The first summer my family and I moved to our homestead, we were not able to get a garden into the rocky, wild ground, but somehow we had a fantastic fall harvest and started accumulating jars of dry goods from the plenty. How was this possible? One surprising word… acorns.
Watch the video:
Pretty much everyone can identify an acorn, even if they don’t know that it is the seed of an oak tree. You can see them used in fall decorations, pillow cover motifs, jewelry and crafts. Kids at summer camp use the caps for whistles, and landscapers roll their eyes in frustration every fall as bucket loads of nuts rain down onto their manicured lawns. But for all their ubiquity, the fact that acorns are nutritious and edible is a fact that is almost completely absent from our modern Western culture. When you consider the literal tons of free food that are falling on city streets, country lots, backyards, and sidewalks every fall, this fact should give anyone interested in sustainable food great pause!
For the forager, the acorn is a symbol of great hope. When every oak tree from the deep forest to the city park starts to light up in your mind as a source of food, the world looks different. It may seem odd to suggest that acorns should become an important part of our diets, but that is only because many of us are ignorant to the fact that our ancestors once subsisted, in part, on this widely-available nut. And we still can. So when you forage for acorns and turn them into food for your table, you’re participating in a gastronomic revival of ancient ways, blowing the dust off of something that hundreds of thousands of people once knew.
For this article, I’ll be explaining my own method for processing acorns into usable, delicious food. I live on an off-grid homestead, so I’ve figured out how to do all these steps manually, without the use of electricity, and with multiple opportunities for mid-process, stable storage (because let’s be honest, sometimes life is full of interruptions!). I say that so that you know that, though it takes a bit of time, an interested and motivated person can totally do this process without fancy equipment! You have what it takes.
说了这么多,让我们来了解更多关于如何将每年秋天到来的惊人的、免费的馈赠变成你和你的家人可靠和美味的食物。
Acorns Have A History
将橡子作为饮食的重要组成部分并不是什么新鲜事,甚至是非常冒险的想法。我认为,这只是一件在很大程度上被遗忘的事情。
Acorns as a sustainable starchy staple
当我刚开始认真地寻找橡果时,橡果成了我关注的焦点。橡子不仅仅是一种“小径边的食物”,它还被一些文化用作主食,为饮食提供了一种易于储存的淀粉基础。You can find acorns as an important part of the gastronomic lexicon of many different countriesacross the world, from Spain, to Italy, to North Africa, to Korea. There, you can find acorns roasted, pressed into acorn oil, brewed into acorn drinks, and even cookedinto a tofu-like acorn “jelly.”
On our own side of the ocean, they were a vital foodstuff to several Native American nations. Indigenous people used acorns wherever they grew, from coast to coast, but particularly those of Northern California such as theHupa, Karok, Miwok, Pomo, and Yurok. They used acorns as an absolutely crucial part of the diet. Here’s where it gets interesting to those concerned with self-sufficiency. You are probably aware that the majority of food cultures are centralized around a starchy staple crop, whether it be corn, rice, potatoes, millet, wheat or what have you. In order for a people to depend on those staples, however, they must live an agricultural lifestyle. Those northern Native Californian communities were unique in that they were able to maintain non-agricultural lives becauseacorns filled that starchy staple needfor the price of collecting and processing them, rather than dedicating the year to cultivating them in one specific spot.
Now, I am not hypocritically advocating against agriculture, of course! But, I hope it helps you realize the potential of having a bountiful, nourishing harvest from trees that you neither need to plant nor tend. This food requires no input but what comes to it naturally in sun and rain, so it’s certainly a super-sustainable source of sustenance (say that five times fast). If you’re a homestead seeking self-sufficiency someday, acorns give you a opportunity to draw a significant source of nutrition from the land, adding stable diversity to your homegrown food portfolio. And even if you don’t have acres and acres of land, you can still easily glean acorns that no one else wants to gain more control over your own diet resources.
