Mesquite Bean Workshop

Hands-on Learning

This is a hands-on class! If you have some mesquite pods you need to mill, please bring them to the workshop, and you can mill up to two pounds. We will also use beans that I have picked. You will get to sort and break up the beans, put them into the home milling machine, and sift the flour from the chaff.

We'll also use a stone mortar and pestle to grind a few of the pods to understand that process.

You will know how to harvest beans and process them at home by the end of the class.

Mesquite beans are ripe to pick in late June and early July. Occasionally, they produce a second harvest in the fall. In this summer of 2025 many will be ripe in late July and August.

If you have signed up but are now unable to attend, please let me know so people on the waitlist will be able to attend.

I've distilled what I've learned over the past ten years. "Secrets" I wish I'd known to make my journey easier!

Mesquite blossoms, beans, trees, and sap photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/i89pmmd6cF39jD6w5

Album of short videos from Chandler mesquite/foraging event: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SMs63Tx6ZogUf2Ht9

Knowledge you will receive:

You'll learn everything from identifying a sweet mesquite tree, how and when to harvest, how to freeze, roast, store, make tea or "coffee" with them, and clean, prepare, and mill them for flour.

What machines can you use at home to mill the beans into flour? How do you make flour manually? How do you prevent bugs and holes in the pods?

How to sift the flour. What to do with the leftover "chaff" or "mash."

How to find the small brown beans inside a mesquite pod that are held tightly in place.

Did you know that hammer mills give you 32% flour from your pods, while this "giraffe mill" produces 62% flour? So for 10 pounds of your hard-won beans, you'll get 3.2 pounds of flour at a hammermill event, and approximately 6 pounds of flour from this $70 home mill.

I got my mills at: https://www.kellyathena.com/foraging-equipment.html

Recipes.

Why you can't open a mesquite pod like a pea pod or most bean pods.

Nutritional content.

Historical and current uses by local tribes. Velvet, Honey, Screwbean, and South American Mesquites. Which tastes the best? The good ones taste like brown sugar!

We'll sample the mesquite pods: velvet, honey, and screwbean.

We thank the Akimal O'odham, Tohono O'odham, Yavapai, Piipaash, Apache, Maricopa, Pima, Papago, and descendants of the Huhugam for knowing these trees since time immemorial, for their deep understanding of these trees and their beans, and for passing on their knowledge to future generations.

Fry bread is a 3 generation tradition. Mesquite cakes are a 300-generation tradition for at least the last 6,000 years. How do we know this for sure? The archaeological answer will be revealed at the workshop.

Prickly pear powder, prickly pear tea, saltbush powder (green salt), barrel cactus seeds, saguaro candy, mesquite pods, and mesquite flour will be available for sale at special pricing at the end of class.

Using the electric sifter to make the mesquite flour.

Cindy uses the giraffe mill to grind the mesquite beans and pours it into the bowl. Next the larger chaff pieces will be sifted out.