Cracking Acorns? Acorns as food for other than squirrels? Yes, absolutely. But the first problem one comes up against is how to crack the shells; they aren’t always easy to pry open. Well… the Indians used to use a big rock that fit nicely into their hands. The spots where they sat on top of large boulders down at the river are still there, the little holes where the women would sit and grind acorns. For a long time I used an old cookie sheet and a river rock that fit in my hand. Today though, I use a Texan Nut Sheller. I found it one day at the feed store when I was buying hay. You can probably find one on the Internet or have your local hardware or farm supply order it for you. It’s the size of a pair of pliers but the blades are razor blade sharp so it needs to be kept away from children. You can open up plenty of acorns with it, solving the problem of how to get into those acorn shells.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns. Find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Acorns-Eatem-How–Vegetarian-Cookbook/dp/1491288973
suellenocean 