The Joys of Mesquite
Part 1
Arizona and the desert southwest have some incredible native plants to eat. Prickly pears, nopalitos, saguaro cactus fruit, ironwood and palo verde beans and the growing more popular every day, the mesquite bean. In a nutshell, the mesquite bean is high in protein and fiber, harvestable throughout the summer, easy to pick and preserve for the highly anticipated mesquite bean millings in late fall in Phoenix.
This traditional Native American food is produced by gathering ripened seedpods from the mesquite tree and grinding them into high protein flour. Mesquite meal or flour is low carb, low fat, and low glycemic. The Arizona Natives; Velvet Mesquite, Honey Mesquite and Screw Bean Mesquite are best for a sweet tasting bean and hence good tasting flour. The beans are collected when yellowish brown in color, still hanging from the tree and dry. Mid to late summer is usually the time to harvest, but the beans can be ground at any time and stored as flour or meal. Mesquite meal is rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, protein, and lysine. It has a pleasantly sweet molasses-like nutty flavor with a hint of caramel.
The flour can be added to breads, cookies and similar things or it can be eaten by itself. Mesquite pods have lots of natural sugars, protein, calcium, and soluble fiber, which make it a nutritious and tasty food from the desert. Another method is to simmer 1 lb. of pods in 1 gallon of water for 30 minutes, strain, remove pods and simmer the liquid until a thicker consistency is achieved. Keep repeating this process with the same pods several times and then switch to new ones if necessary to build up the volume of sweet mesquite liquid in order to simmer down into syrup.
The
height of mesquite bean picking occurs typically in June (before the monsoons)
and September (after the monsoons). The beans need to be picked from the trees
when the beans are dry. It is a tight window to get them before they hit the
ground.
Doreen Pollack is the Garden Goddess and owner of Down 2 Earth Gardens, providing garden consultations and coaching. To find a get monthly tips delivered into your email inbox, visit www.down2earthgardens.com or call 623.217.6038
