Acorns ready for gathering—by squirrels or by foragers.
Quercus species
EDIBLE nut
Acorns are a quintessential forager’s food. A few barrels of acorns gathered before winter will bring you an abundance of nutrient-dense carbohydrates and plant proteins. Once leached in a water bath, the acorn nutmeat is similar in flavor to the chestnut, and it can be used in soups and pulverized into nut butter, as well as ground into flour for baking.
White and red oaks (genus Quercus) are identifiable by their gray bark and alternate leaves, clustered at the terminal bud, each with soft, round edges. To discern between the two groups of oaks, white oaks have round-tipped leaves and red oaks have pointed leaves. Leaves can be deeply lobed or have no lobes at all. All acorns can have spiny or shaggy caps. Both the red and white oak produce acorns that are high in tannins, so they are not as palatable when fresh, but a good leaching can remedy the tannic flavor. White oaks have less tannin and produce the preferred acorn among foragers.
Acorns ready for gathering—by squirrels or by foragers.
A Nutty Job: Processing Acorns
Shelling can be done tediously by hand, with a hammer or pair of pliers (squeeze twice to split open, says a friend forager) in front of a good TV show. I’d recommend investing in a hand-cranked nutcracker to process large batches, but they are expensive. Maybe your group of forager friends could invest in one together. Large pieces of nutmeats are easier to remove from the shell than crushed bits, so plan your smashing accordingly.
The acorn nutmeats will then need to be leached to remove the tannins from the nut and make it palatable. There are several methods for leaching, including a hot process and a cold process, each of which affects the final ground acorn product differently.
The hot water process will leech the tannins faster and can be done on a stovetop over the course of a long weekend. First, finely chop the nutmeats in a blender. This will increase the surface area of the nut that touches the water and thus speeds us the leech time.
Then, simmer the finely chopped nutmeats in water at a 1:5 ratio and replace the water until the nutmeats are palatable and nutty, not bitter. Acorns from white oaks are less tannic than the red and will have a shorter leaching process. The nutmeats, once leached, must be fully dried in a warm oven or dehydrator and then stored in a freezer immediately to prevent the acorn from going rancid if they aren’t used immediately in cooking.
Both red and white oaks are well distributed across the Midwest. If you want to gather the acorns, it’s advisable to head out harvesting later in the fall, as the first drops generally have the most insect damage. The acorns will fall in waves across the season, and they can be readily gathered off the ground well into the winter, particularly red acorns which benefit from a winter’s leaching and do not germinate until the spring (leaching helps to reduce their tannic flavor). The amount of the harvest will vary year to year: some seasons will bring bumper crops, and other years won’t be as abundant.
As you gather acorns, make sure to discard nuts with obvious insect infestation. Gather only those with firm, clean, and fresh-looking discs (the spot on top of the acorn where the cap was once affixed). Also discard any whose cap appears dislodged, moldy, or simply “off.”
The shelf life for fresh acorns is terribly short, so they should be dried on a screen or in a dehydrator or placed in dry, cold storage that stays below 50 degrees F, such as an unheated basement, if you want to save them. Check regularly for mold.
The leached nutmeats can be used whole, and toasting them brings out a nice roasted flavor similar to that of the chestnut. Acorns can be substituted in chestnut recipes, including as a finely ground flour that can be added to baking mixes. Remember that there is no gluten in acorn flour, so baking projects need to be planned accordingly.
Acorn flour is rich in carbohydrates and plant proteins. Stir the processed flour into smoothies to add wild nutrient density in lieu of commercial protein powders. The nutmeat can also be transformed into a nut butter or paste to add to other foraged flavors like chaga, chestnut, and hickory to create a tasty spread.
Oaks in a local park can yield an abundance of acorns. While white oaks produce less-tannic acorns than reds, the red oak acorns can still be leached. Feel free to gather and try them for your own palate if there’s a stand nearby to you.
Oaks are widespread across the Midwest and have not yet been threatened by the Sudden Oak Death disease seen in the West, but Oak Wilt is a concern in the Midwest. However, habitat loss is always an issue for our large hardwoods, although gathering the acorns will not significantly impact the propagation of smaller oaks.
