To me tannins have always had an astringent taste. do you have an article you can link that backs this up? would be very important to know if honey locust fruit pulp has dangerous tasteless tannins
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I am stating the FACT that many tannins are not detectable by taste. In fact, wine tannins are not really detectable by taste, only by texture.
I do not know what tannins are produced by honey locust trees.
Many tannins are not detectable by taste nor are they all astringent. Wine tannins are not detectable by taste. They are detected by the texture of the wine in your mouthā¦
I donāt know what tannins are in honey locust. Therefore I would not want to eat large quantities of honey locust pods. I do understand though that many people in the fruit world operate under the assumption that everything is safe unless it can be proven otherwise.
I donāt operate under the assumption everything is safe unless proven otherwise. plenty of evidence out there that it is edible. a quick google search will show reputable sources. here is the factsheet from The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stating the pods could be used as food. I canāt find anything on tannins making the pods toxic or dangerous. can you cite a source?
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So then in relation to honey locust, your cautions are theoretical until substantiated that it contains untastable tannins. Thanks for the caution and the clarification.
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This is an important point. I (and maybe others here) can easily agree with your point on technicality that we feel the tannins in our mouth. That is why I (and others?) say we can ātasteā them even if it may not be the correct thing to say. At the end of the day, we are detecting the presence of the tannins when we put it into our mouths.
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You can detect wine tannins in your mouth because wine is a liquid. Itās much more difficult to detect tannins in a solid substance that may have numerous different textures.
Hereās my original post -
āI donāt 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 treesā
I said the issue is whether they are safe to eat āin more than small amounts on an infrequent basis.ā That is still the issue. You have not resolved it and are somehow operating under the assumption that I am required to solve it for you.
Your link resolves nothing. Clearly people have eaten honey locust pods or seeds at times in the past. That is not the issue. Persimmons are widely considered to be edible but people have died from eating them. Kidney beans are widely considered to be edible yet people have died from eating them as well.
You have defaulted to the position that honey locust pods must be safe to eat unless I prove otherwise. Sorry, but thatās not my job. If I knew definitively how safe or unsafe honey locust pods were to eat, I would have mentioned that the first time I posted. Instead, I said that a safety issue exists. It still does.
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I have some experience with HL pods that were selected for sugar content, these were found during the tree crops push by the fruit and nut explorers of the early to mid 20th century. The dried pods had 1/4ā of sticky caramel goo that reminded me of tamarind paste. I gathered some at John Herseyās old plantings in Downington, if anyone wants some seeds I likely will have plenty extra
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Iām not trying to resolve anything with my link, nor refute your theory, only state that, there is reputable, easily searchable sources that say it is edible. my link in no way refutes your theory.
yes you did, and only you. I donāt dismiss it as it is quite serious, involving life and death, so Iām looking for verification from the only source I know, being you.
no, I have defaulted to the position that you have offered up a theory that I canāt find any corroborating evidence of, and you seem to be unable orā¦
unwilling to produce any evidence
none of us work here. this is something we do for fun. Iām sorry if you feel being pressed for information on the safety of an edible feels like a job, but you are the one who raised the concern to begin with and it should come as no surprise that people are looking for more information.
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Im definitley interested Jesse. Ive been looking for some of these for some time.
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Iād also be very interested in a few!
I assume these are not thornless trees, and thus very unlikely to have thornless seedlings? I need to think about where I would be OK with having that kind of dangerous tree in my yardā¦ Maybe at the corner of the lot next to my planned own-root che hedgeā¦
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Iād also like some literature on this one, as Iām not sure Iām familiar with active tannins that are undetectable. Tannins work by taste (or sensation, if we want to get technical). If a sensitive critter is eating a plant with tannins, the tannins need to be able to deter the sensitive critter. Then, when fruit is ripe, the tannins are converted into other forms so that the same sensitive critter *doesnāt* taste them, but rather gulps down the fruit *unharmed* and disperses the seed. So Iām not sure, from an evolutionary perspective, what the purpose of undetectable tannins is, as that would either lead to the accidental death of the plant or of the helpful critter propagating the plant, and thus would tend towards self-extinction.
If there are such critter-undetectable tannins, Iād also like to learn more about how to measure them. If theyāre something I can precipitate out with a few everyday chemicals (like other tannins with caffeine), thatād be really helpful info. Likewise, Iād be interested in any cooking or processing methods that can reliably neutralize such tannins in a water-soluble product like honey locust pod flesh where traditional leaching would wash just about everything away.
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John Hershey specialized in the thorness cultivars on his farm. they certainly could be thornless
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The 4-5 seed grown honey locust trees I have were supposed to have been started from some of the Hershey stock. At this point they are far from mature, but none of them appear to be developing any thorns.
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The mother trees I gathered from did not have thorns
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they growing near you?
In Downington PA
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just fyi, according to the edible acres website (who sells thornless honey locust), the thornless trees are able to develop thorns if the tree is injured or browser or heavily pruned.
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yes. always good to prune with care!