If more people saw the acorns that rain on the sidewalk every fall as a gift, rather than an ankle-turning annoyance, could you imagine the impact? What if we also opened our diets to long-term perennial food crops that are largely self-maintaining and can happily grow in areas unsuitable to large-scale cultivation, rather than having our food security depend solely on huge, industrialized swathes of annual food crops that are outside of our control? It’s food for thought, certainly. Much more than a craft item or decorative motif, acorns may be one of America’s most underutilized food resources.
So all that said, I think that the ubiquity of the oak tree in the American landscape makes the acorn one of the most vital wild foods to learn if you’re an interested forager. Most other foods we’re going to learn about are building blocks of a diet–but acorns are the only one I’ve found that has the potential to be a viable foundation. So let’s get into the basics of turning this nut into dinner!
Part One: Foraging For The Plentiful Harvest
I got started on this journey by reading foraging books by Samuel Thayer.
The Forager’s Harvest,Nature’s Garden, andIncredible Wild Ediblesare indispensable when it comes to truly learning about the practical aspects of gathering nutrition from the wild.
Thayer doesn’t just research the plants he talks about – he eats them every day and writes with the same sort of real understanding. One of his most beloved wild edibles is acorns, and anyone who reads his write-up will surely to want to give them a try as soon as they can!
Identifying Acorns
When I talk to people just beginning foraging, they share, without fail, their fear of misidentifying a plant and poisoning themselves. It’s an understandable, yet overinflated fear that has stopped many people from attempting foraging in the first place. Because while there are a handful of plants that are dangerous, the truth is, there’s far more harmless or useful plants out there. And in terms of harvesting acorns, the pickings couldn’t be more friendly– there’s no dangerous look-alikes. They are the only tree nut in North America with that distinctive cap covering the top. Basally, if it looks like an acorn, it’s an acorn. The only thing I could imagine a foraging newbie misidentifying is perhaps mistaking a hulled wild hazelnut for a capless acorn, but since hazelnuts are a deliciously edible nut as well, it’s obviously no threat!
数十种橡树都能结出橡子。有些比其他的大,但所有的都是食用和有用的,一旦加工。你可能会遇到两种主要的橡树:一种是红橡树,它产的坚果富含油脂,苦得很快就干了;另一种是白橡树,它产的坚果更湿润,不那么苦,干得更慢。
As far as the forager is concerned, identifying specific species of oaks is not quite as important as being able to identify the difference between red and white types of acorns. Here’s some general guidelines. Generally (but with exceptions) red oaks have leaves with pointed lobes, and white oaks have leaves with rounded lobes. Acorns of red oaks have shells with a fuzzy interior, and acorns of white oaks have shells with a smooth interior. Red oak acorns have scaly caps, white oak acorns have shaggy caps. Armed with those keys, and a tree ID book as a backup, you’ll be sure to figure out what you’re dealing with when you find a nice, big oak full of promise.
Collecting Acorns
橡子在夏末开始掉落,直到秋天。秋天的风暴和暴雨真的有助于把它们从橡树上打下来,如果你的财产上的任何结构有一个锡屋顶,你会真正知道收获的季节已经到来,因为它们像冰雹一样落下!
