VII. Pictures

A machine made loaf of bread made with wheat flour and mesquite meal

The ingredients: Egg and water, salt, sugar, mesquite meal, yeast, oil and wheat flourGrinding the washed, dried, mesquite beans, seaved with home seave, keep in closed jar.
A slice of mesquite flavored bread




Typical harvest day






Feed-Flour equipment building

Hand tools / saw milled wood

Clock from Waste

V. Production and characterisation of Prosopis seed galactomannan

The title is from a dissertation submitted to the SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ZURICH for the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences, presented by Gaston Eduardo Cruz Alcedo, Ingeniero Industrial, Universidad de Piura, Peru.

Dr. Gaston Cruz did me the favor of sending me his thesis, for he knows of my interest in the industrialization of the mesquite tree.

The gum that the thesis speaks of, has to do with the gum from the seeds of the mesquite bean, this white powder is similar to the gums used by the food and pharmaceutical industries to thicken or hold together their respective formulations.

Dr. Cruz is also involved in the Development of the Mesquite industrialization in Peru. Much of the flour, or meal, that today is sold in the United States comes from Peru.

Although the United States has much more mesquites than either Peru or Argentina, it is those countries that have more industries based on mesquite than the US of A.

IV. HDRA The Prosopis juliflora - Prosopis pallida Complex: A Monograph

The above title by NM Pasiecznik of the organic organisation, Coventry UK 2001. Thanks the Department for International Development of the UK Government for funding the production of this and associated publications, through the Forestry Research Programme.

The foreword of the works indicate: "There is a long list of tree species that have, over the last 30 years or so, appeared to offer outstanding solutions to the land use problems of the tropical and the developing world......The genus Prosopis epitomises this dilemma. Not only does it include species which grow where virtually nothing else will, it also produces food and a high quality wood for fuel and many other purposes. On the other hand its very vigour and competitiveness makes it a formidable invader of other land use systems, such as grazing lands."

The conclussion of the works indicate: " We the authors, feel the objective should not be just to give the poorest in the world's semi-arid regions more firewood, but to create a large market of high value product that can lift them from the lowest strata of poverty. Prosopis has been the species of the political disenfranchised, who do not have the influence to request research and development funding for generic improvement, processing technology and marketing........"

Besides pages of references, photos and word of caution and promotion of the mesquite, this work by Pasiecznik is a most for he who is interested in the Mesquite connection.

III. A Workshop in 1996 at Washington, D.C.

I have said and will repeat it here, that all Presidents of Mexico, as they seat on their desk for the first time and see the "magic" book, know that Agroindustrial Development, today forcibly mixed with Industrial Electronic Development, is a must for the country. Finding "engineers doers", I call them Executors that can live in the townships where the factories are needed, day in and day out for years, is another matter.

Imagine the same for Africa with many Agroindustrial Development projects possible, imagine the same for South Texas with the Mesquite were thousands of jobs could be directly and indirectly created, all, Mexico, Africa, South Texas in dire need of EXECUTORS.

Back to the subject at hand, in 1996 and as head of the Texas A & M - Kingsville, Center for Semi-Arid Forest Resources, Peter Felker and James Moss, as hosts put together this conference on Prosopis: Semiarid Fuelwood and Forage Tree Building Consensus for the Disenfranchised, the 13-16 of March of 1996, in Washingto DC.

Will imagine you have enough references to find the Memoirs of said Workshop, but I will give you here what I consider the most important citations to entice you to look at the mesquite as your next investment:

Quote from said memoirs:

"It is useful to cite illustrative economic data:

• In the Chaco Province of northwestern Argentina, 140,000 tons / year of Prosopis logs are harvested for furniture and flooring.
• In the state of Texas, 15,000 tons of Prosopis chips and chunks are processed yearly for sale in retail stores across the United States. Also, in the United States, a small but fast growing Prosopis lumber, flooring, and furniture market has developed.
• In Peru, 180,000 tons of Prosopis pods are used annually for livestock feed.
• In Mexico in 1970, 40,000 tons of Prosopis pods of Prosopis pods were used annually for livestock feed.
• In Gujarat state of India, 300,000 30 kg bags of Prosopis charcoal are produced each year for sale in large cities.
• In Haiti in 1991, the total value of the charcoal industry (principally resulting from Prosopis) was $50 million, and the charcoal industry supported 150,0000 people.
• In the Sahel, about 16 million cubic meters of firewood are required per year. Senegal imports 50,000 cubic meters of wood each year from neighboring countries. Prosopis is a major provider of firewood for Senegal."

II. Mesquite's proper name

The proper name of the mesquite tree is Prosopis, the surname here in Texas is glandulosa, var glandulosa ergo our mesquite is Prosopis glandulosa glandulosa. This is the mesquite that is reported to have an extension of 65 million acres and that the Texas A & M at Kingsville took to Sudan, Africa to stop the desert. This last fact is personal communication from Dr. Peter Felker at that time head of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at the Texas A&M University at Kingsville and one of the most publisized, living persons, on mesquite.
If we were in Peru we would be dealing with Prosopis laevigata var andicola and if we were in Afghanistan we would be looking at Prosopis cineraria or Prosopis farcta var farcta or var glabra, but if we were in Argentina we could be dealing with Prosopis caldenia.
The fact is that from Sudan to Argentina it is possible to see, enjoy and use, a mesquite tree.
Pay attention Sudanese, you are plucking away with aims to destroy a very important potential industry, "tame the tree don't kill it", blog on.

I. The Magnificent Mesquite

This is the tittle of the book by Ken E. Rogers, published in 2000 by the University Texas press at Austin.
From it Ken says about the mesquite tree: " Over the past several centuries, probably no one plant has played a greater and more vital role in the lives of humankind in the southwestern United States than the short, crooked mesquite."
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With this blog, I will keep, you the reader, informed as to who is doing what with mesquite today, I will try and reference the heck out of these writings so as to add value to what will be here written with the idea, that whatever your reason is, for researching mesquite, you can have solid information for your "next step".

If investing and leadering a project from the financial and marketing end, having mesquite as the base, is your thing, I am your EXECUTOR.

Take a look at my web http://www.allmesquite.com/ and take a look at me at http://www.peocom.com/gala .

Saludos salud suerte

George Bain