The Oak trees are dropping a heavy load of acorns here. Sadly, what is the single richest food source in the world now falls on asphalt. It is a nuisance, a hazard to liberated women in shoes befitting chinese foot binding and aggressive tread patterns for mid life crisis red sports cars. The wild animals don't even dare come down to eat them and my Chumash friends always suggest a hamburger and beer. Acorns were found mixed with the cremated remains of Phillip of Macedonia. My Grandmother's curtain pulls were shaped in premium, post ww2 plastic acorns; a cultural memory of window sill offerings to abate a certain god of thunder. Once again I'll gather several pounds under the condescending looks of my nieghbors. Most will go to a certain deer trail, a few planted and I'll even perform the laborous regimen of cracking,leaching, milling and cooking some into acorn cakes. They go down well with imported british beer. After all, I am practising for survival scenarios ( not the beer)

Chris, it isn't just the Chumash. I encountered two Asian ladies carefully gathering acorns from an urban sidewalk the other day - making use of a good food source cheerfully crushed by everyone else as they cruise to the market to load up on doughnuts....

Can you share your recipe? I've never tried acorns.

Bill, I will dig out my recipe book this afternoon and post some. Basically you have to shell and then leach out the tannic acid. I usually just line a collander with cheesecloth and let water slowly flow over the nuts. In a survival situation the resulting solution makes a mild antiseptic wash and of course is usefull for tanning leather. It is an acquired taste ;O) I've had soups, mush and cakes. The Chumash actually made steatite frying pans!

One way I've prepared my acorns at home, is by roasting them. Instead of leaching them overnight, I boil them for about two hours, changing the water once it reached a tea color. When the water no longer turns tea colored (about 8 changings), you should be ready. Then spread them on a cookie sheet and roast about 350 degrees for 20 minutes. They have a sort-of cashew taste to me, but my family generally doesn't like "squirrel food". But a coating of confectioners sugar, or honey glaze on them usually gets them to try them out. <br><br>Also I use the ground up roasted acorns with my bread ingredients, to make acorn bread or to stretch my ingredients.

Good for you! I encourage you to plant as many oaks as you can in as many places as you can. Oak woodlands (especially white oak woodlands) from California to Washington are getting harder to find. The usual culprits are to blame (over grazing, exclusion of fire, conversion of woodlands to golf courses and strip malls, etc.). There's an excellent (and quite affordable) publication put out by the University of California called "Regenerating Rangeland Oaks in California" that I recommend to any prospective Johnny Appleseeds (or should I say Oakseeds) out there. It has good advice for successful planting of oak as well as resource lists for oak regeneration projects.<br><br>There's another book that might be useful as a survival guide in that type of region. I read it a long time ago but believe it was called "Ishi". It was about the last member of a tribe that lived in (I believe) Northern California. The book did a good job describing how he lived in his environment. <br><br>I "collect" oaks sort of like birders "collect" birds. Haven't ever made it south of Sacremento (and the fog was so thick I'm not sure I was really there) but I hope to travel down the coast to see some oaks I have never seen. Maybe one of the restaurants down there will have some "acorn stew" on the menu (or perhaps bangors and mast?).<br><br>

I have heard Oaktree depletion is a major concern for falling deer numbers. I live in Thousand Oaks Ca. There is actually a rare hybrid agrifolia-lobata in Hummingbird Ranch park in nearby Simi Valley. Firewood poaching is also a major threat and Ventura recently had a case of a landowner illegally felling nearly 200 trees. My most memorable experience was camping under a huge white oak within earshot of the freeway. I had 38 quail surround me, a band of deer graze, 2 bobcats, a weasel, 3 redtails, uncounted scrubjays,woodpeckers, 2 great horned owls, a king snake, skunks and possums all visit in 24 hours of still watching.

If you like oaks, you will love the Channel Islands. The islands, especially Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz, contain several rare oaks, including Q. Tomentella, which I understand is the rarest oak in California.

Thanks. In return, please accept my faorite recipe for crow!<br><br>In a large stock pot, place two plucked and gutted crows. <br>Cover with water and add diced carrots, celery, onion, potatoes and split peas. <br>Bring to a boil. <br>Place three large rocks in the pot, and reduce heat. <br>Simmer. <br>The stew is done when the rocks are soft enough to eat. <br>Remove the crows, and eat the rocks!

He he. Sounds vaguely familiar to my favorite recipe for carp.