然而,收集橡子的最佳时间并不是橡子刚开始掉落的时候。橡树掉落橡子有两个截然不同的阶段——早落和好落。当你第一次注意到橡树上滴满橡子时,这不是收集坚果的时候。如果你这样做了,你会非常失望地发现几乎每一个都是坏的。橡树通过一些奇妙的设计和令人费解的方式,知道哪些坚果发育不良或感染了昆虫,所以它们会尽快除掉不值得吃的坚果。这些橡子中有许多还未成熟、发育不全,或者还紧紧地系着帽(这肯定是坏坚果的标志)。
这是你要关注的第二个下降,通常发生在10月份的某个时候。这些坚果是好坚果!如果你不确定,你可以用石头敲开一些橡子来测试它们,但我通常发现,从第二次掉落的橡子中,大约90%都是绝对完美的。
当然,并不是每个人都有一排橡树来监视所有的秋天。那么,你该如何区分铺满地面的好坚果和坏坚果呢?虽然没有人有橡子的x光视力,但有一些迹象可以帮助你在野外收集尽可能多的橡子。
好的橡子看起来很好,拿在手里感觉很重。它们通常有点光泽,像抛光的木头,顶部有看起来干净的棕色圆盘。
Bad acorns come in many forms. Here’s the ones to avoid. Discolored acorns, or ones with dark spots on their sides, are bad. Undersized nuts with the caps attached were dropped early, and are bad. Discolored spots on the disc are also indicators of bad nuts. Acorns with the caps still firmly attached are no good. Acorns that look weathered and dull are probably last year’s acorns, and usually rotten. Finally, acorns with little holes in the side have been already eaten by acorn weevil grubs, and are only full of frass. Get used to those little grubs by the way–we’ll be talking about them more later!
虽然这似乎要记住很多东西,但一旦你熟悉了好橡子和坏橡子,你就能在收集橡子的过程中几乎本能地分辨出它们。花时间只收集好的、干净的坚果会为你以后节省很多麻烦,所以这是值得的!在温暖的初秋,当你享受着斑驳的阳光,橡子愉快地塞进你的桶里时,这真的是一项令人愉快的任务。
说到收集坚果,我强烈建议用手来做。虽然有一些坚果拾取器,但它们是不分青红的,不能区分好的坚果、坏的坚果、岩石或瓶盖。你在捡坚果上节省的时间会浪费在整理你捡到的垃圾上。经过几年的橡子觅食,最简单的方法一直是最适合我的。手和5加仑的水桶最能胜任这项工作。
Part Two: Processing The Haul
Bringing them home and getting them dry
When collecting acorns, I advise to keep red and white acorns separated in different buckets. That way, you can jump on cracking and processing the white oak acorns as soon as you can. Since white oak acorns contain a lot more water, they mold very easily if left in a heap. And it’s super-disappointing to put off sorting and drying your acorn haul for too long, only to discover that your entire cache of nuts is a stinky pile of blue mold. The red oak acorns certainly shouldn’t sit in a bucket unattended either, but they can be spread in a single layer and easily dried in their shells until you’re ready to work with them.
So that said, let’s talk about getting those nuts dry!
如果你不能立即破解并处理它们,至少把它们平铺成一层,在空气可以流通的地方。我在一个被改造成太阳能脱水器的冰箱里做这个。如果没有这些,在干燥的地方铺上床单,或者用几个旧的烤盘——在旧货店很容易买到——在坚果去壳之前也可以做得很好。另外,要注意的是,当它们吃出坚果的时候,会有更多的橡果象幼虫出现——即使是一些好看的坚果也会秘密地成为肮脏的小坚果破坏者的宿主。
抓住蛆!
I should mention, the grubs are not harmful in the least–they can’t re-infect other acorns, and they don’t bite. All barnyard poultry will eat them with relish, if you give them as a treat. If you don’t have an animal cleanup crew, be aware that the grubs’ sole desire is to get back into the ground so that they can pupate and infect next year’s crop of acorns. It might be best to dispose of them somewhere far from your choice oak trees
At this point, you have some options for storage. Red oak acorns can be dried in the shell, then held in clean 5-gallon buckets until you’re ready to continue. It may take a few weeks to get them bone-dry, so don’t rush it. I would advise against storing white oak acorns in the shell, however. They should be cracked, shelled, and then dried before you attempt to store them. Which brings me to our next step–getting those shells off!
Cracking Acorns
There are several options when it comes to cracking loads of acorns. It can be as simple as smashing them open with a hammer on a flat surface, Layering them between two towels and whacking them with a mallet, or as sophisticated as buying a specialized nut cracker for the purpose. But if you are really interested in making acorns a part of your diet, I heartily recommend theDavebilt nutcrackeras a huge, huge time saver. Hand-cranked, made in America and built to last, this is a solid tool that you’d be able to pass on to your kids, and is good for most any type of nut. It runs close to $200, but I can personally attest that the time and effort saved made it worth the price within our first season of using one.
