@wildforager
Someone please explain what a pickled Acorn is (taste wise I understand the concept of a pickle)
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Iād like to try one.
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American Indians ate acorns as part of their diet.
Deer eat acorns, as do cows.
Some people pickle eggs, some pigs feet, some cucumbers and beetsā¦somebody has decided to try acorns.
I donāt know why not.
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Iām intrigued. Iād taste it. 
Maybe deep fried as well? 
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I wonder how big a popped acorn my be. Must only be attempted outside.
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I will look for the same locally. Thanks for sharing!
White oak acorns would be a better choice I would think. Far less tannic acid. Weāre talking about eating them, not tanning our stomachs to make a leather jacket.
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As a species, bur oak (Q.macrocarpa) has some of the lowest tannin levels of all the American oaks; Swamp White Oak is in the same ball park.
Iāve got grafts and seedlings of several bur, SWO, white and hybrids that have been selected for low-tannin levels. That said, Iām not convinced that genetics are the total determining factorā¦ yearly growing/environmental conditions also have an effect.
Iāve had some of Don Cobbās āSweetie #2ā SWO that were totally non-bitter (not much flavor, but no astringency), and acorns from the same tree the next year were indistinguishable from any other member of the white oak group.
Even ālow-tanninā selections probably need to be leachedā¦ unless youāre a deer or goat, with proline-rich salivary proteins to inactivate the tannins (cows donāt have them, and thus are subject to āacorn poisoningā).
Size of bur oak acorns is quite variableā¦ Iāve seen them in the range of 100/lb(with caps) from Manitoba, to 6-8/lb (bigger than a golf ball) - with caps removed - in some AL & TX selections.
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So basicly members of this forum will try to eat everything at least once.
Thats why I love it here
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Pickled Acorns with air fried Mojave Rattler and Prickly Pear Pieā¦Yum!
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Prickly Pear pie, Keep talking
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I stand correctedā¦never tried Burr Oak acornsā¦itās a rare tree in my neck of the woods. White oaks are plentiful though.
(And Chestnut oaks can be foundā¦they re definitely bitter with tannin.)
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Korean Acorn Jelly is one of the most boring foods I ever ate. Pickled Acorns I hope are more interesting.
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I was planning to try and make natto with acorns this Fall.
Get an instantpot, Natto and Yogurt have the same fermentation temps so its easy to hold for 24 hours. or 72 of your making rice punch.
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Ive eaten plenty of acorns and our family has fed them to pigs, dogs, cows etc. We call them poor mans corn. My grandparents raised all of their first livestock by raking up acorns to feed to them. Grandpa later made a deal with the railroad and bought all their derailed freight of any kind then opened a store to sell high quality freight and fed the livestock with the damaged freight. He had to buy it all 100% of the time regardless what it was. He had built his cow herd up to 700-800 , pigs were to numerous to count and we frequently got wild pigs in with the mix. My grandpa bought land others did not want covered with oaks and copperheads and ofcourse the pigs thrived eating copperheads and acorns. The streams were full of cottonmouth and they ate those as well. My grandpa always told me to do what others did not want to or had not thought of. When i was 14 he offerred me 80 acres and a job since we were very close and i said no thanks grandpa i dont need your help you already gave me everything i need. He always said i was the most like him and he said he knew i would be successful. I laughed when i saw this thread since my family is part native american which all ate acorns. To get rid of tannins i was told to put the bitter ones in the spring and let the tannins wash them out or we could boil them out. Later i read and confirmed what i was told since the family member conveying a story may or may not have processed acorns. Many stories are passed down but you must confirm them all. My family considered old growth oak forests as a permanent perrenial corn crop and to this day cousins, aunts, uncles etc. Still have thousands of acres of these old growth forests. Most know i live in Kansas and others know of me only though some extended family never met me. Im still their relative and some of the family come here and visit though its rare. My grandpa and i discussed all things and he taught me everything he knew before he passed away. Cousins called and asked sometimes years after he died about ginseng or acorns or such but i dont hear much from them anymore because i suppose now they are someones grandpa. A cousin called last year speaking of his childhood fishing trips to his cousin Clarks in Kansas. I still think about the thousands of bushels of walnuts , butternuts, and acorns the old growth forests produce. Leaves are several feet thick full of ticks, copperheads and poisonous plants that make you wish you were never born if you come in contact with them. The cedars are highly poisonous there and i spent weeks covered in soars after coming in contact with them as a young man. Much of this knowledge is lost already but im going to point something out about the health crisis. An oak produces more acorns for the same amount of ground it takes to grow corn crops and produce corn. The roots are deeper and nutrition is higher in an acorn. The trees are taller and you get more compost from the leaves. The compost is high in nutrients pulled from 50-70 feet down in the sub soil. If we farm the top 3ā of soil instead of 50ā what do you suppose might be wrong with our health? We may need to start looking at crop rotation in the hundreds and thousands of years instead of in years. By the way ive never sprayed or fertilized an oak because i never needed to. Just remember whatever you do think for yourself. So i met friends who were at the lake a year ago and tbey held up a handful of white oaks shelled and asked me if they were edible i reached over took 2 and popped them in my mouth and crunched them up in time to look back seeing one of my sisters rolling her eyes when i said yes they are edible. The friend said we were told today tbey were poison. Remember im still 1/16 Cherokee our genes are different and we may tolerate foods like thst better but i could eat until full with no ill effects white oak.Red oak is very high in tannins and must be leached to remove the tannins to be edible to humans.
