foraging equipment
Foraging Equipment for Mesquite Beans
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Electric 'Giraffe' Mill for Mesquite Beans
Put three cups into the bowl of the mill. Secure the lid on with the two screws. Put your ear plugs on. (These are the best ear plugs I have ever found.) Turn the On button to the right and grind for 20 seconds. Then put the resulting ground up pods into a sifter or sieve to separate the powder from the larger pieces.
You can also use a Vitamix or coffee grinder to grind the mesquite pods. But it does not yield the high amount of flour that this machine does. I like the stainless steel construction. The rotations per minute are higher than the Vitamix and does not have the plastic sides getting scratched and putting microplastic into my flour.
These sifters have a mesh size of 30 which is perfect for making mesquite flour. You can hit the side of the sifter with your hand to let only the finest powder through. I prefer to get more flour and I find that the larger pieces are the right consistency for baking. So I use a silicon brush to push the powder through. This is the widest and most efficient silicon brush I have found. I don't recommend using the horsehair brush that comes with some mills. I once used one to push the flour through a sifter and then noticed there were little hairs throughout the flour and I had to throw it out!
My hand got sore stirring the flour through a sifter so I bought this Electric Sifter and I love it. I save four batches of ground mesquite pods in a bowl and then pour it into the #30 mesh sifter after attaching it to the machine. Then I secure the lid by pulling three tight springs around it. I turn on the machine with the knob on the electric cord. It is a quiet machine. I let the mesquite sift and come through a chute to a bowl I place under it.
Next I pour the stuff left in the sifter into a bowl. I then add 3-4 cups at a time to the 'Giraffe' Mill and turn it on for another 20 seconds. I put that into a bowl until all 4 batches are done. Then I put it back into the 'Giraffe' Mill and another 20% or more powder comes out. This method results in my beans yielding 64% flour, 32% mash which is the dry, inedible pieces, and 3% dust. This means every pound of beans I pick yields 2/3 pound of flour. (I wait a minute before lifting off the mill's lid after milling so the dust has time to settle.)
I have attended community hammermill mesquite millings twice. There I received 32% of the weight of my beans as flour. Half of what I receive at home with this machine. I decided I wanted 6.4 pounds of flour from my ten pounds of beans I worked so hard to get instead of 3.2 pounds. 2/3 yield instead of 1/3.
I also have a mortar and pestle and ask some of the workshop attendees to try grinding the pods with it. They then become very thankful for electricity and these machines. And very admiring of the Native American women who processed this by hand for generations.
Put three cups into the bowl of the mill. Secure the lid on with the two screws. Put your ear plugs on. (These are the best ear plugs I have ever found.) Turn the On button to the right and grind for 20 seconds. Then put the resulting ground up pods into a sifter or sieve to separate the powder from the larger pieces.
You can also use a Vitamix or coffee grinder to grind the mesquite pods. But it does not yield the high amount of flour that this machine does. I like the stainless steel construction. The rotations per minute are higher than the Vitamix and does not have the plastic sides getting scratched and putting microplastic into my flour.
These sifters have a mesh size of 30 which is perfect for making mesquite flour. You can hit the side of the sifter with your hand to let only the finest powder through. I prefer to get more flour and I find that the larger pieces are the right consistency for baking. So I use a silicon brush to push the powder through. This is the widest and most efficient silicon brush I have found. I don't recommend using the horsehair brush that comes with some mills. I once used one to push the flour through a sifter and then noticed there were little hairs throughout the flour and I had to throw it out!
My hand got sore stirring the flour through a sifter so I bought this Electric Sifter and I love it. I save four batches of ground mesquite pods in a bowl and then pour it into the #30 mesh sifter after attaching it to the machine. Then I secure the lid by pulling three tight springs around it. I turn on the machine with the knob on the electric cord. It is a quiet machine. I let the mesquite sift and come through a chute to a bowl I place under it.
Next I pour the stuff left in the sifter into a bowl. I then add 3-4 cups at a time to the 'Giraffe' Mill and turn it on for another 20 seconds. I put that into a bowl until all 4 batches are done. Then I put it back into the 'Giraffe' Mill and another 20% or more powder comes out. This method results in my beans yielding 64% flour, 32% mash which is the dry, inedible pieces, and 3% dust. This means every pound of beans I pick yields 2/3 pound of flour. (I wait a minute before lifting off the mill's lid after milling so the dust has time to settle.)
I have attended community hammermill mesquite millings twice. There I received 32% of the weight of my beans as flour. Half of what I receive at home with this machine. I decided I wanted 6.4 pounds of flour from my ten pounds of beans I worked so hard to get instead of 3.2 pounds. 2/3 yield instead of 1/3.
I also have a mortar and pestle and ask some of the workshop attendees to try grinding the pods with it. They then become very thankful for electricity and these machines. And very admiring of the Native American women who processed this by hand for generations.