我大部分的分类工作都是在敲碎橡子之后进行的。把坚果从壳中分离出来是一项很好的活动,可以和朋友一起做,一起聊天,听一些好听的音乐,或者和一群竞争激烈的孩子一起玩。你很快就会发现,一些坏的橡子会和好的橡子一起出现,这是不可避免的,但一旦它们裂开,好的橡子和坏的橡子就超级容易区分开来。
Any that are moldy, had clear evidence of being nibbled by bugs, or were covered with dark spots can go into the chicken/compost bucket, and all the tan, waxy-nice nutmeats can either be dried for later processing, or moved on to the next stage. If you find that a lot of your fresh, red oak acorns look good but aren’t coming out of their shells, save yourself some frustration and dry them further. Prying red oak nutmeats out of the shell is incredibly frustrating, but they’ll simply drop out of shells once completely dry.
While sorting, you’ll find lots testas (the dark brown, papery coating over the nut) also come off. Some resources say that you must remove every trace of the testa to have tasty flour, but I found that it really didn’t make a difference.
That pile of nutmeats can now be dried until they’re rock-hard and stored for later processing. This is a wonderful feature of the dried nuts–they can be stored for a while. During years with a very heavy acorn crop, you can stock up on nuts to give you a cushion for when there’s a poor crop season. So at this point, you can put your harvest into secure storage or move them on to the next step–leaching!
Leaching The Acorns
浸出是用水去除坚果中苦的水溶性单宁,使其美味可口的过程。生吃一颗橡子是有可能的,但我不知道你是否想重复这种体验。
There are three types of leaching–cold leaching, chemical leaching, and hot leaching. I’ll only be detailing hot leaching here, as it is the most beginner-friendly and yields results quickly and satisfyingly. If you really get into working with acorns, however, be sure to investigate the other processing methods in the resources at the end of this article–each results in a distinctively different product.
Hot leaching acorns is simple–put the acorns in a pan of water, heat it to boiling, drain off the dark-brown water, and repeat until a sampled nut no longer tastes bitter. You can do this on a conventional stove top on a rainy weekend, but it’s a lot easier and uses a lot less energy if done on a wood stove. The various species of acorns take anywhere from three to ten water changes to have a sufficient amount of tannin removed–you’ll have to judge for yourself when they’re ready. When they taste sweet, somewhat maple-like, and not at all bitter, consider them done. Some resources say that you need to wait until the water runs clear, but it’s not necessary. Taste is more important than looks.
Grinding The Acorns
现在橡子已经过滤好了,是时候把它们变成面粉了——你就快成功了,饥饿的觅食者!
My method is to run the damp, leached acorns through an old-fashioned, hand-crank meat grinder. They’re really easy to find at antique markets and thrift stores–the one pictured here was only $4!
Spread the damp nut meal back on a cookie sheet and allow it to dry completely. If you have a wood stove, place it at the the base and stirred occasionally until it is bone-dry–this will take two days or so.
You can also do this in a dehydrator or in a conventional oven at 170 degrees Fahrenheit until the meal is bone-dry. Don’t rush this part! If you store the flour even slightly wet, it may mold and all your hard work will end up in the compost pile.
The end result will be a very coarse flour. This can be used as-is, or it can be run through a flour mill or coffee grinder to produce finer flour for baking. Either way, you can now store it in an airtight container and use it at your leisure!
终于准备好了!到这个时候,你肯定饿了,这是理所当然的。让我们看看这种食物的一些美味用途。
Part Three: Cooking with Acorns
As an ingredient, you can think of hot-leached acorn flour in a vaguely similar way to cornmeal. With no gluten to hold it together, it won’t form a springy, bread-like dough on its own, but don’t let that stop you from experimenting with eggs, mixing it with wheat flour or some other starch, or seeing what can be done to let it shine as an ingredient in its own right, rather than just an inclusion.
