Thursday, March 15
Boondock in San Pedro Valley, Benson, Arizona
While you may be eager for snow to melt or perhaps for your tulips to bloom, depending upon where you are on this beautiful planet, I’m looking forward to the leafing of the mesquite.
These black sticks are mesquite trees.
At this time of year the bare, very black branches of the mesquite look dead. I researched and found advice to owners of property with mesquite: “Wait until May to declare your tree dead.”
May?
I want them to leaf out now.
Did you know there are three types of mesquite?
I learned that at the DesertUSA website.
Here’s an interesting excerpt:
“In the frontier days . . . mesquites were used by the Indians and the settlers as a source of many remedies for a host of ailments. Indians and settlers believed tea made from the mesquite root or bark cured diarrhea. Boiled mesquite roots yielded a soothing balm that cured colic and healed flesh wounds. Mesquite leaves, crushed and mixed with water and urine, cured headaches. Mesquite gum preparations soothed ailing eyes, eased a sore throat, cleared up dysentery and relieved headaches.
“(Note: Medical studies of mesquite and other desert foods say that despite its sweetness, mesquite flour (made by grinding whole pods) ‘is extremely effective in controlling blood sugar levels’ in people with diabetes. The sweetness comes from fructose, which the body can process without insulin. In addition, soluble fibers, such as galactomannin gum, in the seeds and pods slow absorption of nutrients, resulting in a flattened blood sugar curve, unlike the peaks that follow consumption of wheat flour, corn meal and other common staples.”
To read more about the marvelous mesquite, use the link to DesertUSA (above).
Remember Arivaca?
That’s the tiny town with an artsy vibe located next to Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. I bought groceries at Arivaca Mercantile while boondocked in that part of southern Arizona, southwest of Tucson. By mistake I purchased a bag of coffee beans, not my usual ground coffee.
Funny how I’m led to do things I never would do otherwise.
Hey, I have the beans. Why not buy a grinder?
I intend to pick up a cheap, manually operated grinder. Wal-Mart doesn’t have one. Not having the patience to search elsewhere, I buy an electric one instead.
(You can see the same model at Amazon: Hamilton Beach Coffee Grinder.)
Anyway . . .
My 200-watt solar panel provides all the power I need for the Best Little Trailer. When I wake up at daybreak the morning of The Great Grinder Test, the house battery reads 12.4 volts.
I grab the keys to the Perfect Tow Vehicle, dash outside, start ‘er up, and, when I come back inside, I see the volts are up around 13.9.
Gotta’ love it!
I pour the precious beans (Arivaca Blend, from a popular cafe there) into the grinder reservoir, put on the cap, hit the “on” button, and count to ten.
Mmrrrrrr! (happy grinding sound)
The volts drop to about 12.4 (I forget exactly, forgive me, I hadn’t any coffee yet.) and the beans are ground perfectly.
I make a pot with my french press.
Ahhh. . . robust coffee, how I like it. Good morning, world!
View out our door, looking west (photo taken at sunrise)
That wraps up today’s post!
“What? No photos of the crew? No cute hiney shots? You can’t stop now, RVSue!”
“Okay, okay!” Sheesh. “Let me see what I can find . . . . Here ya’ go. . . . ”
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“Now may I wrap up this post?”
Every day, while you might be looking for the bulbs you planted last fall to peek a sprout out of the ground, I’m looking for the first leaves of the mesquite trees.
Call me superstitious but yesterday, at Wal-Mart, I buy a jar of mesquite honey. Doing my part to encourage the mesquite to leaf out!
rvsue
NOTE: Raw Organic Mesquite Powder
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