acorns

[Jensen]

In it he claims that many early pre-history civilisations were balanocultures, using acorns as their original food source, rather than grains.  He mentions native Californian American, and Korea among others as examples where the acorn is still eaten.

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I remember learning about acorns as food in Grade 4 Social Studies but, unfortunately, that was far too long ago for me to be of any help.

[HeatherM]

When I was in primary school (grade 2? 3?) I remember thinking that the other kids were crazy for eating acorns. Every recess they were out in the school yard like a bunch of squirrels. I think the teachers discouraged it, but the kids kept on eating them.

[thdad]

You may get other positive responses, but quite frankly I don't think acorns are worth the effort.

I've tried Korean acorn jelly (which is sold in markets here) and it's pretty blah. In fact, after a bite or two each, we quietly threw out the rest of the package.

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The acorn jelly is never eaten as is. Korean acorn jelly or "dotori mook" (dotori=acorn, mook=jelly) is always eaten with a spicy sauce, which is usually a blend of chopped green onions, korean red pepper flakes, chopped garlic, a little bit of sugar, and soy sauce. The "dotori mook" is sliced and tossed with this sauce and with fresh sliced cucumbers and carrots. It makes for a good banchan (side dish) or accompaniment to cold beer.

[rooftop1000]

I'm really digging into the depths of memory here but I'm fairly certain reference was made to this in the novel "My Side of the Mountain" which I read when I was probably 8 or so.  It's about a boy who runs away from NYC and lives off of the land for a year.  The author describes vividly how he hunted and gathered and steps he took to neutralize acrid flavors, etc, to make foods more palatable. 

Naturally the movie version was disappointing in its lack of such detail.  Some things haven't changed all that much. 

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Love that book.

Maple trees just have the sweetest sap but I have heard good things about Birch also

t

[Carrot Top]

It is true that the Californian American eats acorns. The Californian American eats many things, but the acorn is something that belongs to their folklore.

It is fascinating that this fact has finally been unearthed. To be precise, when Americans can not find a hot dog to eat, they quite naturally turn to the acorn for sustenance.

James Michener tells us of the origins of this natural occurence in the book "Texas" when describing settlers heading west to Texas from places like Virginia (where of course, I live). As they headed west through places like Kentucky, everything was fine. There were hot dogs there to be had. But then further south, near some dreadful river that I can not remember the name of, food was not to be found. No hot dogs, no nothin'. And any extra money had to be paid to the guy who would take them across the river and on to Texas (where of course they lived for a while then picked up all their stuff and moved further west to California).

Thank god for the Native Americans, or "Indians" as they used to be called. They saved the settlers' asses one more time, in showing them how to eat acorns.

The Cambridge World History of Food informs us that "In North America, acorns sustained many Native American groups, who exploited some 20 species". Naturally this exploitation of the poor acorn led to the settlers feeling it would be okay to exploit the Indians, then of course further along in time the Brits arrived to exploit America's offerings of hot dogs to their own ends.

Euell Gibbons (who never knowingly exploited anything, of course!) tells us that "It seems a pity that the food which nourished the childhood of our race is today nearly everywhere neglected and despised" and offers five or six recipes for acorn cookery, of which he admits that the candied acorn is his very favorite.

Waverly Root has a different take on acorns than Euell. He claims that they are "best eaten indirectly by man in the form of pork" which of course is the reason that all those Brits came here after the war. Decent hot dogs.

The Oxford Companion to Food avoids involvement altogether with any of this, preferring to go to Spain for their information, telling us that "The Duchess who, in Don Quijote, asked Sancho Panza's wife to send acorns from her village would have been seeking especially fine specimens of this kind (Ilex or Ballota Oak, found in the Mediterranean).

There is currently a growing interest in the acorn among some groups in the States, and one of the best-kept secrets is of an annual trek made by the Nutty Bunch, a group of acorn-lovers who gather to march the same route from Virginia to Texas each year, eating only hot-dogs and acorns along the way.

Yes, surely acorns will be the next big thing, gastronomically.

[BarbaraY]

Grinding Stones

I remember learning about acorns as food in Grade 4 Social Studies but, unfortunately, that was far too long ago for me to be of any help.

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Obviously you didn't have Miss Rozier as your 4th grade teacher. She was a great lover of the local Mi Wuk culture and had a collection of Native baskets that is now in a museum.

She got us all so involved that we agreed to stay an extra hour like the "big kids" just for our California History lessons. One of the girls in our class is Mi Wuk and her mother made us some acorn mush. It tasted like cold Cream of Wheat with no salt although I think it would probably have been better warm.

Our local tribe has the Black Oak Casino for good reason. Black oak is the preferred acorn in this area. There are still many grinding stones along the creeks and rivers here. They are usually found near the water because of the necessary leaching that was done in loosely woven cone shaped baskets.

Cooking baskets were so tightly woven that they don't leak. The mush was cooked by dropping hot stones into it. I do think Barbara's mom used a range, though, since by this time everyone had a stove.

We used to play in the grinding stone areas. Some of the grinding holes were very deep, up to a kids elbow. You could also find obsidien chips nearby, the remains of arrowhead making.

[Carrot Top]

I think that a slightly sweetened acorn mousse (perhaps using maple syrup for that essence of America) wrapped in very thinly sliced hot dogs would be an admirable appetizer. Yum.

[sazji]

I remember reading that acorns were the staple of the Native Americans in California, even those of the tan-oak which are high in tannins, were eaten. The procedure was to grind them, place them in holes in a sandy bank, and pour water through them to leach the tannins out. A friend who tried it said it was pretty blah. But then, a lot would depend on preparation. We use wheat as a staple, but it doesn't mean most of us would enjoy plain cream of wheat boiled in water with no accompaniment! Now I'm tempted to gather some different species here and try it.

I agree that it is sad that so many native plants are forgotten in the US. Here and in Greece, many, many different types of wild fruits and especially greens, are a very common part of people's diets; you can find them in the markets as well. I'd imagine that one big reason for the lack of knowledge in the US is that the US is mostly a nation of immigrants who brought many of their old familiar foods with them, but most never even had a chance to learn from Native Americans. So many in the US have never even met one!

Why should one not use acorns that have lost their caps? Since that is what happens when they get ripe, I'd think it wold simply mean that they are ripe?