Weed with soft thorns in west texas
![weed with soft thorns in west texas weed with soft thorns in west texas](http://rangeplants.tamu.edu/wp-content/gallery/cholla/cholla_59_052505-051.jpg)
Okay, so now we have our honeylocust beans out of the pods. (I discovered the technique when shelling lots of peas out of their pods – blanch them IN the pods, plunge them in cold water, then squeeze the peas out easily.) However, breaking the pods in 3-5″ pieces and BLANCHING them for 5-15 minutes (experiment to find out what works best for you), made the pods much easier to open, and even longer cook-times made it easy to squeeze the pods and squirt the beans right out. I tried opening them to remove the beans and found them terribly difficult to deal with. So, I gathered a bunch of the fallen GREEN pods, just as they began to develop brown speckles (like a ripening banana).
![weed with soft thorns in west texas weed with soft thorns in west texas](https://turf.caes.uga.edu/content/dam/caes-subsite/georgiaturf/images/weed-management/GNAPE2.jpg)
Somewhere, I came across mention of cooking them like dry beans (they are legumes, after all). I lived in a grove of thorny honeylocust trees, and after years of raking thousands of the big brown pods and pulling the ubiquitous sprouts from the rock-hard brown seeds, I decided to google the edibility of the seeds. Learn more about her writing and design services at Many of our readers find that subscribing to Eat The Planet is the best way to make sure they don't miss any of our valuable information about wild edibles. With a penchant for travelling, photography and all things botanical, she enjoys writing about a wealth of topics and issues, from conservation and slow living, to design and travel. Hannah is a freelance writer and graphic designer from the UK. Today when foraging you will compete only with deers and other small mammals, and not the megafauna from an age long gone. From wooly mammoths to mastodons! ConclusionĪ fascinating evolutionary history with a sweet and delicious fruit that has been coveted by mammals since before the last ice age. They formed to help the tree in protecting itself from large grazers that inhabited the earth before the last ice age. The oversized thorns are believed to be an ancient evolutionary characteristic. Honey Locust fruits ( Gleditsia triacanthos) (Photo by Tournasol7 on Wikimedia Commons) Did you know… The leaves of black locust also have a much rounder appearance, than the longer oval shaped leaves of honey locust.
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However some ornamental varieties of honey locust have been bred with a reduction in thorns, so careful identification is key. The black locust inhabits the same native range, and can be found in similar habitats.Ī common distinguishing factor is the number of thorns, as black locust tends to have more subtle and a lower number of thorns. Honey locust has a toxic lookalike by the name of black locust ( Robinia pseudoacacia). The strong thorns were interestingly also once used as nails in the construction of barns and other building practices. Today the wood of honey locust is occasionally used in furniture or agricultural fencing, however it cannot provide yield great enough for commercial production. The Cherokee were believed to have cultivated honey locusts to create bows, tools and even carved games for children. Honey locust was frequently used as a source of food, wood and medicine by Native Americans. It has a sweet honey like taste, hence its name. The sweet and fleshy pulp of the bean pods can be eaten raw or extracted and used in a variety of ways. Only the fruits of honey locust are considered edible. Clusters of highly scented cream flowers adorn the base of the leaves, developing into the long 20cm seed pods throughout the summer. The leaves are pinnate compounds, with each oval shaped leaflet measuring up to 2cm long. Large and intimidating thorns line its trunk and branches, protruding singularly from the tree or forming angular and threatening clusters. Reaching no more than 20m in height, an abundance of pods should still be well within reach on its low spreading branches. Honey Locust in the fall ( Gleditsia triacanthos) (Photo by Kevmin on Wikimedia Commons)