PUT MORE FUN (AND NUTRITION) INTO YOUR LIFE: EAT ACORNS!

There are (or so my crafting book says) two basic kinds of oak: white and red. White oaks have leaves with rounded lobes, red oaks have leaves with pointed lobes. Acorns from white oaks can often be eaten without leaching (true in the one season of experience I have gathering them; the ones we gathered this fall were even tasty to munch right out of the shell). Red oak acorns, while edible, have a higher concentration of tannins and must be leached in order to be tasty. I think tannins in acorns can poison you, though I think I remember reading that you would have to eat a lot. Leaching can also be done by chopping the meats and boiling the pieces. Boil as for quick-soak beans; repeat about every hour, changing the water until meats are no longer bitter. NOTE: I think I remember reading in a book somewhere that the tannins are much more concentrated in the leach-water (ie it takes less to cause poisoning) so please keep a close eye on kids and pets. ONE OTHER NOTE: Don't get greedy and gather more acorns than you want to process immediately. I don't know if I wasn't watchful enough about what my 7-year-old put into the bag or if they simply do not keep well, but I put a big grocery bag of them up in my pantry, got sick that night, and went back a week later to get them for processing only to find them so severely rotted that even the squirrels would only pick them over.