Finally, after YEARS of trial and error failures, today I’ve made Thicket Beans palatable and not poisonous! I went whole hog, 24 hour soak with 2 changes of salty, alkaline water. Boiling in another change. Pressure cooking after. And then boiling AGAIN. Lastly stewing with some sauce as a faux baked beans. It’s pretty good! The process could certainly be optimized but now I know it IS at least doable.
#foraging #nativeplants @foraging@slrpnk.net #technicallynotforagingigrewthis
Congrats! May I ask why you wanted to do this. With the great varity of edible plant to forage, your ground to such a long quest must be interesting.
Well my particular interest is edible plants that are roughly native to my region, and it turns out there’s just not a huggee selection of beans in that category? There’s a couple Strophostyles species here that are tastier as faux green bean pods than they are as dried beans. There’s at least one native Lupinus whose edibility is even more questionable than the Thicket Bean, and likely requires weeks of brining. There’s Amphicarpaea bracteata, which is easily the tastiest AND simplest of the bunch, but culinarily they’re really more akin to peanuts than pintos. There’s Apios americana, which has DELICIOUS tubers, but it doesn’t really super want to produce beans even though it can. Finally, there’s Desmanthus illinoensis, which… actually that one’s very productive, easy to grow, AND easy to prepare? Honestly I should have just stuck with that one lol.
My hope for all the complicated ones is that, once a process is ironed out and simplified, it’ll get easier? We’ll see. Just trying to do my part to broaden the number of species humans subsist on really.
Interesting. It must habe be fun. Stay safe and enjoy!