I know thornless honeylocust is often used for Silvopasture or the pods ground for animal feed. Just wondering if any of the named cultivars of thornless Honey locust produce seed pod flesh sweet enough for human consumption, and if so, if any named cultivar is better than any others. so far I’ve found the major named cultivars appear to be Ashworth, Calhoun, Hershey, and Millwood, but if there are others let me know. not planting a honeylocust anytime soon, just curious.
I did see that thread before I posted (always search before I post!). that thread kind of grazes the question I’m asking. that post in the thread mostly revolves around Kentucky Coffee Tree (KCT), Gymnocladus dioicus, and not the honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos. I’m not really interested in the uses of the seeds as flour and more specifically it states that it could be made into flour “in theory”. I’m looking for individuals with experience consuming the flesh of the seed pods and more specifically, notes on the cultivars and their individual palatability. some youtube videos out there of people eating the pulp and others processing it into a sugar substitute, but no notes on cultivars.
I’ve tried pulp from a few seed grown trees here and there. Those were nothing to write home about, and some were unpleasant/bitter. But some of the cultivars selected for their pods do sound worthwhile.
i tried honey locust for the first time a few days ago.
i found some seed pods under a honey locust tree in the local park, took them home, removed the beans from the pods, roasted them in a pan, ground them in a coffee grinder, then put them in a coffee filter and poured hot water over them.
so good!
it made a coffee like drink, without the caffeine, of course, but similar color and it was delicious.
i’m not sure how to describe the taste, it was hearty, and nutty, and just a hint of sweet, maybe chickory like?
it was so good that i ate the “coffee grounds” afterwards, and find myself wanting to go back to the park and collect more, if i can find any.
i will definitely be planting honey locust in my yard next year, i saved the best looking seeds for planting.
in Tree Crops a Permanent Agriculture there is a whole section of the book devoted to honey locusts, but mostly for farm animal consumption. several commentor’s mentions that improved cultivars are borderline sweet enough to use in human food. ill definitely plant some of these for trial here. nice thing about locusts is they give very little shade so many bush fruits can grow under them. a nearby town planted alot of them on both sides of main street about 20 years ago. i think they are podless ones as ive never seen pods on them. how old does the trees need to be before they grow pods?
I don’t think the major issue is whether some pods taste sweet because many do. The big issue is whether the pods contain too many tannins to be safely eaten in more than small amounts on an infrequent basis. That is a scientific/medical issue, and not always a taste issue. In my experience, most people who experiment with eating the pods use pods from seedling trees.
the cultivated ones they mention in the book also have lower tannins. too bad they didnt continue to improve on them as we would have a great high protein sugar substitute. the native peoples used them for this as well as medicinally.
the ones i had, there were no tannins, that i could detect, i could have easily had a lot more.
it was a mature tree.
as far as i understand, tannins may be present in under-ripe pods:
“The pods begin falling to the ground in fall when they fully ripen. Pods that have not fully ripened will have an astringent taste, so look for freshly fallen pods or ones that loosen easily when plucked from the tree.”
this time of year, the pods are fully ripe, and many have fallen off the tree.
the pods are mostly dried out, so there’s not much “honey” from the honey locust pods, which is what’s often sought after, but the seeds are still great.
it takes some time and effort to remove the seeds from the pods, it was maybe 15 minutes to get enough seeds together for what looked like a cup’s worth of coffee-like drink, but worth it, imho.
I had a 35 foot honey locust in my yard. It dropped hundreds of pods. It was terrible to clean up. Having the small leaves all over was a pain too. Too small to properly rake. Although they were fine fertilizer for the lawn.
I have so much work in the fall I finally cut it down. The firewood is some of the best wood I ever burned. I have a few rounds left. So hard to split as the wood is dense. BTU’s per cord is greater than oak. Excellent firewood. My second fall without the tree and loving it!
I heard it mentioned it was not much of a shade tree. I would have to disagree. The added sun to my garden has been fantastic. Once big they shade things just fine The tree was here when this house was built in 1969. So the tree was well over 50 years old. Hundreds of them all over the suburbs here in Sterling Heights. Most have no pods. Mine did else it would still be here.
The pods smell like Elmers glue, I hated it. Gross as far as I was concerned.
You often cannot taste tannins. That’s why people have been hospitalized for eating too many ripe persimmons.
Tannin content differs in every single tree. Some have highly tannic pods even when the pods are completely ripe.
honey locust tannins aren’t the same tannins that persimmon has.
and, high heat, like roasting, destroys tannins.
and, i can’t find anything after searching online, saying that too much honey locust is dangerous to eat.
mostly, i trust my own experience - the beans tasted great, they seemed filling and nutrient dense, and not the slightest ill effect. i won’t hesitate to have them again when i can find more.
You are talking the beans but I believe they were talking about the sugary “flesh” in the ripe pods that surrounds the seeds. That is what starts astringent and what @castanea was theorizing might contain unsafe levels of tannins for eating in large quantities even in pods that lose the astringent taste.
In my very limited experience as a 12 year old living in a swamp in north FL, I never had any ill effect eating the flesh of a handful of pods in a sitting. These were wild trees that were very dangerous to lean against if you didn’t notice what they were. So many thorns! But the pods tasted good when they fell. My dad taught me they were edible and I regularly snacked on them.
I have always considered tannins to be easy to detect by taste. Sometimes I crave them when I’ve not had enough for a while. Granted there are multiple variations of tannin; I’d be curious to know what tannin type(s) in honey locust avoid detection by the human tongue.
yes, that’s true, i’d mentioned my experience with the beans, i haven’t tried the pods yet.
as i understand it, tannins are a defense mechanism by plants, to discourage animals from eating the unripe fruit, before the seeds have had a chance to develop to viability.
when the astringency goes away, the tannin level drops, also.
Many tannins are not detectable by taste and others will give you only a slight clue when the tannin levels are high. Whether they are detectable by taste depends on what substances surround them. Sugar can often overwhelm the taste of tannins which is why people can eat persimmons with high tannin content and not notice it.
But are you aware of the presense of tannin types (specific to honey locust) that would not be detectable by taste or are you only stating a theoretical possibility?