Mesquite Beans

One of the great things about the valley of the sun are the Mesquite trees. Mesquite trees are a member of the legume family. Yeah they are beans (nitrogen fixers). This year I collected some beans for milling to take to the anual Mesquite milling hosted by the VPA. I picked my beans at work I waited till the beans yellowed and then tasted them. If you break off a small piece of the bean and taste it, you can tell what kind of flavor the tree has. Some trees were nutty, some were chalky tasting, and most were sweet. I picked my beans from the sweet tasting trees. You don't want to pick your beans off the ground, from trees that are close to roadways ,or sprayed with chemicals. I picked a small batch of beans because I wasn't sure if I liked mesquite flower(about a 3 gallon bucket worth). Mine were all dry when I picked them. One thing you should know is all the bean pods have a little bug that lives inside the the pod Bruchid beatles and a predator beatle. I learned you should store your beans in a container with a screened bottom that way the beatles just fall out and go on there merry way.  When I dumped my bucket out on the sorting table the beatles were everywhere  I couldn't believe we made it to the milling without being swarmed since the bucket rode shotgun all the way there. You sort the beans to make sure there are no sticks, black mold, foreign objects (we found a screw in mine), and that the beans are dried all the way. All of these things could mess up the hammer mill. After the sorting your beans are handed over to the Desert Harvesters. This is the fun part!

beans being milled

finished product
I decided to make  Mesquite Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies  which I got from the Eat Mesquite Cookbook

The cookies were awesome here's the recipe

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup mesquite flower
•  2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup flax seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.In a bowl cream butter and sugar then eggs and vanilla. In a seperate bowl mix flours, baking soda, and salt then add to the butter mixture. Add chocolate chips, oatmeal, and flax seed and combine well. Drop spoonfuls of batter 1-3 tsp. full per cookie on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-13 minutes.

 

Enjoy I can't believe how good the Mesquite bean flour taste and I can't wait till next year to collect more beans. BOOYAH!!