I have, for a long time, known that the Seed Pods of the Honey Locust Tree were considered a Wild Edible. But I have never really spent much time learning that much about it.
Honey Locust Trees are easy to identify because the trunk and the branches are covered in very intimidating thorns. Some of the thorns can be 3" in length. I remember, there was a school on LI that I did programs for once in a while that had a very scary Honey Locust Tree in the middle of the circle in the parking lot. I remember thinking how surprising it was that the school allowed the tree to be there because it looked so dangerous. I could picture a kid falling into or being thrown into the Tree and getting seriously hurt by the hundreds of long thorns protruding from the trunk. I was the thorniest tree I have seen even till this day. There are also "thorn less" varieties which might throw you off a bit, like they did to me. For many years I thought I had Acacia trees on my property because there were very few thorns on the trunk and branches. The trees were young so they didn't produce any seed pods to help in the identification.
Well, that all changed this year. Both the trees produced seeds, and I knew for sure I had Honey Locust trees. The seed pods are unmistakable. They are long, some 14", often twisted and turn brown when they are ripe. Unfortunately, buy the time the Pods are ripe the tree has lost it's Pinnately Compound Leaves so unless you have been paying attention to the tree all summer, the leaves won't help you at this point.
I know that there is a sweet gel inside the ripe Seed Pods but have I have only tasted it a few times in the past when out on plant walks, just to show people it exists.
In cross section, one edge of the seed pods is very thin and the other edge is thicker and squishier. It is in the thicker edge that there is a sweet gel that can be used as a sweetener.
It is not an easy task to open the long pods in one piece and I learned on the internet that some people soak their pods over night to help them open more easily. I took the pods and place them in a large pot and covered them with boiling water. Because they float, I placed another pot filled with water on top of them to hold them under water. The next day I experimented in ways to get the Gel out as it still was not that easy to split the pods in one piece. I settled on cutting the pods long ways just below the thick edges and just squeezed the gel out like a tube of toothpaste.
I got about 2oz. of gel from all the pods worth processing. The gel is very sweet with a unique flavor. I made some Buckwheat/Spelt flour Muffins and used the gel to sweeten them and they came out delicious!
The pods themselves are also edible but are very leathery and impossible to just eat as they are. Using a scissor, I cut the pods up into smaller pieces, put them on a tray, and place them in the toaster oven on 200deg. to dry them out till they were crispy.
Once they were dry, I put them in a blender to powder them but the blender only took them so far and they were too chunky and fibrous.
So I put them in a coffee grinder and they came out very fine with some fibers and small chunks so I sifted them through a fine strainer and got a really fine powder. The powder is very sweet and can be used as sugar substitute. I put some in my oatmeal to test it out and it passed the test. Like I said, it has a unique flavor, so test it out before you put it in something important.
The fiber and unground debris that didn't go through the strainer, I added to a cup and poured some boiling water over it and made a "Tea" which was sweet and flavorful.
I was very pleased with the results of this new Ethnobotanical Pursuit and will start collecting Honey Locust Seed Pods whenever I find them.
Peace
