Cappadona Ranch Mesquite Bean Harvest Oatmeal Cookies

Growing up, most everyone gave mesquite trees the stink-eye right before ruthlessly uprooting them to replace the “trash trees” for something more aesthetically pleasing. But with time and experience, mesquite trees have since been embraced as our “Texas trees of life” for all the gifts we’ve now learned they offer. They’re no longer just eyesore shade trees, but rather a natural superfood. And in a life chocked full with unrelenting South Texas weather challenges, mesquite trees have become a symbol of resilience. 

It’s a true Texan native right down to its core. And we see the proof of it everywhere we look. It’s not uncommon to find trunks hunched over almost fifty degrees only to still see their branches still reaching for the sky. Mesquites never give up when it comes to surviving record breaking heat indexes, lightening, howling hurricanes and brush fires. As kids, we never climbed our native mesquites, we sought shelter from the heat under their devilishly twisted umbrellas. Farmers often used them as property boundaries, but now we use our mesquites for healthy nourishment by turning those super powered mesquite beans into delicious Cappadona Ranch Mesquite Bean Flour,Cappadona Ranch Mesquite Bean Jelly, Cappadona Ranch Mesquite Bean Coffee and so much more!

But friends, we need to confess that these rising temperatures that have worsened our weather challenges to extremes we’ve never faced before. Which is why this harvest has been an all-hands-on deck operation - we’ve even got the dogs working a few a shifts, kidding - to try and get ahead of hurricane season for fear of it washing everything our family and staff have worked so hard to maintain all these years. 

Back in 2020, a mere Category 1 hurricane ended up rocking the Texas Gulf Coast and the Rio Grande Valley with severely high 90 per mile winds with fifteen inches of rainfall. Damages were widespread, even more so than some storms in the past. In our particular neck of the woods, all of that rain saturated mesquite beans throughout the region, producing mold in some of our beans. On top of that, winds blew some of them away during a time they were still growing. Albeit to say 2020 proved challenging from all fronts for us from the pandemic to the economic challenges to the storm that washed away our that year's harvest in a blink of an eye, leaving a lasting impact that just like our resilient mesquite trees, we survived! We atCappadona Ranch are committed to providing you our Texas grown superfood we’ve all come to love and appreciate all the more!

Due to the recent influx of scattered storms, we are hustling to harvest before we get hit with the hurricane season. Therefore, it gives us great pleasure to showcase our dear friend Artemio Villarreal's personal oatmeal cookie recipe. As part of our Cappadona Ranch Mesquite Bean community, we invite you to share the favorite ways you use our Cappadona Ranch Mesquite Bean products in your own kitchen. We’re exciting to hear you’re all up to!    . 
 

Oatmeal Cookies by Artemio R. Villarreal

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup white flour

½ cup Cappadonna Ranch Mesquite Bean Flour
 

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups quick cooking oatmeal

½ cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)1/2 cup sweat coconut flour

¾ cup chopped white raisins

¾ cup chopped cranberries

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Mix the shortening and sugars, add vanilla and eggs. Beat well.  Add sifted dry ingredients, mix well.  Shape into balls and chill.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until cooked.