Acorns for Dinner

by Greg Ellis

Before Wal Mart, Albertson's, Safeway, the downtown grocery, the market, even before agriculture as we know it, even before the agriculture our grandparents knew, there was the forest.  I mean this in two senses — not only that our modern food system is often built on top of the forest, but also in the sense that the forest was a sprawling, ancient, and abundant convenience store.  Just as the bounties of harvest fill our grocery stores at this time of year, so the forests fill with the bounties of a productive growing season.  It's this time of year when I gather my grocery bags under my arm and head to the forests to do a little shopping.

In our forests, acorns were a staple for the native Chumash — they are easy to gather, loaded with nutrients, and actually quite delicious if treated properly.  There are many detailed descriptions of Chumash methods of processing, and modern recipes (see below).  I present here a photo-essay of my culinary adventure in processing acorns with a few choice observations.  Please, be careful of any food allergies you might possess before trying this at home!

I chose the coast live oak acorn to harvest and picked many from a local park so I wouldn't compete with wildlife or impact natural oak regeneration.  I tried to select acorns without external signs of discoloration, holes, or cracks that could indicate insect or fungal damage.

After collection, and perhaps drying and long-term storage, processing for food begins with shelling.  I personally use a hammer to smash the acorn until it's shell cracks and can be peeled away.  Others prefer rocks, as was probably the traditional method.  Some acorns possess an inner skin, much like a peanut.  Live oaks do have this husk, which is traditionally removed.

Cutting an acorn open, you will find that the flesh varies in color depending on the species.  Valley oaks (Quercus lobata) are known as the Wonderbread of acorns — white flesh with plenty of carbs but little oils, fats, or proteins.  Coast live oak, on the other hand could be the turkey on whole wheat sandwich of the acorns, with plenty of yellowy fats, oils and protein to go along with the carbs. 

I ground my acorns in my roommates coffee grinder — it's pretty efficient but you'll have to do small batches at a time.  A food processor would probably work just as well, and drying the acorns first might prevent gumming.  Acorns must be leached before consumption — they contain bitter tannins that make them bad tasting and can upset the stomach in large quantities.

Leaching can be done in still or running water, hot or cold.  I used hot water in a bowl, hoping to better dissolve the tannins — hot water may also wash away nutrients though I haven't found much information on the subject.

After four rounds of kneading the bag in hot water for around 30 minutes, no further colors appeared.  Sampling the acorn flour, it should taste slightly sweet and have lost its bitterness.

The final product can be seasoned, dried, cooked, frozen, mixed with other ingredients.  I made cookies!!

Further Reading

I thank Lionel Johnston for his storytelling that led me to try acorns.  Also Frank Zika and Josephine Laing have taken the San Luis Obispo acorn to new heights — see an article about them here.

For a complete nutritional guide to the various species of acorns, see David Bainbridge's scholarly article, The Use of Acorns for Food: Past, Present, Future.

Jared Diamond discusses the problems of cultivating oaks for food in his book Guns, Germs and Steel.  Basically, expression of bitter tannins in the acorn is dictated by more than one gene, so it is hard to “breed out” that trait.  Also oaks are long-lived and don't produce acorns until they reach ten to twenty years of age, making breeding a long process. 

In his book Tree Crops: A permanent agriculture. J. Russell Smith describes the recent (well, 1929) attempts to domesticate the oak.

For more tips on cooking acorn dips, tofus, soups, salads and  breads, check out Acorns and Eat'Em by Suellen Ocean.

Finally, watch out for the Spring 2013 issue of EdibleSLO for an article about other Chumash foods, beyond the acorn....

Liberty High School, 800 Niblick, Paso Robles, CA 9344

How many people does it take to build a greenhouse? In our book, no less than 57! Many thanks go out to all the community members, students and businesses who are making it happen. Join us Saturday, Dec. 8th 2012 anytime between 10 am to 2 pm at Liberty High School in Paso.

Student docents will be on hand to explain their solar system, greenhouse, rainwater catchment, and nursery. The open house will take place at Liberty High School’s outdoor classroom behind the softball field. A selection of student artwork, plants and fruit trees grown by students will be on sale.  Come learn and shop for the holidays!

Special thanks to: Liberty High School GreenWorks Students; Delta Chi Fraternity; Cal Poly Architectual Engineering Students of the Built for Christ Fellowship, and the California Conservation Corps for assisting with construction; Big Creek Lumber for donating lumber; Professional Plastics for donating polycarbonate; PG&E for funding additional materials and staff time; and finally, MidAmerican and First Solar for sponsoring the open house! We look forward to seeing you at our event!