I have, but only because my grandpa used to trick the kids into eating an acorn. Never tried them processed.
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Yes, the honey mesquite is “Prosopis glandulosa” and depending on where it grows the pods can be solid dark purple.
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There is also the Chilean mesquite, " Prosopis chilensis and it has a flat, curled pod and doesnt taste as good at the honey mesquite, Prosopis glandulosa. And the Velvet mesquite, Prosopis veluntina that grows by the river and has tasty pods. I have tasted many dried bean pods from different landsscaping trees and wild trees to learn wich ones are sweet. Once you know, you know. (smirk) As there is a huge difference in taste, and its really bitter and almost astringent.
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Now we have to try them…
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You can ferment something and then distill the alcohol.
Do you have any native fruits that would ferment well?
Jerry Irving
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Indeed, but the only wild fruits back at the farm were apples…unless maple syrup could be used…too much chemistry already.
Anything with sugar can be fermented; though, some things are easier to ferment than other things. I’ve heard that it’s possible to make potato whisky.
Jerry Irving
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Interesting, so that’s what you mean by varieties, different species are technically like “Varieties” too! I’ve managed to try the taste of Honey Locust pods (Gleditsia triacanthos). The Pulp inside is technically sweet but has such a strong off taste, like something I shouldn’t be eating. I’m glad you know about many different species of Prosopis, I have not researched them yet, thank you for the info! What do you think will happen if you start crossing species?
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I believe there are already hybrids.
There are also thornless varieties of both species. Although the thornless glandulosa variety (sold as ‘Maverick’) is very difficult to find.
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Oh, I wont be crossing the mesquite, I forage the seed pods and have a few spots to visit. Ive just learned the difference between good tasting pods and the bitter ones. Most of the seeds are attacked by a beetle that drills a hole into the seed. So if you dont ge the pods collected and placed into the freezer, the beetles destroy many of the seeds.
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I see, but if you were breeding, what would be good traits to select for? What is the difference between Good Tasting & Bad Tasting Pods? How they look? and what do the Bad ones taste like?
Also have you ever found a seedless mesquite? Would that be a trait to breed for?
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The pods and seeds are what you want.
That would be a good trait for ornamental landscaping trees.
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The difference in taste of the pods is simply sweet or bitter, but Im told both are edible. The tree does well on its own and is indigenous to arid climates. Trying to create a seedless pod would be defeating the adaptive focus.
My apologies, im using “species” and “variety” interchangeably and should not…
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Olay, after reading the email blast from Native Seed SEARCH, todays information was about mesquite flour from Argentina, with yet two more species…Prosopis alba and Prosopis negra. Gary Nabhan wrote an article and a book explaining the benifits of mesquite and how well it grows in the arid regions.
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Hmm… Do you have to cook the seeds to render them edible? Are they the harder to eat part? I get why landscapers would like a seedless version.
True! I wondered the same thing about seedless persimmons. I really love seeds but I can see how annoying seeds would be if you are trying to dry persimmons. For example Diospyros virginiana has both 40 Chromosome vs 60 Chromosomes versions, They don’t really cross even tho their the exact same species. However if we mix the pollens, use Mentor Grafting & Mentor Pollination than perhaps we can bypass the Chromosomes Mismatch which may result in seedless American Persimmon fruit. How was the seedless trait done with the Asian Persimmons (Diospyros kaki)? Could the same thing be done with Mesquite?
In reality, lots of species get reorganized as sub-species. Taxonomically it’s complicated for stupid reasons. And with enough hybridization or crosses, species merge together & become one! I treat super closely related species as varieties, especially if they can cross easily.
It’s crazy to think that the SUPER DIVERSE Cucurbita pepo is considered just 1 species (it was created from 2 subspecies crossing) while Blackberries can have 500 different species!?
Makes me wonder why the disbalance? Not all species weigh the same, lots of species weigh as heavily as a Variety.
Interesting, I hope to find some phylogenic trees to understand just how different these Argentinian species are from the ones in Arizona. From that post you mentioned, Fleker claims the Argentinian species are sweeter. Is this evidence of domestication & Selection, or just pure (Spawn point 
) chance?
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You can grind the dry seeds into a flour.
I am not sure about being edible/useful raw.
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Im not gonna try to cross the mesqite but will search fir the Argentinian cultivars. I’m not familiar with the species, just brief foraging of the local area trees. The research Dr. Fleker has done looks like its been since 1970. I’m not sure of how he selected for flavor. The trees are all growing in different soils, Im guessing that causes differences in flavor…just a guess.
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I bought moringa seeds earlier this year with the intent of germinating/growing them. Of the ones I planted, they all sprouted and are growing well.
A month ago:
This is one I potted up and have in my office at work. I have four more pots of them as well.
I’d be willing to share some of the seeds from them as I have quite a few leftover. They should be the PKM-1 cultivar.
There are honey locust trees where I’m currently working (OK panhandle/z7b) that I plan to gather seeds from soon. The trees are thornless, but I doubt all their progeny would be. Something to keep in mind - don’t plant them where you, small humans, or other animals you like will be walking/driving/running.
Also osage orange hedge balls. I plan to let the hedge balls rot over the winter and gather the seeds when the fruit rots off. We’ll have more than we need, so I could add those to the mix. Great hedge/wind row tree. Also helluva good tree for firewood and building material.
We have a couple varieties of maples and oaks growing around us in the forest at home (z5b). We could gather some seeds for that if this takes off. We’re also in apple country, so if you wanted a load of apple seeds + crab apples, we could probably make that happen.
If you want roses, there are some bushes outside a grocer in a town around us that produce the biggest rose hips I’ve seen, a little larger than the size of a quarter. I gathered a bunch of seed from them last year. The hips were sweet and tasty. I’ll check them again this year and see about snipping the hips again. Nobody seemed to care. I like putting the hips in a honey ferment. 
Hubs also just mentioned he noticed some big hips growing outside the airport I’ll be flying in to, so I’ll ask him to bring snips when he comes to get me in a couple weeks. 
I can scour our spruce trees to gather cones from them. If I see hemlocks, I can gather those too. I don’t think we have any hems on our property unfortunately.
Staghorn sumac grows around these parts. I could gather and contribute those.
There are red elders on our property, but I haven’t seen berries from them yet. 
maybe next year. I want to propagate them to spread them to more fertile areas. We’re also trying to start black elders.
I’ve seen low growing yew on our property too. If someone’s interested in that I could see about finding berries.
We have wild blueberries growing, but they’re wee little ones. Nearby blueberry farms exist though. I may go hunting for cuttings this winter when I get home. I’d like to get some more luscious blewbs growing at our place.
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I could certainly contribute black elderberry seeds; I have oodles. I also have way more than I need of locally grown apricot, peach, and plum pits. I tend to be proactive about asking my neighbors with mature fruit trees that have fruit rotting around them if they’re going to harvest any of the fruit this year, and if not, can I have them? (They usually say yes, with gratitude, because it means less of a mess they have to clean up.)
I habitually save seeds from everything that tastes good enough to be worth saving for someone to grow. It seems like a good idea. 
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Are there any thornless mesquite trees with the sweet pods? If so, which species would I be looking for? It would be very interesting to have a thornless one that grows sweet pods.
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