Mesquite natural history and bean pod harvest

A Sonoran Desert Mesquite Bosque made up of Velvet Mesquite (Prosopis velutina).

Starting towards the end of June and through mid-August or so, Mesquite (Prosopis sp.) bean pods are ripe for harvesting in and around the Sonoran Desert.  Once the pods are tan colored and dry they are ripe.  The pods have two parts; the seed portion and the pod.  Both can be edible.  The seed portion is a bean which is as hard as a rock. By itself it is not digestible unless it is ground up.  The pod part is edible and has an earthy sweet taste.  All kinds of desert animals such as deer, cows, javelina, rats, and others consume the bean pod along with the bean.  The pod provides nutrition for the animal but the bean passes unharmed through the animal.  As the bean is passing through the digestive tract is absorbs moisture, may be partially scarified, and is finally deposited in a warm moist pile of dung.  All of this can greatly aid seed germination and survival of the seedling.  Animals also provide the extra bonus of carrying the seeds to new locations as they pass through the digestive tracts.

Velvet Mesquite bean pods ripe for harvesting mid-June in the Sonoran Desert.

While none of this is pretty, it is pretty darn effective.  In the absence of fire and/or other biological controls that scientists don't exactly understand, this method of seed transportation and deposition has at least partially caused the spread of mesquite trees all over the southwest.  Mesquites were once widely interspersed in desert grasslands and limited to wet areas where they would form dense "forests" called bosques.  In the present day they have invaded desert grasslands, often forming nearly impenetrable thickets.  Once these thickets are established, only fire, herbicides, or mechanical removal of them can return the grassland to an open state.  These treatments, particularly fire, are most effective before the mesquites become too large.  It is extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible, to remove an established mesquite thicket.

When the pods are dry and tan they are also ready for people to harvest them for eating.  The whole process can be quite easy for someone willing to brave the heat.  Simply find a tree with tan dry pods and pull them off the tree.  Some trees will produce sweeter tasting pods then others.  Simply break some pods and chew on them to see if you like the taste or not.  Collect pods from trees that taste favorable to you.  Mesquite pod collecting is legal on certain public lands such as Forest Service and BLM lands but not on National Park or preserve lands.  Private land is legal if you have permission.  Make sure you know where you are and the legality of collecting at that location.

Once you have collected all the pods you want, take them home and dry them out in the oven.  Set the oven as low as possible, 150 degrees is a good temperature.  Simply bake the pods until they are perfectly dry.  This is essential, the bean pod must be absolutely dried to the point where they can be very crisply broken.  If they are not crispy dry, the pods will gum-up and clog whatever you choose to grind them up with.  Also, drying the pods in the oven kills the often abundant insect life that likes to feed on them.  You can eat these bugs for the added protein, but I prefer not to, and don't suggest you do...  Next, you must grind-up the whole pods somehow.  Either a blender or coffee grinder will work well.  Simply place the pods in the blender or grinder and turn it on.  This should yield a powder mixed with pulp.  Lastly, the pulp and flour must be separated out from one another by using a mesh sieve.  The pulp, which will contain seeds if you used a blender, cannot be eaten.  Coffee grinders grind-up the beans making them edible.  The flour that comes through the sieve can be eaten.

Mesquite flour

Mesquite flour has an earthy-honey-desert-like taste and is great to add into bread, cornbread, and pancakes.  You can take any recipe you already have and simply add a quarter to a half cup or so of mesquite flour.  It also is great as a meat seasoning.  The flour can be rather dense and strong flavored so limit how much you add to your recipes.  Mesquite can also have a semi-bitter aftertaste, so limit how much you add to your recipes.  I especially like it in cornbread and as a meat seasoning.  Whatever you decide, play around with it and see what works and tastes best.  And let me know how it all works out for you!

Below are two websites with many good mesquite recipes:
http://www.casadefruta.com/mesquite-recipes.php
http://www.louqart.com/mesquite_recipes.html

Garden update (a little late)

Phoenix College garden

I know my garden economics update is long over due, but better late than never...  Things have been extremely productive in the garden lately with the nice weather we had through May and the beginning of June.  It isn't until temperatures start hitting about 110 degrees that things start suffering.  If we consistently stay below around 105 for the high everything seems to do quite well.  Some things like eggplant, some chili's, okra, and Armenian Cucumbers really don't care though.  One of my rules of thumb for Armenian Cucumbers is to plant only one every summer being it spreads and produces throughout the garden with vengeance!  Once it gets going its hard to stop.  June has been dry as usual.  Now with daytime highs consistently over 110 it can be difficult keeping the garden going.  The high temperatures will last until we get some rain and the medium term forecast makes it look like the monsoon rains may come in the next week or so.  But rain in the desert can be quite elusive.

Here are the stats:  All prices are based on local Fry's or Sprouts organic produce.
College garden
Tomatoes 13lbs. 6oz., $40 ($2.99/lbs.)
Green onions 1lbs. $4.72 (0.59/lbs.)
Green beans 2lbs. 14oz., $8.60 ($2.99/lbs.)
Garlic 7lbs. 4oz., $23.25 (0.75/head)
Summer squash 2lbs., $5.98 ($2.99/lbs.)
Total hours: 6
Total calories burned: 1836
Calories produced: 6035
Net calories:  4199
$ spent: $0.00
$ produced: $82.55
Net $: $82.55

Home Garden
Zucchini 9lbs. 9oz., $28.59 ($2.99/lbs.)
Green onions  8oz., $2.36 ($0.59/2oz bunch),
Chard  1lbs. 4oz., $6.25 ($2.50/8oz bunch)
Carrots  3lbs 1oz., $3.04 ($0.99/lbs.)
Basil 7oz., $10.47 ($1.89/2oz bunch)
Tomatoes 12lbs. 5oz., $28.59 ($2.99/lbs.)
Peaches 2lbs., $3.98 ($1.99/lbs.)

