Cooking With Acorns… What Recipes Can You Make?

There are not many dishes that you can’t make with acorns. You can add acorns to everything from smoothies to chili. Deserts, omeletes, cakes, pies, Mexican food, Italian food, Middle Eastern food, comfort food, breads… you name it. Acorns make everything taste better. If you think chocolate cake is good, try adding leached and prepared acorns to it, you’ll not be sorry. Do you have a favorite cheesecake recipe? Add some leached and prepared acorns to it, delicious. I won third place in a big cooking contest because I added acorns to my cheesecake… Acorn Cheesecake? What’s not to like?

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

Cooking With Leached Acorns… How Long Do They Need To Cook?

Not very long. It’s about the same amount of time that you would cook raw oats and they don’t need to boil away, just a little simmer for five or ten minutes will do. Be very careful because the acorns like to stick to the pan, so bring the heat up slowly and stir constantly. Remember, the cooking of the acorns comes AFTER they are leached. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to leach the acorns, it’s the shelling that takes a little bit of your time but you can put your feet up and relax while doing it, even listen to music or turn on a movie. Acorns are a wonderful addition to any dish you make, the effort is worth it.

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

Gathering Acorns… Which Acorns Are OK?

If you aren’t used to gathering acorns, the pretty little brown things lying on the ground look just fine but an experienced gatherer knows otherwise. Last years worm eaten, faded and empty acorns often remain lying on the ground. Once you pick up a fresh acorn, feel its weight and admire it’s brown beauty and compare it to an old one, you’ll understand. There’s a huge difference. Early in the season, an oak may begin dropping acorns that aren’t quite ripe or developed. It will also begin dropping green acorns. Wait for the fully developed acorns to fall and wait for the green acorns to turn brown. When the rain comes, heavy storms sometimes bury the acorns in a little dirt. This is OK. They are fine once they are rinsed off. If you wait long enough and the animals don’t cart away the acorns, these rains may bring the acorns to sprout. This is OK too as long as there is no green on it, for example, beginning to grow into a baby oak. So for young sprouts, just a little sprout is fine. If there is any nutmeat left in a sprouted acorn that has a sprout up to an inch, break the sprout off and proceed as you would with un-sprouted acorns.  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