Fundamentally, tree nuts of all forms will be actively cultivated
and added into our food regime. This
gives us a lesson on what is often needed to exploit them and acorns in
particular. It is also obvious that the
many toxic nuts out there are simply waiting for a cleansing regime. All nuts can be soaked and drained as we are
describing here with acorns. Adding a
water soluble neutralizing additive is the next obvious step here.
More important however is husbandry. I have already posted this, but it is a
simple matter to establish tree rows set at least two combine swathes
apart. This allows eighty percent of the
land to be used for rotation crops while placing the fence rows well apart and
to allow smart spacing in the fence rows themselves. One has ample room to also plant fruit
bearing shrubs to provide strong ground cover.
If we widely space oaks, we have room for two parallel rows of
fruit trees in the same fence row as well.
In short we have a three story husbandry with ample unblocked sunlight
because of the wide row spacing.
How to Eat Acorns: The Ultimate Survival Food
October 04, 2012
Acorns
and other tree nuts are the most valuable food we can get from any wild plant.
There are many different types of tree nuts that offer a great back-up food
supply at home and in the wild. Black walnut, butternut walnut, pecan, hickory,
beechnut, hazelnut and even Pine nuts can be eaten after picking the meat from
shattered shells
The
common and abundant acorn requires only a nut cracker. But these high calorie
nuts were a staple crop to many of our ancestors around the Northern
Hemisphere. Coming in at 2,000 calories per pound, this abundant food crop is
too valuable to ignore. Just make sure you know an acorn from a buckeye, as
buckeyes (and the very similar looking horse chestnut) are poisonous for people
to eat.
To
prepare palatable acorns, crack them out of their shell and break any large
pieces into “pea-sized” chunks. Then soak these acorn chunks in water to remove
the bitter and irritating tannic acid. Note that some books instruct us to boil
acorns, but this locks in some of the bitterness. You’ll have the best results
with warm water.
Soak
the acorns for a few hours. If the water was safe to drink, taste a piece of
acorn to see if it is still bitter. If you don’t like it, dump off the water
(which should be brown like tea), add fresh warm water and soak the acorn
pieces again for a few hours. Repeat this a time or two, or three depending on
the acorn’s bitterness. Once they taste “OK” (read: bland), let them dry out
for a few hours. Then you can run them through a grain grinder, flour mill, or
the classic mortar and pestle to make acorn flour. Add this flour to existing
recipes; or try your hand at making acorn porridge or hard, brown
biscuits.
How do you tell if you
picked the right tree nuts?
• Have positive identification with a good book, like Peterson’s Field Guide to Wild Edible Plants.
• Know the poisonous nuts like Buckeye and Horse Chestnut
• Don’t collect near roads, dumps, power lines, train tracks or other contaminated areas.
• Eat only small amounts of plants that are new to you, after you have positively identified it.
• Just try one at a time so you can tell which plant you are allergic to, in case of allergic reaction.
• Don’t try to eat these nuts if you have any tree nut allergies.
• And last but not least - if you are in doubt, DON’T EAT IT!
Ever
try to eat acorns without removing the bitterness? Or, use them as a flour or
animal feed? Let us know in the comments section!
ALL
COMMENTS
I used to eat acorns
when I was a little in Arizona, just for fun.And I've always wanted to try
making acorn flour since I was a kid & read the book 'My Side Of The
Mountain'. Living in Oklahoma, I've noticed we have Burr Oaks, with HUGE
acorns! It seems a shame to see so many rotting on the ground & I've
wondered if they can be dried & turned into flour like other acorns or
eaten any other way.Also, what is the best time of the year to gather
them?Thanks!
as a child we ate all
sorts of tree nuts in the forest. the best acorns are from wateroaks growing in
creek bottoms. they are sweet enough to be eaten right off the ground when
green. just dont eat too many. acorns from a mature red oak are nearly as bad
as persimmons
sasquatch recipe book
says that you don't have to soak the nuts... you just have to bend the branch
over first before you pick the seed.
So I just tried this the
first time last week. Here's what I did, based on online research. After
gathering from white oaks, I toasted them a bit in the oven so they would crack
open easier (otherwise the shell just kinda mushed under the cracker. Skins were
brown and thin.). I pulled out the meats, pulled them in half (they are kinda
rubbery at this point) and put them in a pan of water and boiled them, dumped
water and repeated about 4 times. The water never did become clear, but the
nuts were softer and softer. I then drained them off, and dumped them on a tray
in my dehydrator for about an hour. Dried fast (I would also roast in the oven
at this point in the future? Just so happened my dehydrator was out on the
table). I whirled them up in my vitamix (they were ROCK hard after the
dehydrator. My small food processor couldn't handle it) and it made a beautiful
flour/meal. Despite what others said above, they aren't totally bland. In fact,
after boiling they had a beautiful soft, nutty flavor. But think of this more
as a flour/meal grain than a full flavor nut. I now have just a couple cups of
"flour" on my counter that I will try baking up today. I've read to
substitute equal parts flour in recipes with this. Maybe not the WHOLE amount
of flour, but perhaps half. Saw a recipe for an acorn meal coffee cake I think
I'll try.
to puffy and
birddog---no to puffy, you don't have to allow them to dry. bdog, as far as the
book I have says-- the old timers would soak AND roast before pounding into
flour and it recommends the white oaks over any of the others.
You beat me to the
punch, Bazemore, about white oak acorns being sweeter than red oak acorns. As
far as identifying the type of acorn you're looking at, note that the leaves of
a white oak tree have rounded lobes. A red oak leaf has lobes that are pointed.
Koreans make acorns into
a brown, bland paste and eat the resulting cake/pastry with a mix of red
pepper, soy sauce and some spices I couldn't identify.
I was turned on to
acorns a few years back. Yes the white oak is much better eating than red but
my taste buds tell me that the best, least amount of tannic acid, is from the
Burr Oak tree. They are not bad off the tree and are very good after one or two
soakings.
I would like to point
out if you are going to try this, I would make darn sure the acorns I was
collecting were from an oak in the 'white' oak section and not the 'red' oak
section. 'White' oaks (i.e. white oak, swamp white oak, post oak, swamp
chestnut oak, chestnut oak, overcup oak, etc.) have much fewer tannins in the
acorns than 'red' oaks (i.e. southern red oak, scarlet oak, pin oak, northern
red oak, Shumard oak, cherrybark oak, willow oak, etc.) and are therefore much
more palatable to animals (and humans are soaking). The 'white' oaks were the
ones mainly used by Natives as a source of flour, not 'reds'. Who knows how
long or how many soakings it would take to make 'red' oak acorns halfway
tolerable.
I notice that most of
the acorns in the basket appear fairly dry and brown, but recently when I
traveled to the mountains all the acorns on the ground I found were still
green. Does this matter? Should I let green acorns dry out in a basket first
before soaking and grinding them?
Darn bitter without soaking. I wonder what it would be like if you
soaked them and then roasted them a bit. Any ideas, Tim?
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