Raw Carob Tree Seed Pods, seeds and powder;

California-grown Ceratonia siliqua

aka
"St. John's bread" or  "Cyprus black gold"

Whole, natural, wild-crafted organic, edible, stiff, chewy, raw seed pods with a mild chocolate flavor.

Ancient Biblical food, used as an aphrodisiac, high in protein, hardy landscape and sacred tree;

Carob seeds were an ancient unit of measure, evolving into the carat.

Non-GMO, natural product.

Choose from several different Pod Weights:

• One-Two Sample Pack: One Carob Pod and two Carob Seeds
  
• 4 oz Pods= about 7-9 pods: ships First Class padded
  
• 10 oz = about 20 pods: ships First Class padded envelope
• 20 oz = about 40 pods: ships Priority Mail envelope
  
• 100oz = about 200 pods: ships large Priority box, hand packed
  

Carob: Created by God, Grown by Mother Nature, & Harvested by me in California.

...and/ or...

Note: Some people do not like the flavor of carob pods, others complain about how hard the pods are. About 1 in 100 finds them completely disgusting. There is just no pleasing everyone. I prefer vanilla myself, with just a twist of chocolate.

Saint John the Baptist was thought to have subsisted on locust or carob pods in lean times, as the inner seeds are made into locust bean gum and have been called locust beans forever. Hence, which locusts were the Baptist really eating? In an arid desert, there is nothing for grasshoppers to eat. Locusts don't eat locust beans.

Carob pods are made into carob powder, a chocolate alternative. The hard, inner seeds should be removed (not sure how they do it?!} before grinding if you intend to roast and grind the pods into homemade carob powder. Don't ask me, I don't know the process. If you do, write me and I will share it.

One of my photos shows a green, immature pod next to mature, dark brown pods. Sometimes the seeds shake inside the pods like a musical instrument. My adventurous son Shawn, who picked many of the pods with me while braving injury and insect bites sitting in the tree, actually liked the pod flavor. (Others find them repulsive, your reality may vary.) Sort of like an ancient version of a chocolate trail bar, with many one-carat trading seeds inside instead of sports trading cards.

Imagine Frodo and Samwise, weary with hunger, far into the morbid depths of Mordor, stopping under a craggy rock to unwrap an Elfish cloth hiding several sacred carob pods as their last meal in the dark shadow of fiery Mount Doom, belching black ash and suffocating sulfur dioxide, before they destroy the evil "One Ring that Binds them All" inside its glowing, liquid innards... OK, I am rewriting Middle Earth carob pod history, but they were important to early man, just maybe not that early.

Back in the USA, carob pods should be stored in a cool, dry place. They keep for years if stored clean, whole and undamaged in low humidity. Tough little buggers like the seeds.

• Soak seeds in water before planting in warm soil in Spring. Full sun. Mature trees do not need watering. 
  

Carob seeds can be grown into mature, beautiful trees in California, Florida and southern Texas throughout the dry parts of the deep south, and the dry parts of the Hawaiian islands. They prefer a warm Mediterranean climate with only mild frost in winter and low to medium yearly rainfall. Young trees are expensive to purchase commercially. Drought resistant, frost resistant, pest resistant.  Pretty round leaves with beautiful red limbs make this tree a popular landscape item. Tiny spiders make their nests in the pod clusters and squirrels eat the seeds, but no other pests really bother them. Many animals enjoy eating the nutritious pods both on and off the tree, in human terms, as dining in or as a take out meal that is biodegradable, in time. Grows to about 30-50 feet at maturity, evergreen tree, with a symmetrical branching system giving it that classic, rounded tree look. You need an extension ladder to harvest pods and harvest must be timed to the right season (late summer to fall).

I also sell the seeds for planting your own trees. Seeds can be extracted from these pods for planting as well. Carob powder is made from the hulls only. 

Use the Drop-Down Menu to choose:

• 4 oz: About eight pods (depending upon size) shipped in a padded envelope via First Class.
  
• 10 oz: Around 20 pods in a padded envelope via First Class.
  
• 20 oz: Around 40 pods in a padded envelope via Priority mail.
  
• 100 oz: About 200 pods in a medium flat-rate box shipped Priority Mail. Fills the box full.   
  
• 2 oz of roasted carob powder for baking and smoothies and chocolate flavored goodies of all sorts.
  
• 30 each California carob tree seeds for planting.
• Sample Pack: One pod and two seeds.
  

Ceratonia siliqua, commonly known as the Carob tree or St John's bread, is a species of flowering evergreen shrub or tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible legumes, and as an ornamental tree in many cityscapes.

The Ceratonia siliqua tree grows up to 35 feet tall. The crown is broad and semi-spherical, supported by a thick trunk with brown rough bark and sturdy branches. Leaves are 4 to 8 in long, alternate, pinnate, rounded, and may or may not have a terminal leaflet. It is frost-tolerant to about 20F, but not super frost tolerant, like in Minnesota or Maine or Canada. Think California to Texas to Florida along the southern states, and over to Spain, Greece and Israel. It is native to the Mediterranean region.

Most carob trees are dioecious, meaning male and female. The trees blossom in autumn (September–October). The flowers are small and numerous, spirally arranged along the inflorescence axis in catkin-like racemes borne on spurs from old wood and even on the trunk (cauliflory); they are pollinated by both wind and insects. The flowers produce a characteristic odor, many say resembling semen, which is unpleasant to many if not most people.

The carob fruit is a brown pod that can be elongated, compressed, straight or curved, and thickened at the sutures. The pods take a full year to develop and ripen and then hang on the tree for months, falling daily and more in windy storms. The ripe pods eventually fall to the ground and are eaten by various mammals, thereby dispersing the seed (Modern seed dispersal is aided by autos smashing pods on the road, but even a large truck will not damage a carob seed; they are as tough as nails). Likewise, the carob powder purchased in Natural Food stores is actually the dried, ground (and often roasted) pod, and not the inner seeds found inside the pod.

The seeds of Ceratonia siliqua contain leucodelphinidin, a colorless chemical compound.