Desert Bean Tree Harvest Party

2400 E. Chandler Blvd.,Phoenix AZ 85048

20 June, 2021

Description

You'll learn how to harvest native mesquite and ironwood bean trees in Ahwatukee neighborhoods. Then we'll make flour at my home! We'll meet near 24th Street and Chandler Blvd. in Ahwatukee (a designated village in Phoenix). You'll learn how to sustainably harvest mesquite and ironwood bean trees. We give thanks to the Akimel O'odham people (Pima) for sharing this knowledge through generations of living in the Sonoran Desert. Please bring sunscreen, a hat or visor, a cooler with icy drinks, sturdy shoes, and gloves. When we're too hot to continue we'll come back to my home and process mesquite beans into flour, roast ironwood beans, and taste some good wild desert food. It is a workshop but I call it a party as it is always fun! I will email you the exact address and directions for where we'll be meeting within a few hours of purchasing your tickets. Tickets are $5. Children are welcome if they are interested. You will be helping me collect beans to make products that I share and sell. It is fine if you'd like to take a pound or so home of beans to process yourself. Mesquite beans taste sweet. Ironwood beans taste nutty. They are both high in protein, low on the glycemic index, and high in nutrition. They make gluten-free flours. Two mesquite beans are on the right side of my palm. One is beige and curving. The other is red-striped and straight. They vary from tree to tree. Taste a little piece to see if a particular tree is sweet which makes it good to harvest. Landscapers usually plant South American mesquite trees in yards across Phoenix that have bland beans that make you pucker. It will not hurt to taste one, but don't harvest them if they aren't sweet! Always spit out the gritty parts of the pod and don't swallow them. And make sure they are a mesquite tree, not a mimosa tree which has wider, inedible beans. Ironwood beans and pod are on the left of my palm. They split open like a pea pod revealing their nutty bean. Mesquite beans are ready to harvest when they are beige and dry. Some beans have red stripes. Some are long and curling, others are straight. They do not have a pod that opens up to beans. Everything is stuck together and cannot be separated (indihiscent meaning does not open up). The pods can be ground up into flour in a blender and then shaken through a sieve for fine powdery flour that tastes similar to Cheerios dust! The gritty parts left over are called "mash" and can be used to make tea or beer. Ironwood beans taste nutty. Their pods open up like a pea pod revealing the brown beans inside. Last year some of the beans were brown and some were purplish brown from the same tree. I like to soak the beans and let them sprout out a little root. They swell to triple their original size. Then I dry them and roast them in a frying pan with a little oil and salt for a great snack. Their taste has been compared to hazelnuts, soy beans, peanuts, and pistachios. I am working on a little homemade machine to shell them as the pods are not edible, just the beans. If you have an extra pea shelling type machine laying around, please let me know!