The Mission Garden at the foot of A Mountain held a mesquite pod milling session on Saturday. All you had to do was collect those mesquite pods that are scattered everywhere these days–on lawns, in driveways, in parking lots, on streets–and put them into 5 gallon plastic buckets. Then bring those buckets–limit 3 buckets per family–to the Mission Garden to be milled and within less than an hour — voila! Locally-ground, locally-grown flour for homemade goodies, including pies and tarts!
Now, if you have doubts about cooking with mesquite flour, it is good enough to be used by a couple of bakeries here in Tucson, among them the Big Skye Bakers, which sells its pies at the Rillito and Udall Farmers Markets. The AZ Baking Company, certified as a Tucson City of Gastronomy Food Artisan, sells its chocolate chip cookie mixes made with mesquite flour online.
But back to the Garden: it was a pleasant event on a hot hot day that began near the entrance with a man playing his guitar. Music to grow plants by?
Just beyond the entrance was an Inspection station, shown at the top of this post, where every bucket was hand-screened to remove dirt, debris and anything not-mesquite. Listening in on the screeners, I learned that, in order to avoid contaminants, it is best to pick the dried mesquite pods directly off the tree, rather than picking them up off the driveway or sidewalk.
3 steps from seed pods to flour
The noise of the two milling machines roared in the background behind the inspection station. As I was taking photos I noticed a sign on one machine that read “Tohono O’odham Community Agriculture”. With those experienced hands controlling the process it appeared simple, as you can see in this slide show. First, bring your inspected and approved bucket of mesquite pods to the millers. Next the millers tie bags around the pipe leading from the mill to your plastic bucket. The mesquite pods are poured into the mill and out comes your flour — ready to use.
Playing by a stream in the garden
Less than 100 feet away from the noisy machines, three children were playing in a “stream” that runs through the garden. Milling mesquite pods was the last thing on their minds. They were probably hoping for a fish or a frog, but mostly there seemed to be small insects skittering across the water surface.
And beyond them was a whimsical bottle tree. Love it! Nearby, an arched trellis with the dried gourds on it remaining from last season. And surrounding it all the way to the walls was an orchard of hundreds of fig and other desert-adapted fruit trees.
Not far away–the garden is not large–were educational booths and vendors under shade cloths, like there were at the Garlic Festival I attended at the Garden last year. This year’s Garlic Festival at the Mission Garden will be on July 29, 2023.
And, finally, as I walked toward the exit I came across a sun-oven with a temperature of almost 350 degrees where unripe mesquite pods were being toasted. Sounds interesting: flour from toasted mesquite seeds. Maybe an idea for next year.
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