How do you eat bundleflower seeds?

Anyone know how to eat bundleflower seed. Lemme tell you popping them into your mouth and chewing isn't one! Our first year bundleflowers are producing these beautiful tiny little seeds and I'll be planting them all around the orchard to help the soil. But at some point I'll have enough to eat and can't find any articles on how to do that? I guess grinding into a flour perhaps or grinding like flax seed raw?

http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/ART/1988/10/23/3e764cfb806d3

I also tried feeding them to the chickens and they spit them out.

Plants for a Future says to cook them. http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Desmanthus+illinoensis You might try cooking the immature seedpods as a green vegetable.

Tyler Ludens wrote:Plants for a Future says to cook them. http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Desmanthus+illinoensis You might try cooking the immature seedpods as a green vegetable.

Thank you! Do you think I'd cook them by boiling them? I have no clue.

I would try boiling them until tender.

Tyler Ludens wrote:I would try boiling them until tender.

Thanks I will.

Current and former Land Institute employees and interns tell me it tastes bad. You have to boil it. They are working on techniques to remove the bad flavor.

Eric Toensmeier wrote:Current and former Land Institute employees and interns tell me it tastes bad. You have to boil it. They are working on techniques to remove the bad flavor.

Thanks Eric!! Who are these people and can I work with them? No need to duplicate efforts. Is it a tannin bitter bad taste like with acorns or some other bad taste I wonder? I have a couple more bundles that are ready to pick probably tomorrow. I will probably only be able to do one experiment this year because I have so few seeds. But I"m from the south and have made some pretty bad stuff taste good with enough chili powder, garlic and onions

P.S. you know I love your book, but I've got two more people hooked on it too!

I'd just give the Land Institute a call. I've found them friendly and pretty easy to get a hold of.

Eric Toensmeier wrote:I'd just give the Land Institute a call. I've found them friendly and pretty easy to get a hold of.

Thanks, I'll be working with them on an earthen floor project soon I hope.

Just curious if you have tried popping them? Also, if they are bitter, can you develop it into a bittersweet taste like chocolate?

Rebekah, welcome to the forum.

If you try popping them please let the forum know how this turns out.

It seems the seeds of the Illinois Bundleflower are best eaten by livestock and wildlife.

Illinois Bundleflower is a very important forb for restorations and wildlife habitat. As a legume, it helps to build the soil. It is winter-hardy, drought tolerant, and will grow in a variety of soils. Nutritious and readily eaten by all classes of livestock, Illinois Bundleflower will attract deer and game birds to any area where it grows.

My favorite seed source:

https://seedsource.com/illinois-bundleflower/

A leaf tea has been used in the treatment of itchy skin. Five seeds have been placed in the eye at night and washed out in the morning to treat trachoma

Seed - cooked. Rich in protein but without much flavour. The seedpods are about 25mm long and contain 3 - 5 small seeds

https://pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?LatinName=Desmanthus

I have one plant, so not enough seeds to eat.
I hope they taste OK, but even of they don't its a pretty great plant.