Photo by David Hill
Compleat Naturalist: The Acorn
By Hal and Laura Mahan
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each evening when we come home, it seems a thousand more scarlet oak acorns have fallen on our driveway. A bit of a nuisance, but it reminds us just how many acorns can be produced by a single mid-sized oak tree. It’s then easy to see why oaks are some of the most common trees in our woodlands and neighborhoods, and also why wildlife depends so much on acorns—there are just so many of them some years!
Even if you don’t know much about trees, you certainly know from childhood what an acorn looks like, with its cap-topped nut. Even the botanically challenged know that acorns come from the mighty oak. It’s really fun to collect acorns from different species of oaks, and to notice the subtle and sometimes major differences between them.
A few years ago, we attended the International Oak Society meeting at the North Carolina Arboretum, and we were amazed at the display of acorns presented by the attendees. These nuts from around the world (the acorns, that is) ranged from several inches across to less than half an inch.
There are more than 400 species of oaks and about 60 in North America. All over the world, acorns have been harvested as food by native people. Early settlers depended on them as well—turning their hogs out into the oak woods to fatten up on acorns—along with many species of wildlife such as black bears, wild turkey and our native squirrels. When it comes to providing food for wildlife, oaks are number one, since the oaks are used for food by hundreds of insect species, which are in turn eaten by other insects or birds or mammals.
Oaks in the eastern US fall into two major groups, “red” and “white,” that have easily recognizable differences in the leaves. Red oaks have sharply pointed lobes, and white oaks have rounded lobes. White oak acorns mature in one growing season, while red oaks mature in the fall after the second growing season.
Have you ever tasted an acorn? If you have you know that they taste awful! This is because they contain a bitter substance called tannin. Many plants contain tannins, but acorns contain so much that they require some processing before they can be consumed.
Making Acorn Flour
If you want to try your hand at making acorn flour, you’ll need to process the nuts. After you have collected your bounteous haul of acorns, lay them outside in a single layer on an old sheet in a dry sunny place for several hours. This will prevent any possible molding, and kill any insect eggs or larvae that might be inside. You can also spread them out on cookie sheets and put them in the oven on low heat for an hour.
Next remove the cap and crack the nut with a pair of pliers, peel off the shell and toss the kernel into a bowl. Grind up the nuts and place the resulting acorn meal in a large crock or glass bowl. Pour boiling water over the meal and let it stand for an hour. Drain and throw out the brown, tannin-laden water. Repeat until the tannin is mostly gone. Then dry the meal in the oven on the lowest setting, crumbling up any chunks, which hold moisture. Finally grind up the dry meal in a food processor until you have a fine, nutritious flour.
If making the acorn flour seems like too much work to you (it does to us), then simply enjoy the oaks for their beauty, diversity and importance to our local ecosystem!
Acorn Bread
2 cups acorn flour
2 cups white flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup maple syrup or sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons
Bake in pan for 30 minutes or until done, 400 degrees.
Further Investigation
The International Oak Society website: internationaloaksociety.org
Fall Color and Woodland Harvests: A Guide to the More Colorful Fall Leaves and Fruits of the Eastern Forests by C. Ritchie Bell and Anne H. Lindsey
The Mahans own The Compleat Naturalist at 2 Brook Street in Biltmore Village. To learn more, visit compleatnaturalist.com or call 828.274.5430.
