Acorns: The Grain That Grows on Trees
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Since you can find oaks in almost every part of the United States,it's easy to locate a suitable acorn hunting ground. Foraging in the wilds (TOP)... or even among ornamental oaks in a city park (CENTER)... can provide you with a bountiful harvest of kernels (BOTTOM).
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A food-producing nut tree may well be growing,
unappreciated, in your own backyard.
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By David Bainbridge
Before white settlers ventured onto this continent, acorns
were one of the staple foods of many of its indigenous
peoples. The oak crop provided a reliable and nutritious
source of food for these Native Americans, and many
families would harvest and eat as much as half a ton of
acorns in a year's time. The nuts were also boiled or
crushed to produce an oil, which was prized for cooking and
as a salve for burns and wounds. In addition, acorns were
the main diet of the deer, bear, and the many other animals
and birds that were consumed by the Indians.
However, the use of acorns as a human food began declining
in the early 1600's as oak forests were cleared for annual
crop production-in particular, for corn. Nowadays, almost
four billion bushels of corn are harvested in this country
every year, while only a handful of Native Americans and
wild-food enthusiasts take advantage of the
free-for-the-gathering acorn bounty. It seems a shame that
the food which once served as the staff of life to human
cultures is now widely disregarded.
Acorns have even lost their place as a forage crop for
livestock in this country ...although they're
still widely used for this purpose ill other lands
(particularly in southern Europe, where oaks supply fodder
for hogs). Whereas our frontier forebears fed themselves on
acorn-fattened pork, the U.S. now relies on corn as the
basis for meat production.
THE TRADE-OFF
Unfortunately, when the costs and benefits of growing corn
and acorns are compared, it becomes apparent that the
changeover has not been much of a bargain. As a perennial
tree crop, acorns can be grown year after year without
cultivation, fertilization, irrigation, or-in most
cases-spraying for pests. The oak also has the ability to
yield well on marginal land, including steep, erosion-prone
hillsides. Acorn production has other benefits, as well.
The trees contribute to soil deposition, provide increased
rainfall retention for replenishing the groundwater supply,
act as windbreaks, supply summer shade, and furnish
harvests of hardwood lumber and firewood and-in the case of
one oak (Quercus suber)—cork. What's more, the tannin
present in many acorn varieties is a sought-after
commercial product.
Corn, in contrast, is an annual that usually requires much
cultivation (which contributes to soil erosion), heavy
applications of fertilizers and pest-control sprays
(resulting in adverse environmental effects), and, often,
irrigation (thus helping to deplete our
ground-water stores).
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