Taste test Mesquite Beans and Lady's Thumb

I tried cooking and tasting some mesquite beans. I may have done it wrong or they were too old.
The lady's thumb is good.

Are you sure that was a mesquite and not an acacia?  It was hard to tell from the video, but that was my initial thought - both trees put off bean pods.  

The pods are usually dried and ground into flour; boiled, pressed into paste, and fermented; or simmered for a long time and the resulting liquid simmered again for molasses.  You may have better luck with one of these methods, but you'll need a lot of beans (e.g., 5 gallon bucket full).  

Jack Mundy wrote:Are you sure that was a mesquite and not an acacia?  It was hard to tell from the video, but that was my initial thought - both trees put off bean pods.  

The pods are usually dried and ground into flour; boiled, pressed into paste, and fermented; or simmered for a long time and the resulting liquid simmered again for molasses.  You may have better luck with one of these methods, but you'll need a lot of beans (e.g., 5 gallon bucket full).  

yes I believe you are correct about the cooking method.

Jack Mundy wrote:Are you sure that was a mesquite and not an acacia?  It was hard to tell from the video, but that was my initial thought - both trees put off bean pods.  

The pods are usually dried and ground into flour; boiled, pressed into paste, and fermented; or simmered for a long time and the resulting liquid simmered again for molasses.  You may have better luck with one of these methods, but you'll need a lot of beans (e.g., 5 gallon bucket full).  

I am A beginner so I cou;ld be wrong. Please look at this link to an texas A&m site about Acacia.http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/TreeDetails/?id=1webpage
The tree described on that site is not what I collected. But please point out my mistakes because I can always use help with learning.

It's great you are willing to try.  The native bean producing trees are viewed as a nuisance here, despite their historical value as food.  There is an annual mesquite milling and mesquite pancake get together here in Tucson.  Fantastic food and great company.  

I tried stopping the video in several places, but I couldn't get a good view of the leaf structure and branches.  I could be wrong as well, just pointing it out since they can look so similar.  Much less is available about acacia beans and their uses, and I read somewhere that some part of the plant has a psychoactive property.  It is still a great tree though.  

Jack Mundy wrote:It's great you are willing to try.  The native bean producing trees are viewed as a nuisance here, despite their historical value as food.  There is an annual mesquite milling and mesquite pancake get together here in Tucson.  Fantastic food and great company.  

I tried stopping the video in several places, but I couldn't get a good view of the leaf structure and branches.  I could be wrong as well, just pointing it out since they can look so similar.  Much less is available about acacia beans and their uses, and I read somewhere that some part of the plant has a psychoactive property.  It is still a great tree though.  

I went the a Texas A&M plant web site and looked at the leaf structure and it matched just right for mesquite.

Mesquite beans taste like Graham Crackers to me.   We have a couple of trees but they seemingly refuse to make beans.

We have a couple of mesquites, too.  Ours don't make beans so I thought they might be males.  I will look at the ones out on the road to see if they have beans, I assumed they would.

We have seed pods for the first time.  You can look up at the top of the trees (where the deer can't get to them) and see the golden pods standing out from the green.  The folks in Ozona that have the Hammermill say they are having a very poor crop this year.

How did you fix the beans?

Anne Miller wrote:We have seed pods for the first time.  You can look up at the top of the trees (where the deer can't get to them) and see the golden pods standing out from the green.  The folks in Ozona that have the Hammermill say they are having a very poor crop this year.

How did you fix the beans?

I tried to just boil them like green beans but that is not the correct thing to do. I read about waiting until they are drown and dry then get the sweet white stuff from between the seeds. Also boil em down until you get a mush.