Tucson Audubon: Mesquite Milling, November 5, 2011 – Tucson AZ
Mesquite Milling at Tucson Audubon’s Mason Center!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
7 am: FREE Guided Beginner Bird Walk on the trail at the Mason Center
8 am to Noon: Mesquite Milling
The seed pods of our native mesquite trees hold all kinds of nutritional and culinary delights! Join Tucson Audubon and Desert Harvesters for a memorable event as we mill mesquite pods to make mesquite meal! Bring your own pods to mill ($5 for the first 2 gallons of pods; $10 for 5 gallons; $2 per gallon thereafter). See www.desertharvesters.org for mesquite harvesting instructions. If you haven’t collected pods, come anyway and take away a small free sample to try in a new recipe, while supplies last. Vendors will be at the event to showcase this abundant desert food and other native food products. See you there!
Note: Only clean, dry seedpods that “snap” when bent will be milled. If they bend rather than snap they are too moist and will clog the mill. (See the Harvesting and Storage tips page). Pods must be clean and free of debris (stones, dirt, leaves, etc) and black mold otherwise they will not be milled. We will not risk damaging the mill or contaminating the flour. Note: carob pods can also be milled as long as at least 10 gallons of mesquite pods are also provided with which we can flush the carob out of the mill. This “flushing” will produce a delicious mesquite/carob flour blend that will go to whoever provides the carob and mesquite pods for milling.
FMI: Kendall Kroesen, kkroesen@
Tucson Audubon’s Mason Center is located at 3835 W. Hardy, Tucson AZ 85742, on the southwest corner of the intersection of Thornydale Road and W Hardy Road. Entry is the first driveway on the south side of Hardy Road.