Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Mesquite Trees provide a Healthy Food

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 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

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.

If you want to begin collecting the mesquite beans here are the specifics:

• Collect only dry beans.

• Collect only beans that are on the trees (spread a sheet on the ground and shake the branches.) DO NOT collect beans from the ground as you don’t know what kind of pollutants or other contaminants have gotten on them.

- Make sure that no pesticides are sprayed in the area where the beans are collected as it will become part of the flour

There is a specific way to grind them (you could ruin your blender if you try it your self!) with a hammermill.  There is usually one availaible on the fall through the Phoenix Permaculture Guild,

OR join ME this coming Saturday, June 5th for a walk-about in a city park to kearn how to identify the trees and learn more about this wonderful native food!
Happy Picking!
The Garden Goddess,
http://www.down2earthgardens.com/

1 comments:

Garden Goddess said...

Thanks Jay! and the other person who commented, I am sorry but it is all symbols 0- can;t read what you said!

Labels

AZ vegetable gardens (12) arizona gardening (12) compost (10) Garden Goddess (9) Down 2 Earth Gardens (8) Phoenix (7) permaculture (6) vegetable Gardens (6) AZ (5) bermuda grass removal (5) community garden consultant (5) edible gardens (5) gardens (5) monsoon rains (5) Garden planning (4) seed saving (4) Community Gardens (3) Companion planting (3) Garden design (3) Soil (3) apple trees (3) beets (3) computer garden design tools (3) desert (3) fall planting (3) herbs (3) low desert gardening (3) low desert winter gardens (3) mosquitoes (3) mulching (3) rain harvesting (3) Garden Maintenance (2) Gardening tips (2) Master Gardeners (2) Rain barrels (2) Squash Bugs (2) Swiss Chard (2) Three sisters garden (2) amending soil (2) apple (2) basil (2) bats (2) citrus (2) design (2) earth day (2) edible (2) flowers (2) gardening (2) green peppers (2) mint (2) nematodes (2) pruning (2) rain guage (2) rosemary (2) soil secrets (2) sustainable gardens (2) tomatoes (2) tree (2) "Bill McDorman" (1) ARMLS (1) African marigolds (1) Blossom End Rot (1) Christmas Cactus (1) Clay (1) Coirn (1) Companion planting. (1) Contest (1) Cornville (1) Corriander seed (1) Deswrt gardening (1) Doreen Pollack (1) Double digging (1) Fall garden clean up (1) Fall gardens (1) Gambusia (1) Garden Tools (1) Garden books (1) Garden workshops (1) Grden Journals (1) Healing Gardens (1) Heirloom seeds (1) Home Staging (1) Humus (1) Japanese beetles (1) Johnny Jump-ups (1) Kohlrabi (1) Loam (1) Mesquite Flour (1) Microorganisms (1) Phoeniz (1) Pole Beans (1) Red amaranth (1) Sand (1) Sierra Club (1) Slow Food Phoenix (1) Soil Food Web (1) Squash (1) Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes (1) Toby Hemenway (1) Tree Pruning (1) Wildlife habitats (1) amaranth (1) artichoke seeds (1) bachelor button (1) bermudal grass removal (1) bird netting (1) bok choy (1) broccoli rabe (1) brussel sprouts (1) bugs (1) cilantro (1) compost. bugs (1) corn cups (1) cutworms (1) dandelion greens (1) digging (1) dirt (1) earthworks (1) eating from the garden (1) edible cactus (1) edible container garden (1) feeding fruit trees (1) fertilizer (1) fleas (1) flies (1) flower gardens (1) food (1) frost (1) fruit trees (1) garden (1) garden bed preparation (1) garden coaching (1) garden disease control (1) garden journal (1) gardening quiz (1) grass (1) green (1) green beans (1) green features (1) green gift giving (1) grren beans (1) harvesting (1) heirloom (1) holloyhocks (1) home selling (1) how much to plant (1) infections (1) injury in the garden (1) ladybird (1) ladybud (1) lavender (1) leafy greens (1) leaves (1) lettuce (1) mosquities (1) mosquito control (1) mycorrhizae (1) native foods (1) native seeds (1) natural mosquito repellant (1) natural mosquitoe repellant (1) new garden (1) olive trees (1) on-line garden club (1) oregano (1) palo verd tree (1) pansies (1) peach (1) peach trees (1) peaches (1) permaculture design (1) permaculture design course (1) pest control (1) pesticides (1) plastic (1) poor drainage (1) praying mantis (1) prickly pear (1) professional gardener (1) protecting fruit trees from birds (1) radicchio (1) radishes (1) rain water (1) rain water harvesting (1) ratoons (1) recycle (1) root rot (1) second crop (1) soil building (1) soil secrets. nitrogen (1) soil testing (1) southwest vegetable gardens (1) spinach (1) squash vines (1) stock (1) summer (1) sunflower (1) sunflowers (1) surface water (1) sustainability (1) sweet peppers (1) tilling (1) tomato (1) transplant (1) trash (1) trees (1) vegetable (1) vegetablvegetable Gardens (1) violas (1) water use (1) waterharvesting (1) watering a garden (1) weather (1) wildflowers (1) wind (1) xeriscape plant (1) year-round gardening (1)