Acorns for the hungry...
I'm not really at a point in my life where I *have* to gather and forage to survive, but I've always been curious about acorns.
They are a nutrient-rich, free source of food that we moderns don't really utilize. But the Californians that went before us ate them by the basket-load. So why pass up a free thing?
Maybe it's the work involved. I mean, we're not squirrels. We have "important" things to do. Maybe it's the taste?
Anyway, I decided to give it a try.
There is plenty of information online about how to gather, process and prepare them and I happen to have some free time.
So I went to the parking lot next to a local library, sat down on the curb and started work (gathering and shelling the suckers).
Here are the Oak trees.
My main tool.
An hour's work....
My report:
I didn't make a big operation out of it (why gather thousands of acorns if I'm not even sure that I want to spend the time shelling them?);
I was in a public place, gathering acorns, but I didn't get a lot of attention from passersby;
I was waiting for the library to open anyway, so it was a decent way to pass the time;
I was able to watch the birds and enjoy the sunshine while I waited;
My thumb got pretty roughed-up;
All-in-all it wasn't a bad experience.
However, I still don't know how much of this kind of work is necessary to get enough acorns to make it through a year (I assume the early Californians would stockpile them, or process and store the flour) or even to make a single batch of acorn mush.
I still haven't tried grinding them up into flour. I assume a food processor can be used (rather than a grinding rock). In any case, I'll report any progress I make and see how far I can go with this.
Anybody up for some acorn-cakes, acorn cookies, acorn mush?