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Well, Iām 1/16 Cherokee too, but I think all the childhood stories I heard were Irish or Scottish or possibly Welsh.
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@BlueBerry
Cherokees are kind hard working people in my experience so the stories are secondary to the good genetics. If your 1/16 cherokee you may be relation as are many in many states in this area. A great uncle sat on full tribal council im told in oklahoma. That part of the family only know we exist but have not seen my family members in 50 years. A Tennessee hatfield once married into our family but was killed shortly after in a feud near arkansas with another family. We are related to nearly everyone. We have family in nearly every state in this part of the country. Our family was not the first in Kansas there have been others. When my grandpa passed away the enemies to our family showed up with tbeir hats off to pay their respect to their worst enemy and they cried more than family. Nowadays any disputes are settled with lawyers. The old families are still angry my grandpa bought a 700 acre worthless parcel of land. My grandpa was crafty and while they laughed at the time that he purchased land with trees on it for cattle and tbey kept the green lush bottoms tbey did not realize heād taught his shorthorns to eat exclusively leaves and not grass. He crossed those with angus and developed a breed of leaf eaters. It was to wild of a country for goats because their are coyote, panther , and bears so that was his solution. His success angered the ancient families that had been there before him who sold the property and bought it back 1/2 price many times. My family never let 1 foot of that land go back to those families and we research all sales of property. They look to this day for chances to land lock someone, cut them off from water or in some other way get access back to what they want. They drilled many wells near my family springs as they could to slow down tbe pure clean water that supports my family. Once upon a time i was picking pawpaw and accidently picked all of an enemies to not knowing i crossed a border because they removed a fence to annoy my grandpa. When i told my grandparents where those 7" pawpaw came from there was laughter in the household that night about them removing a fence. What they would have given to have caught me doing it! They admitted to removing that fence and though the pawpaws didnt make up for the theft we were sure they took it as retaliation instead of an accident. Returning the fruit would have been worse so we ate them instead. Not long after grandpas hogs got on their property also through the same fence they took down. No doubt in my mind the plan was to get free pork in the first place or to steal cows which they did many times. The law never got involved knowing the dispute dates back to the 1930s with that family and with others to the 1800s. My family was at one time nearly killed to extinction in some states during the 1800s. Part of the white people in my family are originally from other places. Im told East Tennessee and the adjacent parts of Kentucky and southwest Virginia. Those white people are cousins to me now which are Fleetwoods. They are not my direct family and tbey dont know about us without research but we do know about them. The same with our relation in Oklahoma or in to many other states to mention. We know exactly who are family is but we do not let anyone know we know. My family did not go on the cherokee trail of tears but our cousins did. The military asked my great grandma to go be with her people in oklahoma and my great grandma replied to the soldiers these are my people meaning those from kentucky and did not go. My family turned down free oklahoma land as well. My extended family is far away now but they are well aware of my love for them. Cherokees are very family oriented valueing family , relationship with land, and friendships above much else. My grandpas old 700 acres is covered with oak and walnut primarily but has sassafrass, persimmon, pawpaw, butternut etc as well. Beautiful ancient forest with very large acorns!
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