinding were fed into a hooper or deep box and from there put through a strainer rubbed constantly with running//

//water. It was washed for two hours, the starch dropping to the bottom where a hole at what was called "starch level" drained away the water.... The wet starch was packed into barrels to be washed again three times, while stirring and settling. It was allowed to reach the bubbling stage in fermentation for then all dirt and sugar came out. The residue from this "yellow contie" was cooked and fed to the pigs, making another useful by-product. William Mettair, the oldest son, and inventor of the family, in 1904 devised a revolving strainer which eased the manual labor, resulting as well in a purer product. The finished starch was spread out on canvas driers and kept broken up until completely dry, before it was packed into barrels for shipment. It required one ton of coontie root to make 200 pounds of starch through this process."//

And another account: Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, on Thursday, February 25, 1836. Original donated to Fort Lauderdale Historical Society. The following text is exactly as it appears in the original: From the Charleston Courier, sketches of the peninsula of Florida by Dr. Strobel:

" //As we approached New River, the land upon our right consisted of the same sandy pine barren as I have already described. The Indian arrow root, called coonte, is found here is great quantities. We landed, and collected several roots, which were very large, weighing several pounds. This is the Indian's principal bread stuff. It is met with in most of the pine barrens in this section of Florida, but it grows in such profusion in this neighborhood, that they come from considerable distances to procure it. Mr. Cooley ... was engaged in the manufacture of this article, and had brought it to great perfection.//

//"The following is the manner of preparing it: A sufficient number of roots being collected, they are peeled, washed, and grated, in the same manner as potatoes, and thrown into large tubs of water. After remaining in soak for a certain length of time, the water is stirred and strained: by this process it is greed of the feculent matter. The coarser portion, thus separated, may be given to hogs, whilst the finer portion, which passe through the sieve, is allowed to settle. The farina, which is almost insoluble in cold water, subsides at the bottom. The water is drawn off, and the yellow portions which remain on the top are removed. The white arrow root, which from its specific gravity, is found at the bottom, is collected, and repeatedly heated with fresh water, until it becomes perfectly pure and white, of a granular, glistening, crystalline appearance. I am inclined to think that, when thus prepared, it is very nearly, if not quite equal, to the Bermuda arrow root, not only as a starch, but also as an article of diet."//

Dr. Strobel was where Ft. Lauderdale is now and in fact Coontie production created the city. In 1836 the Indians basically attacked all such processing places between there and St. Augustine (makes since since it was their food staple.) They killed everyone but Mr. Coolie mentioned above who was away at the time. In response Major William Lauderdale and his Tennessee Volunteers built a fort where the city would one day be. The rest is spring break history.

And here is a University of California report:

//"The plant parts contain central nervous system toxins [cycasin] which must be removed before consumption. To make flour, the roots are first chopped into pieces. They are then pounded with a mortar and pestle. The pulp is then washed with water and the starch is allowed to settle to the bottom. Then the water is drained and the remaining paste is left to ferment for several days. At the end of the fermentation process, the starch is set in the sun to dry. When dry, the powdery, cornmeal-like flour is then baked into bread."//

No, I haven't tried it. But, if I come across a Coontie marked for destruction I might. But consider: One of DeSoto’s men died from poorly prepared coontie bread and Union soldiers in the Civil War in Florida also died from eating coontie bread... though come to think of it that could have been intentional. The wash water, by the way, is toxic.

There are actually several species of "Coonties" in Florida, or not. The botanists cannot agree. The scientific name for the Florida Coontie is //Zamia floridana// ( ZAY-mee-uh flor-rid-DAY-nuh) or //Zamia furfuracea// (ZAY-mee-uh fer-fer-AH-see-uh) or //Zamia integrifolia// (in-teg-ree-FOH-lee-uh) or //Zamia pumilia// (ZAY-mee-uh POO-mil-uh) though latter might be from the Dominican Republic. //Zamia// means "pine nuts" because the fruiting bodies of the Coontie resemble pine cones. //Fufuracea// means mealy or with scales, //integrifolia// leaves undivided, //floridana// of Florida, //pumilla// small or dwarf. The //Zamia chigua// (ZAY-mee-uh CHEE-gw) of Central America has been used for food as well. Chigua is the local name of the plant. Coontie is from the Creek (Seminole dialect) word kontí (KOON-tee) and means “white root” or “white bread.” Cycads come from the Geek word kyklas and means “palm.”

For pollination the Coontie cones provide food the beetles //Pharaxonotha zamiae// and //Rhopalotria slossoni//. The seeds are a source of food for mockingbirds, blue jays, and small mammals. Butterfly larvae feed on the leaves. //Eumaeus// (YOO-mē'us ah-LAY-tuh) was the faithful swine herd of Odysseus, and //altata// (ah-LAY-tuh) means winged. Winged Swine Herd... well, a butterfly has to be called something. See photo on bottom.

Coontie is protected from collection from the wild. I think that would exclude cultivated plants and if society fell apart. The orange outer layer of the seeds is also toxic to touch (having the same toxin as the roots and leaves.) They are considered**not** edible. However, there is one report that if the seeds are peeled of the orange coat, ground, and leached like the roots they are edible. I would not bet my life on it.

COONTIE COURAGE © Photo by Deane Jordan © Photo by Deane Jordan IDENTIFICATION:

TIME OF YEAR:

ENVIRONMENT:

METHOD

OF PREPARATION: **A fern-like evergreen, shrub, one half to 1 yard in heigh with a thick sometimes branched, trunk that is either very short or underground. Dark green fronds grow from the top of the trunk, 2 to 13 pairs of stiff, leathery leaflets. Green to dark reddish brown cones grow on stalks, from the center of the top of the trunk. The red to red-orange seeds are not edible and are toxic to touch.**

**When ever the trunk is large enough to have a large amount of starch. Reduction is 10 to one. One hundred pounds of Coonti produces 10 pounds of processed starch.**

**Rich, moist, well drained soil, hammocks and pine lands. Prefers some shade.**

**Extensive: Must be cleaned, peeled, mashed, washed, settled, fermented then dried or used as a mash in soups et cetera. The seeds are**  __**not**__  **edible and are toxic to touch. A blue-green algae on the roots is natural and a symbiotic relationship with the algae providing nitrogen for the Coontie. The roots are 38% starch and 6% protein. With the processed starch the Seminoles made a thick gruel called “sofkee.”**