The human relationship with mesquite is not
quite so benevolent everywhere it grows, however. Many ranchers consider it to
be a pest, since it will thrive wherever cattle roam, replacing valuable
grasslands. The irony is that cattle feast on mesquite pods, and then deposit
the beans in cow pies, a perfect environment for the seeds to germinate and
grow. Thus, more cattle on the range is
better for mesquites. Paleontologists have deduced that cattle may be replacing
the role of other large mammals that once roamed the southwest, such as camels,
giant sloths and mastodons. After the Pleistocene extinctions about 10,000
years ago, mesquite bosques contracted to waterways and washes, where year
round moisture and seasonal flooding ensured their success. But without passage
through the guts of large mammals that travel long distances between waterways,
the seeds were no longer distributed onto uplands.
Even though a healthy bosque provides shade
and fodder for cattle, an aggressive campaign to eradicate mesquite in favor of
grasslands ensued through the 1900’s. Combined with habitat destruction for
agricultural, industrial and urban development, plus harvesting of trees for
firewood and lumber, wild mesquite bosques are now considered somewhat rare.
Fortunately, the versatile bean tree has
become a popular landscaping species over the past few decades, and is now
grown and planted widely through the arboriculture trade. Velvet mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) is the most common
in the Phoenix area, shading many parking lots and suburban tracts with their graceful,
contorted stems. The return of mesquite to urban areas is also a boon to
wildlife. Rabbits, coyotes, quails, javelina and deer also feed on the bean
pods. Dozens of bird species nest and forage for insects in mesquite limbs.
Mesquite leaf letter enriches soils with nitrogen, which, combined with shade,
makes them excellent “nurse trees” for many kinds of plants. Plus, over sixty
species of insects have been documented as visitors to mesquite flowers,
gathering the abundant pollen and nectar to propagate their own offspring. In
the spring, when long tassels of flowers dangle from the branches, a bean tree
literally hums with life.
According to the locavore food movement, which
promotes the use of regionally adapted and native foods, mesquite could be the
key to a more abundant and nutritive future for desert dwellers. If you are
lucky to have a mesquite in your yard, you can rake up the pods to use as an
alternative to mesquite wood for grilling and grind them into flour to use in
baking. Here's how:
Prepare bean pods: Collect and rinse pods with clean water
and dry in the sun. You can accelerate drying by putting them in the oven at
the lowest temperature (~150F) for 2-4 hours. The more crispy the pods, the
easier it is to grind them into flour.
Make the flour: If you want to be very traditional, get
out the mano and metate or a mortar and pestel! However, you can also grind the
bean pods in a blender. Just put about
15 pods in at a time for about 30 seconds. Sift with a fine sieve and store the
flour in the freezer until ready to use. Make sure you are sifting out the
hard, bitter seeds.
Bake: The traditional cake or cookie was a
simple mixture of flour and water, made into round flat patties and dried in
the sun. To use mesquite in baking, just replace ¼ of the amount of flour
called for in your recipe with finely ground mesquite meal.
Steep Tea: A sweet tea can be made by soaking some
of the flour in water and then straining off the pulp….perfect to serve with
cookies!
To learn more about the history and ethnobotany of mesquite, look for these
books:
Gathering the Desert by Gary Paul Nabhan
Medicinal Plants of the
American Southwest by
Charles W. Kane
And check out this website: Desert Harvesters (www.desertharvesters.com) in Tucson hosts mesquite pod milling events every year, as well as being
a resource for numerous workshops and publications on native plant foods.
