Acorns: The Grain That Grows on Trees

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Once you've accumulated a substantial haul (for reference purposes, it takes roughly three cups of acorns to make one cup of meal), you'll need to decap, hull, and dry the kernels. Some varieties are easier to shell after roasting, while others are simpler to hull when fresh. And although you can heat your harvest in a low (200°F) oven, I prefer to let the nuggets sun-dry. Do be sure to discard any discolored acorns, as they may spoil the taste of the other nuts.

If the acorns are bitter-tasting, you'll need to leach out the tannins present in the kernels. Fortunately, these substances are water-soluble, so the leaching process is simply a matter of repeated rinsings. First grind the acorns, either by hand using the mortar-and-pestle method or by adding a bit of water to the nuts and whizzing them in a blender (a coffee grinder also works well for pulverizing small harvests). Next, place the meal in a nylon stocking, a cloth bag, or a dish-towel-lined colander and rinse the mass under a slow stream of water while gently working the pulp with your hand. When the liquid runs clear and the bitterness is gone from the meal, you're done. Dry the resulting chocolate brown flour in a solar dryer or a low oven (you may need to regrind the meal after it dries if it becomes clumped). [EDITOR'S NOTE: Lee Peterson, in his excellent reference, A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, suggests leaching the tannin by boiling the whole kernel (stripped of its shell), or the acorn meal, in repeated changes of water until the liquid no longer turns brown.]

The possibilities for using acorn meal are limited only by your own ingenuity. You can add it to soups, stews, and stuffings or use it to replace part of the flour or cornmeal in your favorite bread, cake, or cookie recipes (when substituting, you may want to reduce the amount of oil called for, since acorn meal is high in fat). As you try the recipes given here or some of your own creations, keep in mind that considerable variation occurs between different acorn species and even between individual trees ...so you might want to experiment with several types of acorns, and stick to the easier (and less expensive) recipes, until you find a variety that suits your tastes.

TRADITIONAL INDIAN ACORN MUSH

1 cup of acorn meal
3 cups of water
a pinch of clean ash (optional)

To make this Native American staple food, mix the ingredients and simmer the mush for about half an hour in a double boiler. Or, to be truly authentic, cook it by dropping hot stones from the fire into the batter, then peel the "acorn chips" from the rocks.

TONY MONTOYAS ACORN TORTILLAS

3 cups of acorn meal
3 cups of whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon (or more) of shortening
1/2 cup of warm water

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