Native Texas 'Ebomame' in Season

Photo by Arturo Longoria, "Woods Roamer".

During my morning walk, I looked around with a forager's eye and noticed a number of native plant foods ripe for the plucking. Among these were the green pods of Texas ebony (Ebenopsis ebano).

Once a staple food for Native and Hispanic South Texans, ebony beans have been largely forgotten. Few living have eaten the fresh beans, and even then, it's usually something people remember from their youth, something they ate at their grandparent's house.

How to Cook Ebony Beans

Texas ebony tree

I picked a pod this morning and tried the white beans inside. I found them a bit astringent (gave me a hairy-feeling tongue). But that may be because I ate the bean capsule, because they're better cooked, or because the beans are a bit immature.*

So I did some online research into how to prepare ebony beans. There isn't a lot out there. Most sources that even mention the edibility of ebony beans only say that they are edible fresh or can be roasted as a coffee substitute.

Woods Roamer blogger Arturo Longoria gives a good summary of how to select and cook the beans, which is to boil them in the shell, much like edamame (in this case, "ebomame"). "Steambeat," from here in Brownsville, Texas, posted a similar recipe on Grouprecipes.com.

Where Texas Ebony Trees Are Found

Native range of Texas ebony

The native range of Texas ebony is the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and Northeast Mexico.

However, it's been introduced into gardens throughout the U.S. Southwest and beyond. Superbly drought hardy, Texas ebony is excellent for xeriscaping and is fairly simple to propagate on the cheap.

For drought tolerance, beans and shade, Texas ebony is a great, native food forest tree for the South Texas permaculture garden.

#texasebony #wildfoods #foraging

---

* Update 10 May 2014 – This morning, I collected some more ebony pods and tried eating the beans without their white capsule. Sure enough, the beans are delicious, and all the astringency is in the capsule.