This is your seasonal reminder that all acorns are edible. Some need processing, others do not.
In October, I will do a thread on Southern Live Oak, Quercus virginiana. These don’t need processing but do need to be steamed in their shells to remove the nut. Last year, house moths ate most of mine so they need to be well-sealed and frozen after shelling.
#foraging #NativePlants #gardening #jardin #cooking #FoodPorn #trees #arbol #acorns #plants @plants@a.gup.pe #FoodSecurity #Permaculture
@josefgarvi @plants@a.gup.pe some trees are mast type: they produce very heavily one year and less the next year(s). I think red oak and swamp white oak (Quercus rubra and bicolor) are mast types. Others produce consistently year after year. Two consistent producers are willow oak and southern live oak. Consistent: one mature tree, at least one bucket+ of acorns. I have a willow oak thread pinned to the top of my profile. They need to be processed first but they are really good.
@Brendanjones @jblue @plants I am by no means an expert, but they should be harvested when ripe off the ground, and as long as you harvest them freshly fallen, they should be in good condition
@silphium @Brendanjones @jblue Agreed. Freshly fallen is best. At least for White Oaks. One thing worth noting about acorns is that white oaks (sect. Quercus) generally will germinate very soon after falling to the ground, and Red Oaks (sect. Lobatae) will generally germinate after a cold period (i.e. they won't germinate until spring). So while White Oaks might tend to have less bitter acorns, they can be much harder to harvest before they germinate or start going bad. Also, critters are just as aware as us that White Oaks have less bitter acorns that germinate or go bad soon, and they'll eat them up really fast. So those are just a few things to keep in mind when harvesting acorns.
And in case anyone needs to know: You can tell White Oaks from Red Oaks by the fact that Red Oaks have sharp bristle tips on their leaves while White Oaks don't. White Oaks can have teeth or even glandular-tipped lobes (like Q. muehlenbergii), but they never have *bristles*.
@Brendanjones @jblue @silphium @plants Would like to recommend the book "Nature's Garden" by Samuel Thayer here. There's over 50 pages about acorns with lots of pictures of the ones to avoid, weavil issues, processing techniques, as well as history and what to do with them.
It's available on archive.org https://archive.org/details/naturesgardengui0000thay/page/179/mode/1up
@Brendanjones @silphium @plants@a.gup.pe for the willow oaks, I wait until a tropical storm/hurricane knocks down a bucket load. These acorns are best when they are green. Often when the shell turns brown, they are shriveled and rotten inside.
Most acorns are ripe when the shells turn brown. I collect them straight off the tree on low hanging branches bc of over-ambitious squirrels taking them all off the ground. Collected acorns should have no holes -
@silphium @plants@a.gup.pe I haven’t tried this one. If there are a lot of tannins, this thread shows how to cold-process acorns. Cold-processing has better flavor than heat processing (boiling in multiple changes of water). Heat processing makes the acorns taste on the bitter side.
https://mastodon.world/@jblue/109881330914753124
If it doesn’t need processing, it helps to steam the acorns in their shell with low heat (60-65C) in the oven to help remove the nut from the shell.
@jblue How do acorns taste? I assumed they'd be bitter, tart and astringent.
@dan some acorns need to be processed to remove the tannins. But others don’t. The southern Live Oak does not need to be processed, but it needs to be steamed in its shell at a low heat (140-150F for an hour). It will taste like chesnuts. The willow oak, after cold processing tastes like the smell of fresh hay+wheat and sunflower seeds. If you heat process the tannins out (boiling in multiple changes of water) it will taste like bitter-ish walnuts.
@jblue I wonder what *Q. virginiana* acorns you're getting, because while still very mild, the ones I processed when I lived in south Alabama very much did need to be processed.
@delve I don’t know what to say. Mine come straight from the tree because the squirrels would get them if they fell to the ground. I pick them when they’re almost black appearance. I heat them in their shells at around 150 Fahrenheit for an hour+ in the oven before I peel them. (I wait until they smell frangrant.) The nut slips out easier this way.
@jblue Interesting. Maybe I misidentified the acorns I was collecting when I was down south. It was a while ago, to be honest.
@dan this thread shows how to cold process willow oak acorns
@jblue Thanks. That is a very interesting process.
@RoboticistDuck first one is southern live oak+toasted black sesame noodles (the squares), the second one is a willow oak dengaku (has miso and yuzu zest), the third one is mini willow oak pancakes, and the last one is willow oak soba. The recipes are loosely inspired by certain recipes and the author and page number are in the AltText. The books are Japanese Home Cooking and Japanese Cooking. The pinned acorn thread on my profile goes more into detail about the dishes in the AltText.
@jblue thank you for detailed explanations. Lots of interesting ideas. A favorite izakaya in Roppongi twenty years ago used to serve donguri in season and a friend in Kanagawa has recently started collecting them at a shrine nearby and making various dishes. I encounter them on my hikes in Nagano this time of year, but my family’s tastes are sometimes less adventurous than mine, so I may restrict my local foraged nut experiments to chestnuts and walnuts this year.