Mesquite Bean Flour?

**many houseapes** · 02-26-2008, 06:30 PM

I have read that by this summer, the fed is going to start rationing flour.If it truly does come to that, what would you use instead?
I have been thinking & for some of us that live in the south/southwest region there might be something worth looking into. Down here, we have the ugliest, thorniest trees that you ever saw- Mesquite trees- but they have multiple purposes. These trees actually shed bean pods at certain times of the year & from what I have read, the indians used to grind them up into flour- supposedly, it has a sweet taste to it. Beans are prepared as regular pinto beans....anyone else ever hear of this?

**sdrjeolsen** · 02-26-2008, 06:34 PM

Rationing flour??? Ok where have I been, I never heard about that. Why the heck are they wanting to ration it? and how do they plan to keep track of how much people are/have purchased?

BTW I've never heard of mesquite bean flour. I bet you can google it for more information and probably how to's.

**sdrjeolsen** · 02-26-2008, 06:36 PM

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/oct/papr/oct99_lil.html

Here is a site on how to do it and some recipes and uses for other part of the tree.

**many houseapes** · 02-26-2008, 06:45 PM

I heard that they are talking about rationing it b/c the farmers are planting more corn for ethanol - making wheat more scarce -thus the ugly increases in the price of flour. How many excuses can they come up w/to continually raise prices?(sarcasm) I'm just disgusted

**sdrjeolsen** · 02-26-2008, 06:59 PM

ya, no kidding. They have a reason for every price increase....every week. I've been reading up on the mesquite beans, there is a lot out there about milling flour, reciepes, etc. Wish I had some around here, I'd love to try milling it. It sounds like its also very nutitious and good at keeping blood sugar stable. Thanks for posting about it. Now I'm really glad I bought 50# of flour last fall from Sam's.

**suki** · 02-26-2008, 07:37 PM

There is a world-wide wheat shortage caused by a strain of rust fungus attacking wheat in south Asia. Add to this droughts in major wheat producing areas such as Australia. Russia and Kazhakistan have reduce their wheat exports... there is not enough for the world.

As a result, commodities futures traders are running up the cost of commodities.

It is not because of ethanol... no matter what the pundits tell you. There is plenty of info otherwise.

For your information, if you're interested:

Minneapolis wheat futures were trading at about $5.00 a bushel a year ago. Today, the March contract closed at $24 a bushel. Kazakhstan released news today that they would limit their wheat exports, which will funnel more demand to US wheat. That sent futures prices rocketing nearly 25 percent today. 2/25/08 http://commodities.about.com/

http://seekingalpha.com/article/4647...wheat-shortage

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archiv.../wheat1107.htm

**suki** · 02-26-2008, 07:38 PM

I think if it came to it, I'd probably use potato flour. I picked up some today to play with.

**known2him5** · 02-26-2008, 08:26 PM

I know for a fact that few farmers are growing wheat in my area. They've all switched to corn. . . for whatever reasons.

If they start rationing, I'll use acorn flour or cattail flour.

**many houseapes** · 02-26-2008, 08:51 PM

If we have to switch to mesquite flour, I believe that I'm pretty prepared for it. I have 3 antique grinders(still in great usable shape) and my parents, even though they live 70 miles away, have tons of mesquite trees on their property. With all of the houseapes, we'll be able to harvest mequite beans in no time.lol. If we're not able to go to my parents, there are always the parks around here that have the trees