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  • From: Greg <FarmerGreg@UrbanFarm.org>
  • To: Recipient List Suppressed: ;
  • Subject: [permaculture] Mesquite Bean Harvest
  • Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 10:00:16 -0700

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@UrbanFarm.org

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


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



  • [permaculture] Mesquite Bean Harvest, Greg, 06/22/2005

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