MESQUITE

Grimes, William. 2004. Eating Your Worlds. Oxford University Press.

is a spiny tree or shrub of the pea family, native to arid regions of southwestern U.S. and Mexico. The timber is burned in barbecues as flavoring. -
ORIGIN from Mexican Spanish mezquite

Niethammer, Carolyn. 1974. American Indian Food and Lore. Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc., New York.

ALSO CALLED: Honey mesquite and pechit
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Prosopis juliaflora
LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION: The mesqutie is a shrub or small tree growing to 25 feet, with a compound leaf and many small leaflets. The greenish-yellow flowers are long and cylindric and the fruits are long and podlike. mesquite trees grow at 5,000 feet or below from southern Kansas to southeastern California and northern Mexico. It is common along washes and wherever it can get enough water. When the beans are fully ripe they are brittle and straw-colored. Some varieties sport beans that are randomly streaked with red.

To the Indians of the Sonora Desert, mesquite beans were their most important food, even mroe important than corn. it was mesquite atole (gruel) that sustained them day after day through the winter until the next cultivated crop was ready. Yumans, Mohaves, cocopas, Pimas, and Papagos agreed that no other wild or cultivated food compared in importance with the mesquite bean and its close relative the screw bean (Prosopis pubescens). The Seri Indians of Sonora have eight different words to describe mesquite beans in every state from a tiny pod of less than 1 inch to the fully ripe and dried pod that has fallen from the tree onto the ground. The Pueblo Indians at Acoma and Laguna also used the beans and the Yavapais accepted them in trade.

The mesquite bean provides goodly amounts of protein, carbohydrate, and calcium. Four tablespoons of mesquite meal provide seventy calories.

For a Maricopa woman, ability to gather and prepare mesquite beans was the major accomplishment of a good housewife, for skill in this task would keep her family from hunger. A large part of the woman's day was spent pounding and grinding mesquite beans.

Every industrious family build and filled a cylindrical granary bin to hold their mesquite harvest. The women would go out every day in groups - for protection against the enemy-and collect beans until the trees were completely stripped.

The ripe beans were dried on the rooftops before being stored. Those beans that were not considered good enough to be stored whole were ground into meal and stored. The meal was sprinkled with water and formed into small, round, hard cakes. These cakes were used on damp days when the whole beans had absorbed too much water to be easily ground. Slices of the cake were cut off and fried like mush, used to thicken gravy in a stew, or eaten raw. The flour was used in breads and beverages. A fizzy, slightly alcoholic drink was made by fermenting a mixture of mesqutie and water.

The old Papagos still look upon the mesquite bean with respect when they reminisce about earlier days. The aged aunt of my Papago informant, Molly Manuel, listened to the two of us talk about uses of the mesquite beans for several hours. Finally she said quietly, "The Indians ate good food. They never sickened and they got real old."

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Compiled for Food Resource http://food.oregonstate.edu