Acorns used for making flour

[i_am2bz]

Thanks for the recipe, VP!!!

If just plain acorn flour & water tastes good, I can only imagine how amazing this will be. Going to keep this one!

 

[Leta]

I know some guys- Otter and Junebug and Jughead, only the state knows their real names, I guess- who live in the woods most of the year. Like, deep within no-car-access land on the border of the Hiawatha national forest. They take provisions, but since they have to cart in their tools (they build furniture and cut pulpwood, not to mention firewood to keep warm and heat water), they don't take much. They eat nuts, cattail roots, fish, fiddlehead ferns, wild mushrooms. One of their staples is soaked, dried acorns and dried grasshoppers. These are ground up into flour, mixed with water and cooked like pancakes. They usually don't bother with reduction boiling, and just put maple sap on them.

Yeah, they are all skinny.

 

[i_am2bz]

Yeah, they are all skinny.

But seriously...I am QUITE envious of anyone with foraging expertise. They may be skinny, but when TSHTF, at least they'll still be alive.

(I guess that's why I was extremely interested in this thread; I may not know holly berries from Halle Berry, but I do know an acorn when I see one. )

 

[Hinotori]

I want to try the acorn flour, but since we have no access to oak trees, I decided to pick up a bag at an asian market. It should tell me if I like it enough to find some higher drier areas on the property to plant a few oaks and wait for them to mature.

It was funny because I had just read this thread before we went to the store and I saw the small bags of acorn flour on the shelf. I know it's totally cheating, but at least I can try some. We went over the acorn leeching and use way back in highschool in our bio 2 class. Never did get to try it since no oaks. We had a great science teacher.

Now we do have a small stand of cattails that started growing last spring. So next year I should be able to harvest a little of them and try to make root flour. Only cattail part I haven't eaten.

 

[Veggie PAK]

I want to try the acorn flour, but since we have no access to oak trees, I decided to pick up a bag at an asian market. It should tell me if I like it enough to find some higher drier areas on the property to plant a few oaks and wait for them to mature.

It was funny because I had just read this thread before we went to the store and I saw the small bags of acorn flour on the shelf. I know it's totally cheating, but at least I can try some. We went over the acorn leeching and use way back in highschool in our bio 2 class. Never did get to try it since no oaks. We had a great science teacher.

Now we do have a small stand of cattails that started growing last spring. So next year I should be able to harvest a little of them and try to make root flour. Only cattail part I haven't eaten.

May I make a suggestion? First let me say that I planted that oak out front for sentimental reasons because my daughter was born in 1982 and and the tree is the same age as she is. I completely had no thought of ever using the acorns for anything! So, when making such a life-long affecting event such as planting an oak tree for an acorn supply, I would recommend finding out which acorns you like the best, and plant that type of oak tree. At this time, I don't know if the type of oak tree makes a difference in the taste. However, my brother-in-law suggested that I go to a public school football field near his house today to check out the acorns that were supposed to be there alongside the field. I did. Those acorns were 3 to 4 times larger than the ones from the tree in front of my house!!! The volume of spent acorn shells on the ground was truly incredible. I know where I'll be harvesting them next year!

Now had I known all that information, I would have been a lot more particular about the type of oak tree that I planted! Plan ahead to get the most out of it if they all taste the same.

 

[Wannabefree]

The best ones to plant would be White Oak. They naturally produce less tannin. Red Oaks produce wayyy more tannin and will require more processing to make them edible. Tannin will give off a bitter taste, so it would be good if you wanted to use them for coffee substitute, which you can do as well. Acorns have uses other than flour. You may want to plant a type that will be good for several purposes. You can sell the White Oaks as deer bait too, so they are more marketable than most others. You need to know how to identify the trees too, because some are very similar and there are several types of oaks. VP, those large acorns are likely Red Oak.

 

[Veggie PAK]

The best ones to plant would be White Oak. They naturally produce less tannin. Red Oaks produce wayyy more tannin and will require more processing to make them edible. Tannin will give off a bitter taste, so it would be good if you wanted to use them for coffee substitute, which you can do as well. Acorns have uses other than flour. You may want to plant a type that will be good for several purposes. You can sell the White Oaks as deer bait too, so they are more marketable than most others. You need to know how to identify the trees too, because some are very similar and there are several types of oaks. VP, those large acorns are likely Red Oak.

I had previously read that about the white oaks. Do you think that since the ones I just found are larger, they would just take additional boiling time to leach out the tannin and be ok to use the acorns? Is that a possibility do you think? The bark on the trees with the large acorns was somewhat shaggier looking than the tight close bark on mine. I noticed that right off the bat when I pulled up to them.

I currently am waiting for a reply from the Cooperative extension on a positive ID on my tree type. I tasted an acorn from my tree without boiling it first and it was really bitter. I had to spit it out. I had read that white oak is possible to be eaten without boiling. I can't imagine eating a bowl of those! Mine must not be a white oak although the acorns are pretty small. They're about as big as the diameter of an adult person's little finger nail.

 

[Wannabefree]

They're definately still usable, all acorns are usable. The types with more tannin are just more work to get the tannin out. Shaggy bark...sounds like a big old White Oak, and yes they are bitter when raw ALL are bitter when raw

There are SO many kinds it's amazing! Yours could be white oak, then again could be any of a number of different types. The shaggy bark is generally white oak. As far as someone eating a bowl of those raw...some people will eat anything and call it good...why ya think McD's is still open?

If you post pics, of the acorn and bark, I may be able to ID. It does get a bit confusing sometimes though, so I won't promise a positive ID from photos. My grandma taught me to ID with taste, smell, and feel, since she was blind, so I have a hard time with plants simply by sight sometimes She handicapped me

This link provides info on 8 different kinds of oaks. Maybe it will help you. It has pictures of bark/leaves/acorns for referrence.
http://www.pursuithunting.com/2007/09/reds-vs-whites-deer-are-acorn-snobs.html

 

[Denim Deb]

If you can post a pic of the leaves, I may be able to ID it.

 

[Veggie PAK]

I never posted a pic on here before, so I don't know how. If someone tells me how, I would gladly post it. Thanks!