Cucumbers 1lbs. 8oz., $3.75 ($2.50/lbs.)
Eggplant 2lbs. 4oz., $4.46 ($1.99/lbs.)
Green beans 1lbs., $2.99 ($2.99/lbs.)
Summer squash 9lbs. 3oz., $22.97 ($2.50/lbs.)
Total hours: 6
Total calories burned: 1836
Calories produced: 5182
Net calories: 3346
$ spent: $0.00
$ produced: $117.45
Net $:  $117.45

Totals since October 2010
College garden:  
$ Totals: $111.08+$82.55=193.63
Total hours worked: 24.75
Calorie totals:4151+4199=8350

Home
$ Totals: $103.67+$117.45=221.12
Hours worked: 25.25
Calorie totals:1708+5054


The end of June through the middle of August can be really tough on the garden.  The sooner we get the monsoon rains and the more of them we get the better.  Without the monsoon rain the heat and dry weather can virtually destroy everything in the garden (except for okra, Armenian cucumbers, and eggplant of course!).  

Saguaro natural history and fruit harvesting

Saguaro fruits ripening on the ends of some saguaro arms. 

As mentioned in a previous post, the month of June can be pretty slow in the month of June.  Slow that is until the Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) fruits ripen and begin bursting open.  If it wasn't for this fruit the normally 110 plus degree temperatures and scorching sun would keep everything wishing they were in the mountains or hibernating somewhere far away.  Ripe Saguaro fruit wake many animals up from the lazy month of June. Due to these fruits these organisms are more willing to brave the extreme heat and will often hyper-actively gorge themselves for several weeks.  These juicy fruits are not simply an abundant food source, they are also an abundant water source during the hottest driest time of year.  When the fruit is ripe it bursts open, exposing the edible pulp to the outside world.  Bugs of all types will swarm around these fruits, eating the sweet contents.  Even ants will climb to the top to find the food.  Many types of birds will also go from Saguaro to Saguaro eating their fill of fruit or bugs.  Much of the fruit also falls to the ground where rodents, deer, and javelina can consume them.  As you can probably see, without the Saguaro not nearly as many animals could inhabit the Sonoran Desert through the summer.  This is part of the reason Saguaros are considered "keystone" species.  Keystone species are organisms that play a critical role in determining ecosystem structure and what organisms live there.

Dove sitting atop a Saguaro consuming ripe fruit.

Conveniently and purposely, Saguaro fruit ripening is timed only a few weeks prior to the summer monsoon rainy season.  Saguaro fruit pulp is loaded with tiny black round seeds that are eaten up by anything that eats the fruit.  Oddly, this is actually a very good thing.  As long as the seeds are not chewed they will pass through the entire digestive tract unharmed.  In-fact, partial digestion of the seed coat may actually help seed germination.  Being saguaro fruits are so high in the air, birds are the primary consumers and carrier of the seeds.  When undigested seeds pass unharmed through the digestive tract, they are often deposited under a bush or small tree such as the Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla) that the bird perched in.  These nurse plants (the bush or tree) create an ideal microclimate with increased moisture and nutrients, and decreased sun and temperature.  This microclimate is ideal for the saguaro seed to germinate and grow to adulthood.  Even so, only a tiny fraction of seed actually germinate, and an even tinier fraction grow to maturity.  And by tiny fractions I mean tiny fractions of one percent, the remaining seeds or seedlings die in the unforgiving desert environment.  This is absolutely normal, and for a Saguaro population to maintain itself only one Saguaro needs to reach maturity for each Saguaro already in existence.  That is, each plant only needs to produce one out of millions of seeds that germinates and grows to maturity.  To help ensure germination of these seeds the plant produces all its seeds every year just before the summer rains.

Two Saguaro fruits.  The black part at the top of the fruits in the old flower.  

Humans also have been active Saguaro fruit harvesters and consumers for many millenniums.  The process is quite easy if you have a long stick, 10 foot or so, and are willing to brave the heat.  In Arizona there is no law that I know of that prohibits non-commercial fruit harvesting, but the laws are obscure.  To be safe, harvest with someone, or an organization that has a permit, or on private land.  Also don't harvest very much.  Land managers have told me it is OK to do within reason.  It is however illegal to collect from a crested saguaro.  According to the laws, as long as you are not damaging or removing the plant it is "legal", again the law is obscure and incomplete when it comes to fruit harvesting.  But again, collect with an organization with a permit or on private land, do not harm the plant, and limit how much you collect.

Saguaro fruit cut in half.  The soft red pulp in the middle is what can be eaten.  The green and white wall should not be eaten.

Saguaro fruit is collected by knocking the fruit off the cactus with a long stick and then picking the fruit up off of the ground.  If you want to, you can try catching the fruit in a bag or basket.  Fruit harvesting is best done early in the morning before the scorching sun and 110 plus degree temperatures roast you.  Once a fruit is harvested simply cut it in half and scoop out the soft pulp and eat it.  Do not eat the surrounding wall of the fruit, it contains slightly toxic substances in it and does not taste good at all.  It is extremely good and refreshing in the summer heat.  Native Americans have also dried the pulp in the sun to make a sort of fruit leather.