Been reading about how useful and nutrutious acorn flour is. Naturally sweet, high protein, low fat, etc. The only issue seems to be leeching the tannins out, which (depending on the type of oak) can take a bit of work. Apparently, some oaks have acorns that can be eaten right off the tree. Aside from the tannins, acorns seem to be a great long term food source. Anyone tried acorn pancakes, bread, etc? If I had property with an oak tree I'd definitely give it a try.

From my understanding of reports that I've read, soak the acorns for at least a week (save the water), then roast them, and grind them to flour. Add water and bake. Most have a strong taste that takes some getting used to but jam on top of them helps a great deal. Read the book-"My Side of the Mountain".

About the water. Save it and use it to soak hides in before scraping the fat and meat off. Then flip them over and scrape the hair off. This I have done with squirrel hides as a boy and it works great!!!

I wonder if just soaking them is enough. I believe most natives would soak them in running water to better pull out the tanins. Changing the soak water every day would probably help.

Easiest thing would be just to try it.
1. whole nuts in still water 1 week
2. partially crushed acorns in still water 1 week
3. whole acorns, water changed every day for a week
4. crushed acorns, water changed every day for a week

At the end of the week taste them and see how they arre. The amount of tanins in the acorns varies from tree to tree so what works for your tree may not work for someone elses.

-Blast, trying to be scientificy

I ate one raw as a kid. Brings back painful memories.

My mothers mother was Lipan Apache and the acorn was a main stay for them and the following is from what she told me and from personal experience. Any of the ways stated by wildman800 and blast will work. However it is best not to crush the acorns before hand because it affects the taste IMHO in a bad way. If as wildman800 suggests and you use the water to tan your hides keep the water but if your not going to use it in that manner it is best to change the water better.

Someone recommended putting them in a mesh bag inside your toilet reservior. Every flush gives you a change of water.

That sounds like a good idea......

Yes it does sound good,,,,BUT, keep in mind that you are also flushing a lot of tannic acid down the toilet as well.

This doesn't matter unless you are planning to cure some hides along the way. If you use a bucket to soak the acorns, then let the water evaporate and scrape the tannic acid out and put it in an appropriate sized pill bottle.

I always heard that the Native Americans ran hot water through them.

And, I'd suggest against eating them raw, as I believe there's some sort of gastric problems associated.

But what do you do with them after they are soaked?
Grind them and make bread?

Acorns
http://www.gastronomique.org/nutrition/food/12060.html
http://www.jackmountainbushcraft.com/acornbread.html
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/acorns.htm
http://www.connielapallo.com/AcornFlour.htm
http://www.prodigalgardens.info/acorn%20recipes.htm
http://www.henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1995/acorns-1.html
http://www.crpusd.org/Goldridge/acorn.htm
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Whole-Foods-and-Cooking/1970-05-01/Food-Without-Farming.aspx
http://www.nativetech.org/recipes/recipe.php?recipeid=115
http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/vme/ARNHA/acornepi.html
http://www.mapsgroup.org/acorn_and_oak.htm
http://www.cdkitchen.com/search/search.php?c=&order=1&site=cdkitchen&q=acorn&t=0

I have read accounts of southwest desert people first grinding them in stone depressions with a rock and then putting the flour into depressions in the sand and pouring water over them to leach out the tannins relatively quickly. I have seen old photos of this. I think they did it this way because they didn't have the luxury of running water in the summer months. I'm not exactly sure, but I have seen some of the rock depressions they used. They then baked or fired the flour into a biscuit.
I have read that white oaks have less tannin than black oaks.
I have tried them raw and they aren't too bad at first, but I can't eat more than one of even the mildest I have found unless leached. They are very bitter and astringent otherwise, but they do seem to crisp (if that makes sens) and freshen the breath. It's been awhile. The tannin aspect seems very distinct from a sweeter much more subtle potential taste.
I would ideally keep them whole in a slow moving stream, checking one everyday, until palatable. Then I would eat them raw or ground and mixed with berries and maybe a little wood ash (binder?) and pressed into cakes and fired to maintain shape and keep and perhaps to improve flavor as well.

The wood ash is a great reminder since the pioneers used it as baking soda for their biscuits and other breads.

they used this stuff in the old day because thats all they had.
not because it was really any good..

But it made real strange, entertaining noises as you chewed the biscuits. Noises like: Boinnng, squiggle, ting, tang, sprunnnng!!!

My DW has not yet let me forget those delicious, grey, musical biscuits that I made one morning and served her as part of a breakfast in bed!!!!!

I know, I know,,,,Bad Bo, Bad Bo, Bad Bo!!!!!!!

Here are the directions for preparing acorn "meal" that I received today at an edible plants tour:

1. Shell acorns (white oak trees generally have the least bitter acorns, followed by red oaks then live oaks).
2. Allow shelled acorns to dry for a few hours in the sun
3. Grind acorns to fine powder
4. Mix acorn powder with boiling water
5. Place wet acorn powder in jelly bag (cotton bag) and squeeze out water
6. Repeat boiling water wash/squeeze until powder in no longer bitter
7. Spread powder out in thin layer in shallow pan to dry in sun or oven on low heat
8. The acorn flower will "cake" up during drying so it needs to be reground at this point
9. Store dried, ground powder in sealed glass jars where it'll keep indefinately.

-Blast

Acorn food

http://www.nativetech.org/recipes/recipe.php?recipeid=115

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/recipes/squirrel.html

http://www.aaoobfoods.com/acorns.htm

http://www.paleofood.com/veggies.htm

http://www.scu.edu/SCU/Departments/EnvironmentalStudies/ulistac/history/ohlone.html#acorn

Find out what kind of oaks live in your area. Most people don't have the land necessary to grow their own oaks. Most of them get VERY large, and they produce a lot of shade that could be put to better use for providing food. Oaks also take years to start producing acorns.

Your local arboretum should be able to provide quite a bit of info on the local types.

I think most of the white oaks grow up here in WA & OR, and in N. CA.

To tell the truth, I would be have to be pretty desperate to go through all that labor to make them edible. Cattails would be easier.

Sue

Where do we go to check the nutrition value of a given wild food? Is there a recognized university or government source?

Thanks.

You might try googling something like 'wild foods nutrition', and maybe it will give you some leads.

Sue