Ice Cream Bean, Thunderstorm and Brassia

What is an ice cream bean, you ask? Well, it’s proper name is Inga spectabilis. Here in Costa Rica, it is also know as guaba and pacay.

I first discovered this bean when I saw neighbours knocking down long brown beans from the tree in the vacant lot next to us and then carrying them home. So I went and picked some and identified them. Then I opened the pod and ate the yummy white fluffy stuff that surrounds the beans in the pod. It does taste somewhat like ice cream, a bit sweet.

They are in season now and I bought one at the grocery last week. It is a lot bigger then the vacant lot tree beans and the shell is a whole lot harder to open.

I tried cutting through the shell with a knife but it was hard going. The edges of the bean are iron hard so I couldn’t slice each piece open sideways.

I finally resorted to peeling off some of the outside skin and then smashing each piece with a hammer and then they started to split open. Here is what a guaba looks like inside. You pull out one of the fluffy white covered seeds, eat the fluff and spit out the seed. They tasted good.

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Such a strange looking legume. Here is some more information on guaba.

We had a very strong electrical storm last week. I made a video of it.

I have an orchid blooming right now - a Brassia. Here’s some information on this species from the American Orchid Society.

And finally, quite often when I buy a pineapple I plant the tops alongside our laneway. We are now being rewarded with two new young pineapples that will soon be reading for picking.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Philip Marlowe, Ginger Beer and an Ice Cream Bean Tree

I was recently listening to one of the old time “The Adventures of Philip Marlowe” radio shows. This particular episode is titled “A Young Man’s Fancy”. Here is a link for all kinds of old radio shows, including Philip Marlowe.

 It was a hot day in Los Angeles and Marlowe decided he needed to buy ginger beer to make Moscow Mules - a cool drink to have on a very warm day. The ginger beer intrigued me, as did a Moscow Mule.

So I did some sleuthing (like Marlowe) and found an article in the Tico Times on how to make ginger beer here in Costa Rica. I also found out what a Moscow Mule is. Making the ginger beer is easy with just a few items - fresh ginger, water and tapa de dulce which is readily available here in any store and is quite inexpensive.

Here is the tapa de dulce melting in hot water. The syrup is used in making the wild yeast garden and also the finished beer.

Below on the left is the wild yeast garden. It is covered with a cloth to keep bugs out and let air in. Every other day, I added a bit of tapa de dulce and grated ginger. In two to six days in tropical weather, wild yeast begins to grow and the culture is active and can be used to brew the ginger beer. You can read the directions in the Tico Times link mentioned above. On the right is the mixture fermenting. In about two to three days it can be used. The cap has to be opened once a day to release any pressure. The longer it sits, the more alcohol levels will build up. Both containers are kept in a darkened cupboard. Once the ginger beer is ready, it goes into the refrigerator. Aside from Moscow Mules, it makes a nice drink by itself over ice.

The finished product is really good and my Moscow Mules are quite tasty.

Now - the ice cream bean tree that I mentioned. There’s a large tree in the vacant lot next to us and I had noticed that it had dropped a lot of large seed pods that I erroneously thought were tamarind. Yesterday some people were picking the pods from the tree so I wondered what that tree was. I got a pod and slit it opened.

It looked like this inside - olive colored seeds covered with what sort of looked like cotton candy. The pod itself is about five inches long.

I had never seen this before. In Costa Rica, you don’t taste, eat or sometimes touch anything until you know exactly what it is. So I put the picture up on my Costa Rican Facebook gardening site and before long my expert gardening friends had the answer. It is from the ice cream bean tree or more properly inga edulis. In Costa Rica, it is known as the guabo. The white cotton candy substance can indeed be eaten and it tastes really good - kind of like vanilla and cream. The beans can be cooked and apparently taste like garbanzos. So now I know why people were picking the pods. I’ll have to go and get more myself.