Acorns

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: Acorns

Post by Arzosah »

August update, oops.
I took photos in mid-August, but only got round now to adjusting them for size and putting them up here. When I was wandering about looking for a representative best of the bunch specimen, what struck me was the variety from the previous month. By August, it was plain that some acorns would never grow, some were still quite small, and some, like the one I chose, had put on all the growth that they were going to, and now just needed to ripen.
August acorns1.jpg
This is the general shot of the branch.
August acorn individual.jpg
And this is the close up of The Chosen One :)
Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: Acorns

Post by Arzosah »

I took another set of photos this week, and that diversity was even more apparent. Lots of the cups are just lying on the ground, some acorns are ripening, others are still green.
September acorn.jpg
Again, this is the general picture of the little branch, for context.
September individual acorns.jpg
And these are the individuals. I've chosen two, to show how different things can get. Before next week is out, I definitely need to check whether they can be picked and allowed to ripen *off* the tree, like hazelnuts, or whether they have to be picked off the tree at the time. Haven't done any research since I last posted a couple of months ago - pandemic, and taking what social life I can (weekly walks with my sister), have taken precedence. But I'm going to get back on it now.
jansman
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Re: Acorns

Post by jansman »

In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
Arzosah
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Re: Acorns

Post by Arzosah »

Thanks jansman! I've come across grandpappy before, but I've not seen that post. Brilliant. It looks like a lot of personal information, not just recycled from other sites.
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mushroom
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Re: Acorns

Post by mushroom »

I made some acorn coffee and posted a thread about it in 2015 - I'd just been on a foraging course with Ffyona Campbell (she who walked around the world in the 80s!)
It was a HUGELY time consuming process. The result looked like coffee but had it's own very distinctive taste. It's not something I ever went to the trouble of making again! It was quite an aquired taste.
In fact a friend mentioned it the other day. he was intreagued when I made it so I gave him a cup... it;s taken him 5 years to fess up that he thought it was terrible (said he liked it at the time!! :lol: )
http://www.uk-preppers.co.uk/forum/view ... 21&t=12673
Arzosah
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Re: Acorns

Post by Arzosah »

What a great thread you made, mushroom, thanks for the linkie :) You worked on a lot as well - thats a fair-sized baking tray you've filled. As a matter of personal preference (including very low levels of physical energy, after chronic fatigue) I probably wouldn't go the extra steps of making a drink, I'd stop at your step number six, and use the dried/baked nutmeat in a stew of some sort, or just chuck in with my pasta, which is what I do with cashew nuts at the moment.

The reason I started this one is that oak grows all over the country, and it could definitely be a famine food. And to taste what they're like. If there was ever *need* for it, which I strongly doubt, I think soaking would be important, rather than heating up - using fuel for that would be counter productive, maybe. I've read histories in which bags of acorns used to be suspended in streams to help get rid of the tannin.

Very interesting about the taste! I can well believe it :lol:
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mushroom
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Re: Acorns

Post by mushroom »

I'm going foraging to the same place again this year - but I think I'll leave the acorns alone! I'll stick with blackberries, elderberries and rosehips... I think a Vit C tonic will be much called for this year instead of acorn coffee!

I never made the beach nut butter - but I might even revisit that, sounds quite nice!

Yes, acorns definitely famine food, a shame when they are so plentiful. They 'looked' nice when roasted and I think as I remember they smelt quite nice, but the taste wasn't anything we are used to - very individual - can't really liken it to anything.

I saw Ffyona Campbell at a Christmas market selling her foraged foods after having made the acorn coffee. I told her I'd tried making it and she was quite excited that someone had gone to the trouble, but when I mentioned it was an aquired taste she was decidely unimpressed! :lol:
Arzosah
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Re: Acorns

Post by Arzosah »

Hope your foraging is going well, mushroom. Blackberries and elderberries are over now, down south here, but lots of hips around.

I love that you got to meet Ffyona Campbell!