Taste-wise, acorn flour is nutty, earthy, sweet, and reminiscent of maple or molasses. The hot-leach method results in a dark brown flour that will give a pumpernickel-like color to whatever you mix it in. So with all those factors in mind, let me share some ideas on how to make it into delicious food!
Acorn Sourdough Boule Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sourdough starter
- 1 ½ cups warm, filtered water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1 cup finely-ground acorn flour
(Note: The amount of flour you need to use varies depending on the day’s humidity. I find that I use far less flour in the summer than I do in the winter.)
Directions
- Add sourdough starter and filtered water to a large bowl. Mix thoroughly with your hand.
- 加入盐,然后加入面粉,一次一杯,继续用手搅拌。面团应该是湿的。如果干燥或很难处理,就多加点水。
- Let the dough rest 10 minutes.
- Wet your hands and knead the dough in the bowl. It may seem counter-intuitive, but whole wheat needs to be kneaded with water, not flour. Trust me on this one! Knead the dough in the bowl for 4 minutes, wetting your hands as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. If it is hard to knead at this point, you’ll want to introduce more water, about a teaspoon at a time, until it is workable. It’s okay if it feels slightly “too wet.” It will soak it up, guaranteed.
- Allow to rest another 5 minutes.
- You’ll probably notice that the dough is now smooth, supple, and not as sticky. Form into a round, cover with a towel, and put someplace warm for the next four hours.
- 在这段时间里,面团应该发了不少。向下按压,然后把边缘拉向中心,轻轻捏成一个圆球。
- 在一个大碗里铺上一条亚麻毛巾,然后在面团上撒上大量的面粉。将面团放入碗中,放回温暖的地方再次发酵至少2小时。
- Preheat your oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 如果使用烤盘,在表面涂上油脂并撒上面粉,然后轻轻地把面包翻到上面。如果用的是披萨石,在披萨皮上撒上面粉,然后把面包倒在上面。
- 用一把锋利的有锯齿的刀在面包的顶部划上一圈,以便在烘焙过程中膨胀。
- Slide the bread into the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Lower the temperature to 425F° and bake another 20 minutes.
- Your bread is done if the internal temperature has reached 200F°. You can check with a meat thermometer or use the traditional method of tapping the bottom and listening for a hollow sound.
- If you can resist the urge, allow the bread to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before slicing so that it can finish internally steaming.
- Serve with butter and a fruit preserve.
- 一旦冷却,用毛巾包裹起来,存放在阴凉、黑暗的地方。可以保存4天左右。
Other Acorn Recipes:
Acorn Porridge by Adam Haritan
Porridge deserves more time in the limelight as a delicious breakfast option. Simmer a cup of coarse acorn flour in two cups of water, or make a 50/50 mix with coarse-ground wheat or other grains for a nourishing start to the day. Add a pinch of salt, a handful of raisins, and a knob of butter to make it something special.
Acorn Pancakes
配上野生浆果和少量自制枫糖浆,你可以向自己和早餐客人证明,野生食物是世界上最好的食物。
Acorn Coffee
Roasted until fragrant and simmered for 15 minutes, coarse-ground acorn flour can be brewed intoa rich, coffee-ish drink它本身就很舒服,配上一些加了糖和香料的牛奶也很美味。
这只是所有可能性的一小部分,等待着家里的厨师用一罐橡子面粉来烹饪。这个秋天,我希望你有机会去寻找,加工,并真正享受这个神奇的,免费的食材!如果你有自己的橡子食谱,请毫不犹豫地分享给我们。
One Last Idea
I want to offer one more idea for the homesteader looking to utilize wild food to it’s full potential–it’s a great feed supplement for many of our animals. My ducks, chickens, and goats have all relished eating acorns and acorn grubs in the fall. The ducks and goats can handle them raw and unshelled as they fall from the tree, but the chickens need them smashed before they can get the nutmeats out. I have no experience with feeding them to other livestock, so my knowledge is limited to the effect on cows, sheep, or horses. All the same, acorns offer another self-sufficient option to the homesteader hoping to provide for their animals needs directly from their own land, rather than being entirely dependent on the feed store.
