{"id":487,"date":"2026-07-22T13:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/?p=487"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:47:26","slug":"the-carob-tree-ceratonia-siliqua-produces-a-nearly-perfect-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knifevoyager.com\/?p=487","title":{"rendered":"THE CAROB TREE (Ceratonia siliqua) PRODUCES A NEARLY PERFECT FOOD \u2014"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE CAROB TREE (Ceratonia siliqua) PRODUCES A NEARLY PERFECT FOOD<\/b><\/p>\n

BUT OUR CITIES ARE CUTTING THEM DOWN<\/b><\/p>\n

Christopher Nyerges<\/i><\/b>\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

[Nyerges has been teaching ethno-botany since 1974.\u00a0 He is the author of \u201cGuide to Wild Foods,\u201d \u201cForaging Edible Wild Plants of North America,\u201d \u201cHow to Survive Anywhere,\u201d and other books.\u00a0 He can be reached at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com<\/a>.]<\/i><\/p>\n

What is \u201ccarob?\u201d\u00a0 If you\u2019ve only had carob drops from the health food store, then\u00a0 you really don\u2019t know carob.\u00a0 Though the drops do contain some carob, they contain lots of added sugar and other ingredients.<\/p>\n

Pure carob is ground from the long brown pods of the carob tree, long \u00a0regarded as one of the ultimate survival foods. \u00a0The whole pod can be stored for years.\u00a0 It\u2019s highly nutritious, and it requires no cooking before consumption.<\/p>\n

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According to archivist Richard E. White of Highland Park, California, a large number of the carob trees growing around Glendale, Pasadena, Temple City, and other Southland cities, from Los Angeles County to Texas, were planted by Seventh Day Adventists in the aftermath of the Great Depression and Dustbowl era of the 1930s.\u00a0 According to White, \u201cYears ago, some farsighted Seventh Day Adventists planted carob trees around and on the grounds of almost all the Pasadena area public schools, apparently hoping that the students would gather and eat this free and nutritious food should there be another Depression and a scarcity of food. If children were encouraged to eat carob instead of candy bars, there would soon be no more litter problems under the carob trees and, perhaps, fewer cavities in youthful mouths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, many cities have since made war on the carob trees, and have slowly begun to cut them down. This is usually a result of planting them in inappropriate spots, such as between a sidewalk and street in the urban areas.\u00a0 In such cases, the shallowly-watered roots often break sidewalks, and the pods continually fall to the ground, causing people to sometimes trip and fall, and then sue the city!<\/p>\n

According to arborist Timothy Snider,\u00a0 \u201cWhen carob trees are pruned, they tend to go rotten.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t mean pruned wrong, just pruned. So ideally, they should never be pruned.\u00a0 And they should never be planted as street trees, because the cities always want to prune them, and they usually do wood butcher jobs, and hack at the tree. Then they are even more prone to the sulfur fungus, which tends to eat them out.\u00a0 Carob is a good tree, but should be planted in more open areas like parks, fields, farms, and graveyards. Remember, the carob in its original state is more of a shrub.\u00a0 They had to be trained to be trees, so it is really inappropriate to use carobs as street trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A true HEALTH FOOD<\/p>\n

Health-food enthusiasts and authors were advocating carob over chocolate since the 1940s at least.\u00a0 The reasons are many.\u00a0 The pods, once ripened, can be picked and eaten with no preparation whatsoever (besides wiping off the dust).\u00a0 They are very sweet and chewy, though the hard seeds should be spit out.<\/p>\n

Though carob is often compared to chocolate, chocolate and carob are two very different creatures.\u00a0 Chocolate\u2019s appeal is the presence of the stimulating theobromine, but raw chocolate is bitter.\u00a0\u00a0 By contrast, carob has 60 percent fewer calories per pound than chocolate and lacks any stimulants.\u00a0 Also, the carob pod is naturally sweet.\u00a0 Carob\u2019s natural flavor is akin to dates, and the flavor is completely different from chocolate.<\/p>\n

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NUTRITION<\/p>\n

The carob pods are analyzed as having 4 percent protein (4.5 grams of protein per 100 grams, 20.4 grams of protein per pound) and 76 percent carbohydrate. In addition, carob pods contain substantial phosphorus (81 milligrams per 100 grams, 367 milligrams per pound) and are extremely rich in calcium (352 milligrams per 100 grams, 1,597 milligrams per pound).<\/p>\n

Carob is rich in A and B vitamins and many other minerals.\u00a0 Carob is a superior food that ought to be used more.<\/p>\n

There was a short-lived carob farm in Riverside County, California, but it was discontinued because it did not produce the quality of carob that is produced in its native home.<\/p>\n

The carob tree is native to the Middle East, where the pods have a long history of use as food. The trees widely planted throughout Pasadena and the United States \u2013 mostly in the South and the West \u2014 all produce edible pods, though they are inferior to the commercially grown pods.\u00a0 Most commercial carob today comes from Cyprus.<\/p>\n

Remember the prodigal son in the Bible?\u00a0 After he left his father\u2019s home, he was hungry from famine and without money, and looked in the pig\u2019s feed for carob husks to eat (Luke 15:16). Biblical scholars who focus on the botany of the Bible believe that these husks were not corn, as commonly believed, but carob.<\/p>\n

The ripe brown pods can be simply washed, and eaten \u2013 being sure to spit out the hard seeds.<\/p>\n

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You can also remove the seeds, and grind the pods into a sweet flour which can be added to \u00a0cake, cookie, and pancake recipes, adding sweetness and a brown color.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done lots of experiments with carob pods.\u00a0 I always remove the hard seeds first, and then I ground up the pods into a flour.\u00a0 I have made drinks and many types of cakes and cookies from this carob.\u00a0 However, I still prefer to simply eat the whole pod and spit out the seeds.<\/p>\n

According to food writer Tony Kienitz, \u201cAs anyone who grows these trees will tell you, carobs yield a boatload of pods. In springtime, hundreds of six-inch-long, pale-green pods tassel each tree. In late summer, these pods ripen to a deep brown and begin raining to the ground. The whopping crop is a maintenance burden to some, a religious symbol to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. John\u2019s bread is the colloquial name given to the tree based on the belief that the \u2018locusts\u2019 that fed John the Baptist were actually carob pods. Dried carob graces Jewish tables during the holiday Tu Bishvat. During Ramadan, Muslims serve drinks made with carob juice.\u201d<\/p>\n