permaculture

["rafter t. sass" <rafter@liberationecology.org>]

I'd love to take a look at any information you have about honey locust  
varieties, edibility, etc., including photos.

When you eat the beans from Gallup, do you eat the pulp that surrounds  
them as well? That's the edible portion that I've heard about - though  
not tried yet. The pulp is supposed to be up to 30% sugar in some  
varieties!

Thanks so much...

Best,
Rafter


Lisa Rollens

>Hmmm...I didn't know there was a different species of honey locust  
with
>small pods.  They're not black locust, are they??  Ours down here  
have >large pods...16-18 inches long.

-could be black locust. I've read that there are many varieties of  
honey locust and that some nurseries create their own hybrid. The  
locust trees in Gallup have pods 8-12 inches long but the seed in the  
pod is fat, huge compared to the 6 inch pod found in Maysville with  
flat, thin seeds.

the Gallup variety seed (shelled from the mature brown pod), can be  
boiled in two changes of water (to remove tannins), and then boiled  
like a black or red kidney bean (which I've done -got pics if you  
want). It would only take a fist full of brown pods to make a single  
bowl of beans.
It's clearly not worth my time to use the Maysville variety this way.

>I picked up over 20 feedbags full and have been
>feeding them to my dairy cow all winter.

Did you pick the pods green or brown (mature)? How do the cows like  
them? Can you taste it in their milk? Have you opened the pod to see  
how thick the seed is?

>I have elderberries, serviceberry, chestnut, witch hazel, black  
>raspberry, and gooseberries under the black walnuts

Nice! I'm not that familiar with the elderberry and the serviceberry  
(though I've read about them an seen non-descript pictures of them).  
If happen to have a spring, summer, fall, and winter picutres of those  
two plants -I'd love to have them since they are supposed to be in  
Maysville.

And thanks for the info on the locust's sex. I'll try and photo  
document the plantings.



rafter t. sass
The Liberation Ecology Project
liberationecology.org
518-567-7407
skype: raughter