MESQUITE BEANS
This is a picture of mesquite beans before being put into the blender and after. We were trying to make mesquite bean flour, but the pods must have been too moist, although we did put them in the oven for over an hour, because all they did was gum up the blender. Have you ever tasted a mesquite bean? I hadn't before we did this, but the directions said they are very sweet and taste a little like graham crackers. Guess what, they do! I was so surprised and that may be another reason for the "gumming" because of the high sugar content along with moisture. Anyway in the fall of the year we can take our gathered mesquite beans to a milling event in Marana and have them professionally ground into flour. I think I will try it.
This is a picture of mesquite beans before being put into the blender and after. We were trying to make mesquite bean flour, but the pods must have been too moist, although we did put them in the oven for over an hour, because all they did was gum up the blender. Have you ever tasted a mesquite bean? I hadn't before we did this, but the directions said they are very sweet and taste a little like graham crackers. Guess what, they do! I was so surprised and that may be another reason for the "gumming" because of the high sugar content along with moisture. Anyway in the fall of the year we can take our gathered mesquite beans to a milling event in Marana and have them professionally ground into flour. I think I will try it.PRICKLY PEAR JELLY
Shaila and her friend, Lane, picked a bagful of red and ripe prickly pear cactus so we could make jelly. Unfortunately we used liquid pectin which I had never used before instead of the powdered stuff so the jelly was more like very thin syrup. We also experimented with using honey instead of sugar in one batch and less sugar in another which could have compromised the jelling of the jelly, too. Oh, well ... there's plenty more prickly pear to be picked! They are holding two jars of the finished product.So, we worked on two desert cooking projects that didn't turn out exactly like we wanted them to, but are we going to give up? NO!!! Just like anything, you've got to pick yourself up and try again.
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4 comments:
I have never tasted a mesquite bean, nor have I made pricky pear jelly...Good for you!
I have lot's of fruit over here too if you need more. We were outside with my family that is in town and they asked me if I ever did anything with the cactus fruit. I will tell them I know someone who does!
The desert tortoise loves them too if you happen to know anyone who has them . . . . legally of course!
Have you tried a food processer instead of a blender, they are usually less prone to gumming up, sometimes.
or a wheat grinder? but if they are too moist it wouldn't work. sometimes i grind the grain kamut and it can be fairly moist. it sometimes jams up the grinder.
way to go using local stuff from the earth. it tastes and feels so much better to use natural rather than over processed.
I made PP jelly once, lots of work because of the spines. Say hi to Shaila!
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