Greetings,

Please don't think I'm a "nut case" for posting the following question.

I was once told by a ranter-naturalist, that the mountains of California produced enough acorns to feed 15,000,000 people. The Indians (excuse me, Native Americans) used to eat them, but no one does today.

Does anyone know the procedure to make acorns fit for human consumption? Does anyone have any recipes or ideas???

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), January 20, 2000

Answers

Oops, fumble fingers strikes. That's "ranger-naturalist"

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), January 20, 2000.

Nopolly,

The U of Illinois Extension Service has something to say about eating acorns (see attached). There used to be a little book of acorn recipes available- I think the title was _Acorns and Eat'em_ or something like that.

Acorns were widely used as food by various groups. Whiteoak and chestnut oak acorns were in amazing abundance this year (oaks seem to produce bumper crops on a 3-4 year cycle) and I gathered a good many, but for planting, not eating (wish me luck- never tried sprouting oaks before).

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ACORNS--EATING

Acorns have very high contents of tannins which makes them very bitter and astringent when eaten raw. They need to be boiled or roasted, or both to make them palatable. The sweetest nuts come from the white, burr and chestnut oaks. The black, pin and red oak acorns are more bitter.

To use: Collect the acorns in the fall, when ripe. Remove shells and caps. The shells will come off easier if you first slit with a sharp knife. Boil the acorns whole for at least two hours, changing the water each time it becomes light brown in color. This boiling removes the bitterness and they become pleasantly sweet. You will find, after this boiling, that they are quite dark brown in color. Toast in a 350 degree F oven for another hour. They can then be eaten as they are or ground into a flour.

1993-jf

Cooperative Extension Service University of Illinois

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-- Lee (lplapinXOUT@hotmail.com), January 20, 2000.

We've got acorns coming out our ears and have experimented some with them. Paid the kids a buck a bucket to collect them if they wanted to.

Frankly, I'll eat them if need be but have a mountain of food here so for the immediate future no acorns in our diet. I do believe the ranter-naturalist though. The native americans around before pale face moved into the bay area were very well fed and many were actually fat. Good eatin' round here on the "natch".

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), January 20, 2000.

Gee....never thought of eating them myself..(too much work to fix them) but....they draw the wild turkeys. Just a few minutes ago spotted to Jacks (young males) under the oak tree. We put out corn occaisionally so they are getting pretty tame..can get within five feet or so these days. Eight hens come by once in awhile...figure we can always have meat if need be. They really are beautiful birds and enjoy the added wildlife around our abode.

-- Old Gramma (gotitincalif@webtv.net), January 20, 2000.

Personally I prefer "ranter-naturalist". I've met a few like that.

In Europe they used to drive the swine into the oak-woods in Autumn, where they'd fatten up before being slaughtered for Winter.

I guess crushing acorns would make good poultry food for domestic birds, and once you'd got them used to it (like you do with squashed snails) they could figure out how to get their own too.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 20, 2000.

Outside my condo you would have to fight a massive army of squirrels to get them...LOL! Also, the Asian residents nearby gather them (when the squirrels are snoozing) to use to make some natural remedy or other, they told my neighbor.

I am allergic to oak pollen and suffer much in spring. Guess that would make me allergic to acorns as well?

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), January 21, 2000.

Howdy,

I was taught as a little girl that the natives here would grind up the acorns and then scoop a little hole in wet sand and gently pour water over them for a while - supposed to wash/leach out the tannin. I think I also heard that you could soak the ground up nuts in cloth bag, in water overnight to help - apparently the main food value is the starch and that was then made into some sort of pancake type "stuff". Anyhow, lots of granite boulders around here have deep grinding holes in them from centuries of natives doing their acorn grinding. Hope this helps.

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), January 21, 2000.

I tried this back in the 70's, just to see if I could do it [used a process like the one from U. Illinois]. You can make the white oak acorns edible if this is the only thing you have to do in life. Never got the red oak acorns edible. My experience is that you would have to be starving or very determined to do this.

Best wishes,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), January 21, 2000.

One note:

I have a lot of mature chestnut trees [both American and various Asian]. It is easier to make flour from these. It is quite good when mixed with hard red spring in bread or rolls. If you can beat the fuzzy-tailed rats to the chestnuts.

Best wishes,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), January 22, 2000.