Mesquite Flour
This is a guest post by gourmet cook Heather Molans.
Having heard that mesquite flour is very tasty, I began pricing it. Five dollars would procure only a small baggie full from a local that teaches classes about edible plants in the south west. Thinking that too costly, I decided to make my own mesquite flour!
I eagerly awaited the end-of-summer when the pods are ready to harvest. I decided to pick them green, before the boring insects could drill holes into them. I harvested about 5 pounds from trees on vacant lots in our neighborhood as we walked our dogs one morning. I had picked the bottoms of the trees clean at our final location, and Jimmy offered to pick from the upper branches if I would hold both dogs. I had no sooner taken their leashes when Penny saw a rabbit. Fortunately, although I was pretty skinned up, nothing was broken!
I waited for 3 weeks, but the pods never dried. Admitting defeat, I dumped them out, and harvested the now golden pods. As I sorted through the brittle pods, I discovered they were full of holes. The pods needed to be broken apart into 2 inch lengths, with the hole sections discarded. I reasoned that my harvest would amount to less than I had planned. I was only minutes into the project when I realized the mesquite-loving flies had come home with us, and quickly moved outside into the heat of summer, where I spent about 4 hours sweating and cleaning the pods.
I was relieved to see that I was left with about a gallon and a half of pods, and the next day I popped the Tupperware top off my container and discovered that some flies had held their ground. I took them outside, where I was set up for the messy job of milling the pods, and discovered they had been damaging my crop during the night. As quickly as I could, I broke off the pieces with holes, and began the task of milling the pods in my food processor. Things can be done with the chaff that doesn’t mill into flour, but my patience was wearing thin! I ground, sifted, and discarded most of the afternoon. I swore I would never do this again, and realized the price of a baggie of mesquite flour should equal the price of an ounce of gold!
I cleaned up the mess. There was flour everywhere. I was glad I had milled the stuff outside. I swept and then hosed down the porch. The dishwasher was full of utensils, and I felt resentful.
Curious, I pushed just the end of a teaspoon into the less than 1 quart of mesquite flour that I had gleaned from about 5 pounds of pods. My senses were overwhelmed with a sweetness that can’t be described. I hope there are still some pods for the summer harvest – it’s worth everything – except I’ll leave the dogs home next time!!