Resources
If you’re interested in the best foraging books in the world, you need to check out the work ofSamuel Thayer. His bookNature’s Gardenhas the most thorough, useful, and insightful write up on acorn foraging that I’ve found anywhere, with far more information and recipes than what I’ve presented here.
汉克·肖是那些对觅食感兴趣的人要记住的另一个名字。His recipes using acorns are positively amazing-looking.
Another place worth investigating is this excellent post by another homesteader also turning acorns into a diet staple for her own family.Practical Self-Reliance充满了极好的想法,包括橡子意大利面和橡子奶酪!
For those foragers out there closer to the foodie side of the spectrum,Pascal Baudaris your man. He has been transforming wild foods into super-fancy epicurean delights with a fervor that needs to be seen to be believed. Some of his creations may be more complicated than is practical for everyday fare, but if you’re looking for inspiration, he’s a great source of it.
Gail Gardnersays
我想知道在它们被过滤后,我们是否可以用它们来喂鸡,鸭和其他牲畜?我们还在寻找答案。
Wren Everettsays
No need to leach them to feed livestock! We feed raw acorns to our animals every year. My goats, ducks, and chickens eat them regularly with no problems (I have no experience with horses or cattle, though, so I’m not sure about them). I’d be happy to share any more information on that if you’re interested. Research on this is a bit dodgy–I have found that a lot of websites online have conflicting information on whether or not acorns are good for animals. But the wild animals eat them every year, and happily. My animals forage regularly, and they seem to know what’s good for them–they congregate under the oak trees!
Save the leached ones for people food! They ‘re delicious, and a whole lot of work to obtain in the first place, haha.
Alicia Bsays
几年来,我一直在冷浸橡子,粗略地把它们切碎,把它们放在一个大罐子里,然后灌满水到顶部。
I leave the jar in the garage and change the water every day for about a week, or until the water is a light yellow, then boil the acorns, grind them and use in cookies.
然而,由于剥橡子需要大量的劳动,所以我的产量很少。其中90%都有一个或多个肥大的蛆虫(但在其他方面是完美的),我必须一个一个地把它们清除掉,通常,因为我用胡桃钳打开它们,蛆虫爆炸成了一团猫。
Any idea on why I get so many?
Kane Jamisonsays
Hey Alicia,
A couple possible recommendations for you:
The first is to gather the acorns and let them dry on a screen first, before leaching them. A proportion of the weevils will bore out of the nuts and drop out onto the screen.
You might also be picking up the acorns from the first drop–sometimes unavoidable, but if there’s a selected tree you’re gathering from, you could try to visit it later in the season for the “good drop.”
Finally, try a product like the Davebuilt nutcracker. They only crack the nut in half, leaving the grubs unexploded and easier to remove.
The last thought is that Weevil populations vary by year, too.
I hope that helps!
Sadhnasays
Hello. Great informative article. I appreciate it! I just collected a bunch of acorns, cracked and shelled them, and am now soaking them. However I need to decide whether to use them! Can you please see my 2 questions below?. 1 If my acorns become dark brown along cracks or fissure points after I pull them out of their shells, does this mean they are oxidized, and are they okay to consume? The dark brown lines developed soon after the nuts were shelled, and in all the articles I see on acorn harvesting, I see only pictures only of clean acorns only slightly browned. 2 Also, I threw out any acorns with blackened parts inside, but after splitting a couple of shelled acorns that had appeared clean from the outside, I discovered they had dark blackened spots inside. Is this mold, and how would I have found this out? I wouldn’t have known or discarded them had I not split them open.