# Anyone use honey locust seed pods?



## BigDaveK (Jun 22, 2022)

I have honey locust trees that are downright dangerous. It has thorns...and the thorns have thorns...and some of those thorns have thorns. The ribbony seed pods were used by farmers years ago as cattle feed. I read they had 35% sugar so last year I ate some - and they're delicious! Darn things DO taste like honey!
Anyone have experience with the pods?


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## winemaker81 (Jun 22, 2022)

BigDaveK said:


> Anyone have experience with the pods?


I never heard of them.

How much blood do you lose picking the pods?


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## BigDaveK (Jun 22, 2022)

winemaker81 said:


> I never heard of them.
> 
> How much blood do you lose picking the pods?


Fortunately they fall when ripe.
I'll have to revisit this idea later in the year.

However...
Those thorns are like petrified wood. Go into a tractor tire SO easily.
It's also great firewood. Had one fall in a storm 2 years ago and I was cursing every 10 seconds while I worked on it. Wasn't about to miss out on free firewood, though.


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## VinesnBines (Jun 22, 2022)

We have black locust, not so many thorns - very few in fact. The absolute best firewood especially when standing dead. It makes the best fence posts. I wish I could have used for trellis posts but I didn’t have time to cut and find someone to mill.


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## BigDaveK (Jun 22, 2022)

VinesnBines said:


> We have black locust, not so many thorns - very few in fact. The absolute best firewood especially when standing dead. It makes the best fence posts. I wish I could have used for trellis posts but I didn’t have time to cut and find someone to mill.


Black locust has smaller seed pods and I'm not sure it's edible. And you're right - honey and black locusts are wonderful wood!


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## Snafflebit (Jun 23, 2022)

I will have to try a honey locust pod again. I do not recall it being delicious. Maybe I need to shimmy up the tree and get a ripe one from the top!


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## BigDaveK (Jun 23, 2022)

Snafflebit said:


> I will have to try a honey locust pod again. I do not recall it being delicious. Maybe I need to shimmy up the tree and get a ripe one from the top!


I can't even imagine trying to climb that thing. What the heck is it protecting itself from!?

My seed pods are about a foot long, brown, ribbony. Black locust are similar but smaller. I tasted before they dried out.


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## Snafflebit (Jun 23, 2022)

BigDaveK said:


> I can't even imagine trying to climb that thing. What the heck is it protecting itself from!?


That is an interesting question. 

The current theory is that the Honey Locust tree developed a thorny trunk to discourage wooly mammoths and/or giant sloths eating the unripe pods. I am trying to imagine a wooly mammoth marching through the woods.  The large green fruits of the Osage Orange tree is another curiosity. It has been assumed that this too was eaten by wooly mammoths and seeds dispersed. I recall that both the pods and fruit have been offered to Asian elephants as an experiment and the elephants found the pods tasty, the hedgeapples sort of edible. Maybe you would need to be very hungry to eat these things.


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