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Forrester
aspiring sociopath


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Any acorn eaters here?
#20740840 - 10/22/14 11:01 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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So, as kind of a self-sufficiency / survivalist kind of thing, I have been looking into harvesting and eating acorns.
It can totally be done, some tribes of native Americans got something like 60% of their calories from acorns.
I've already got the process down, you need to leach out all the tannins and all that, and then they can be ground into a nice flour and dried.
We tried making some cookies, but they fell pretty flat, more like pancakes. But man, they were delicious. Acorns are actually pretty tasty 
Anyone else do this? Maybe have some good recipe suggestions / ideas?
-------------------- Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here. ------------------- Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them? Try this double extraction method.
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applesmasher420
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Re: Any acorn eaters here? [Re: Forrester]
#20742644 - 10/23/14 12:01 PM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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I have done it several times to teach people and once just for food on a mushroom foray. However I feel its too much work for the end result to be worth it for me. Id much rather go find some mushrooms to fry up. Though they are definitely not bad! Maybe if you developed some sort of bulk processing unit it could be more worth while?
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Forrester
aspiring sociopath


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I feel ya on the work...
3 of us sat down on a night when there was nothing else to do and pounded out enough of 'em to get 2lbs of flour, and it took us only about 2 hours. 2lbs of flour will go quite a ways!
I am looking into ideas for some kind of bulk processing method though like you said, maybe just a mill set to the right thickness where you could just dump 'em in and it would crack them all. A little shaking after that and all the nuts should fall to the bottom and leave the shells at the top. At least that's how it goes in my head, probably wouldn't be quite so simple 
I guess that's why you don't find this stuff for sale all that often! (or... ever)
But like I said, the main idea is just to learn about it for self-sustainability / survivalist situations. When there's another oil crisis or other catastrophe and the food trucks stop rolling in, it's nice to know there's a plentiful source of free food right in your backyard. Especially since they fall right before the long winter. It's almost like nature intended this for us...
-------------------- Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here. ------------------- Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them? Try this double extraction method.
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SleepAid
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Re: Any acorn eaters here? [Re: Forrester]
#20745805 - 10/24/14 12:49 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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I made a loaf of acorn bread during survival school in new jersey and the main thing I remember thinking the most was "man, I've been in the river washing acorns for a long fucking time now..." Tastes pretty okay for being lost in the middle of the woods though.
-------------------- Signature this, ho
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LunarEclipse
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Re: Any acorn eaters here? [Re: Forrester]
#20746079 - 10/24/14 05:05 AM (9 years, 3 months ago) |
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Good to know if I get hungry at my new place, acorns are an option. Because I have a lot of oaks around. Many are scrub oaks, I wonder if scrub acorns are not as good as big old regular oak acorns.
I was hoping this year to try to process some of the English Walnuts from a couple of trees. I'm assuming it was squirrels that grabbed them all? Didn't even seem to hit the ground before being completely gone...
-------------------- Anxiety is what you make it.
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leschampignons
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Re: Any acorn eaters here? [Re: Forrester]
#20962386 - 12/11/14 02:54 PM (9 years, 1 month ago) |
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I tried this once with a small amount of acorns and the brown water just kept coming off for like hours... They didn't seem all that bitter by the end of it but it didn't seem worth it. Perhaps I found one of the varieties that is higher in tannins, as apparently acorns from some oaks can be eaten without preparation.
The cool thing is that that tannin water can be used to tan hides, dye clothing, and probably do other cool things as well.
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Forrester
aspiring sociopath


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Quote:
leschampignons said: I tried this once with a small amount of acorns and the brown water just kept coming off for like hours... They didn't seem all that bitter by the end of it but it didn't seem worth it. Perhaps I found one of the varieties that is higher in tannins, as apparently acorns from some oaks can be eaten without preparation.
You should leach them a lot longer maybe, ours took like a week but there was no bitterness at all after that, and it was pretty delicious. There are a lot of different ways to do it.
-------------------- Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here. ------------------- Have some medicinal mushrooms and want to get the most out of them? Try this double extraction method.
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leschampignons
Biochemistry + Mycology



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Re: Any acorn eaters here? [Re: Forrester]
#20964481 - 12/11/14 11:02 PM (9 years, 1 month ago) |
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Oh yeah this was boiling with several changes of water forgot to mention that
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leschampignons
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Re: Any acorn eaters here? [Re: Forrester]
#20964485 - 12/11/14 11:03 PM (9 years, 1 month ago) |
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did you leach them in running water like a stream or something or standing water?
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wyrdjoy23
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Re: Any acorn eaters here? [Re: Forrester]
#20964515 - 12/11/14 11:11 PM (9 years, 1 month ago) |
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I always mean to gather acorns in the fall but I'm too lazy I've done small batches before though. This video is super informative:
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leschampignons
Biochemistry + Mycology



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Re: Any acorn eaters here? [Re: wyrdjoy23]
#20964629 - 12/11/14 11:34 PM (9 years, 1 month ago) |
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I enjoyed that video very much thanks for sharing
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