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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Mesquite Milling this Saturday

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  • From: "Lisa Rollens" <rollens@fidnet.com>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Mesquite Milling this Saturday
  • Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 09:44:55 -0600

Hmmmm....I wonder if milling would work for honey locust pods, and if the
product would be useable??? If I remember mesquite from my Texas days, they
might have more and larger seeds Last year, after reading of their feed
value on this list, I picked up a whole bunch of honey locust pods and ran
them thru a chipper/shredder. My animals loved them all winter!

Lisa, in honey locust country now.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg" <FarmerGreg@UrbanFarm.org>
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 8:34 AM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Mesquite Milling this Saturday


> Milling Questions
>
> The milling went great for our first one. I followed it up with a
> visit to Tucson for their milling and mesquite pancake breakfast.
> What a fun time.
>
> The biggest challenge for for putting on a milling is locating a
> mill. The one we used was from Tucson. If is a gas powered hammer
> Mill. See desertharvesters.org. A steam or hand powered one would
> be great, just need to find it.
>
> From 5 gallons of beans we were getting about 1 to 2 gallons of meal.
> An very little chaff.
>
> Mesquite beans can be VERY plentiful. Last year I harvested 20
> gallons of beans from a tree in a matter of a few minutes. A tree
> can put out hundreds of pounds of beans. Mesquite wood is used for
> furniture, I suppose it could be used for tool handles.
>
> Mesquite is a desert plant so it is very drought tolerant. Not
> allelopathic. A mesquite farm could be feasible, but there is so
> much that grows in the wild you may not need to. A hammermill is
> suggested as the beans are so hard that the power is needed to mill
> them.
>
> Greg
>
>
>
>
> >
> >
> >> Hi Greg and all,
> >>
> >> How did the milling go? I am quite interested in seeing if we could
do
> >> comething like that here in Central Texas - we've got a lot of
mesquite. I
> >> bought some meal and have been serving up mesquite meal pancakes to my
> >> neighbors to see if I could generate enough interest in pursuing a
milling
> >> demo or operation here.
> >>
> >> Is the milling fairly easy to do and not too manual-process oriented?
Can
> >> the beans come from any variety of mesquite - or are there only some
that
> >> work well? How much meal can you make from say, a five gallon bucket
full
> >> of mequite pods? Could the mill be run via a steam engine?
> >
> >How about a human powered mill? Use an 18 speed bycycle connected to the
> >mill directly or to a gearbox connected by V-belt to it. A steam engine
> >is a good idea. Burn the chaff from the milling process plus twigs,
> >stems and branches for complete combustion and extraction of max BTU's
> >with minimum smoke. When you look at the loads steam locomotives are
> >able to move, the power they can unleash is truly amazing.
> >
> >A few questions:
> >
> >Are mesquite trees plentiful in their natural habitat? Can the wood be
> >used as lumber or handles for tools? Is it rot-resistant?
> >
> >What plants grow naturally with it and what crops could be grown
> >successfully within a grove used for bean production?
> >Fertilizing and irrigating the crops would benefit the mesquite
> >while it provided some shade. Is it allelopathic? Is it drought
> >tolerant? Would a mesquite bean farm be feasable? What kind of mill is
> >required to make flour? Can grits be made?
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >permaculture mailing list
> >permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> >http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
>
>
> --
>
> The Urban Farm
> Growing good food
> Having fun gardening
> Connecting with nature
>
>
> Greg Peterson
> http://www.urbanfarm.org
> 602/565-7045
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture





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