# So what can you do with acorns from Live Oaks in TX



## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

The live oaks have dropped lots of acorns. I peeled a couple and tried chewing them up. Not very tasty! Is there some way of cooking or roasting to make them more palatable?

Or should I just stick with other nuts.

Seems liek a it would be a useful emergency survival food.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

In a nutshell, acorns have to be processed before they are edible. You can Google this, but basically I think it involves soaking, mashing and washing them to remove the tannins. 

If you or someone you know has pigs, they will gorge themselves on them; no processing needed. I also had a goat that occasionally ate them.


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## FourDeuce (Jun 27, 2002)

A lot of wildlife will come to eat the acorns, too. I've watched deer and squirrel eating them as fast as they can find them.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

http://preparenownewsletter.blogspot.com/2009/02/acorns-can-be-people-food.html


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

My goats love them. I like to gather them for adding to the feed.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

The Native Americans would dehusk them, crush them, and put them in baskets, and let the flowing water of a stream slowly leach out the tannins.

White oak acorns are one of the best... having one of the lowest amounts of tannins, so less leaching is needed.


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

Thanks for the blog post, it gave a lot of good info. In the blog was a link to further info about treating them. Here is the very basic info I gleaned.

Low heat dry - prevent mold and bug larvae from growing.
Remove shell - various ways
Boil in water - to remove tannin. {might keep the water for tanning}
Grind up - And make your biscuits.

Not going to try it this year, but maybe next year. Of course, if one was hungry enough, I suppose I could eat them even with all the tannin still in them. Since I'm not that hungry now... I'll pass.


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## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

A recipe I have said to use acorns from oak species that have rounded lobes on the leaves, not the ones that have the sharp, pointy lobes. They have less tannic acid that you have to leach out. I guess the question comes down to how much boiling, crushing, changes of water, etc. will take out an acceptable amount of acid taste and yet leave enough nutrition in to make the whole process worthwhile.

My recipe says to boil them, discard the water, crush them a bit, dry them in a 200 degree oven, and then grind or mash them into a corn meal consistency. Taste them after they come out of the oven. The recipe says if they are still too acidic, you can boil them once or twice again.

I expect we will be trying this as part of dd's living history project if we can find any acorns. We had strange weather this past spring and summer and there are very few acorns and nuts to be had here.


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

So has anyone here ever actually eaten anything made from acorns?


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## rightathome (Feb 10, 2009)

I've had corn/acorn muffins, they were really quite good. We had very few acorns this year on our front yard tree, after a huge crop last year. I'd love to try this. I recall that the local native americans used to store the crop for a year before processing, I wonder if that was to allow the nut to dry?


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

iI asked because I must have had a hundred pounds of acorns in my back yard this year. I was aware of the process of leaching the tannins, but wondered if it was really worth the effort in a non-starvation situation.


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