[Fwd: [permaculture] Mesquite Bean Harvest]

Lawrence F. London, Jr. lfl at intrex.net
Wed Jun 22 13:29:59 EDT 2005



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[permaculture] Mesquite Bean Harvest
Date: 	Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:00:16 -0700
From: 	Greg <FarmerGreg at UrbanFarm.org>
Reply-To: 	permaculture <permaculture at lists.ibiblio.org>

	



Hi all,

I have had so many requests for more information about mesquite beans 
I thought I would put together a little bit of data about them, 
collecting and milling.

Desert Harvesters down in Tucson a few years back received a grant 
for a hammer mill to grind the beans and bean husks into a flour 
consistency for use in cooking.  This is where we are renting the 
mill from.  For more information regarding them see 
http://www.desertharvesters.org/

We have agreed to rent the mill and have it brought to Phoenix on 
November 5th for our first annual mesquite milling party, breakfast, 
cook off, or whatever we decide.  Don, Pauline, Chris and I have 
begun the process of planning this and once we have our first meeting 
we will be asking for volunteer assistance and funds donation to pay 
for the rental fee.

The first part of this process is to collect the beans.  This is done 
starting now through the time they are done falling off the trees 
(Septemberish).  It is best to harvest the beans when they are dry, 
then they need to be processed through the solar oven to further dry 
them and kill any bugs that inhabit them.  Once done they need to be 
stored in a dry place till November 5th.  I will be using 5 gallon 
buckets with lids to keep the moisture and bugs out.  The first 
question I asked Brad in Tucson was why wait lets do it in September 
and he told me that there is too much humidity in the air and the 
flour clogs the mill.  So November 5th it is.

So we need to get out and collect beans.  We will be coordinating 
people to go out in teams to collect the beans.  If you are 
interested in leading one of the teams email me and we will get you 
in the queue and then have a short training session in late July to 
go over the process.

As we get closer to November 5th we will need to do planning for the 
event.  Which could include breakfast, classes, etc.  Again we will 
look to our community to see what it is we wand to do.  Look for more 
information in the next few weeks regarding this.  Also below I have 
included a short list of information regarding mesquite beans.

Here are two interesting articles about the history and health 
benefits of mesquite.
http://chetday.com/mesquiteflour.htm
http://www.spmesquite.com/articles/ancientfoods.html

Looking forward to seeing you all.

Greg
-- 


***ATTENTION***  Please note my new email address.  FarmerGreg at UrbanFarm.org

The Urban Farm
Growing good food
Having fun gardening
Connecting with nature


Greg Peterson
http://www.urbanfarm.org
602/565-7045
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