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First ever Thicket Bean (Phaseolus polystachios) harvest (infosec.pub)

submitted 2 years ago by MxRemy@lemmy.one to c/foraging@lemm.ee

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Sorry this isn't actually foraging per se, but the only kind of people who'd grow these are probably foragers anyway. I've been growing them for a couple years, but this is the first year I had enough to bother trying to eat them! From two plants we got about 1/2 a cup.

So my question is, does anyone have any tips for actually eating these things?? We tried soaking them for 24 hours and boiling them for 2 hours, and they were still inedibly bitter! I'm thinking maybe brining them, an alkaline soak, splitting them all in half, and/or swapping out the cooking water a few times. At least one of those ought to work hopefully. It'll have to wait till next year though, we wasted these ones lol.

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[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It might be one of those "soak with 3 changes of water, and boil with 3 changes" situations to leach out whatever is making them bitter. "Bitter" in plants is often caused by alkaloids, and usually you don't usually want to eat them (unless they are one of the fun alkaloids). I'm sure you've googled around for it, but from this link, it sounds like other people are saying the same thing. https://permies.com/t/179300/Phaseolus-polystachios-thicket-bean-wild

[–] MxRemy@lemmy.one 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks! That's what I was thinking too, if it works next year I'll post a follow-up for everybody. Worst case scenario maybe the Lupini Bean treatment would do the trick, right?

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Yeah, I think treating them like lupini is probably a good bet. Native people knew how to soak acorns to make them edible, I could see them using a similar process for beans.