I posted the pod from this tree before on our temp site. Dad picked it at a roadside park and wanted to know if he could eat it. Some of thought it may be the product of the Kentucky coffee tree. I made it out there today and got pictures. And a bag full of pods.
Been years since I seen any Coffee Tree,its another legume,distant cousin to Honey Locust,Black Locust,Mesquite etc. Bark does look more like Honey Locust though.The compound leaves I couldn't tell the difference right now.
Just looked at a couple of my old field guides & DNR booklets.That's definitely Coffee Tree with its shorter fatter pods.
Yep, definitely coffeetree. And some good firewood at that. It's in the locust family, not as good as honey or black locust, but it's up there in the mix. I missed out last year on THREE monster coffee trees here in my area, couldn't get to the job as quickly as the lady wanted them gone. Man I was bummed about that, as coffee trees are pretty rare in our area (these were planted years and years ago by the previous homeowner at her house). Probably 3 or 4 cord worth...... Jack, is this a tree that you are getting the firewood from? if so, you have the score of the week here!!
Native to parts of the Midwest & further east.But its rare & scattered,not widespread or found in pure stands at any location.Back in mid 80's I seen a couple smaller boards of it at a small retail hardwood store in Anita,IA.They had the usual commercial domestic hardwoods,plus some locally sawed stuff such as Silver Maple,Honey Locust,Mulberry & Eastern Red Cedar. Back in mid 90's they moved to west side of town,near Highway 148 I believe. I was in there one Saturday morning & they had almost 60 board feet of some of the nicest 2 1/4" rough sawn air-dried Butternut I'd ever seen.Nothing over 7" wide,but lengths from 7 to almost 9 feet! I'd been working a bunch of overtime recently,so I bought the whole stack! Around $240 or so.Still have 3/4ths of it,if same amount & quality was still easy to find today it'd cost 3 times as much! Sadly Butternut Canker has really taken a toll the past 25-30 yrs.Some states have lost 90% of their population. Edit - just checked & according to yellow pages internet - they're still in business,I hadn't been there in probably 13-14 years! Looks like a road trip is in my future - its about 95 miles to my southwest,as I'm sitting here.
Nope, not going to cut it. It's in a Minnesota roadside park that we go past on a semi regular basis. Roasting the beans for coffee ATM.
they claimed the old-timers would use it as a substitute for coffee, in rural areas waaaaay back when you didn't just jump in the wagon and go to the local grocery store for coffee..... yes, I'm with PD....I want a complete analysis on the taste......once you get 'em roasting, you should be able to have a "sense" of how they will taste from the smell in the kitchen!
Right now they have a squash like aroma, only 1/3 the way through roasting. I will brew a pot with just them and then another 50/50 with French roast, the way we people seem to typically take it.
Pioneers also roasted chicory as a coffee bean substitute when the real thing was hard to get/too expensive.I've seen it in various health food & specialty shops,no idea how it tastes.Heard its quite bitter though.
Tastes like dandelion root according to Dad. He roasts the dandelion roots and does a 50/50 mix with his coffee.
I have a shopping bag full of shagbark......I think I may roast it later today and make a bottle of shagbark syrup. I just hope it doesn't turn out as good as my maple syrup, cause I'll be stripping all the local shagbarks bare if it does!!
You need to start a detailed thread on the process because you know I will be doing the same thing after finding all those shagbarks by the in-laws.
I will.....Thistle has a thread in the Smokehouse room where he made some...... I have several threads to start AND update today....been too busy to do it. I'll plug around here later.....til then, you cats all behave......
Dad's 84th bday today,gonna stop by load them up & go south to Madison County,check out the leaves.Not that I didn't do that enough yesterday, but spent more time gathering shagbark nuts than looking or cutting.Did drop a 14" Shagbark snag mid-morning though.Some of that will go to my cousin & 1 remaining Uncle for their smokers...I have more than I need for a long while. If I get lucky may find some of those huge Shellbark nuts,there used to be a bunch of those trees there in a local park or something....
Go them roasted, after a while they started popping like corn. Not sure I was expecting that. Letting them cool.
