Acorns make so many recipes better. I’m a vegetarian and I’m pleased to have the extra protein and nutrition. It often takes the place of cheese, probably because acorns are satiating.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
Once thawed, the pre-cooked, pre-frozen acorn meal is excellent to make sandwiches with, use in dips or whatever your imagination can dream up. Sometimes it’s hard to find new cooking ideas, but acorn dishes never fail to delight guests. A bowl of acorn dip brings smiles, and a lot of interesting conversation.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
I usually shell the acorns soon after I’ve gathered them, and fill plastic sandwich bags and put them in the freezer, to leach later. I have two ways of using leached acorns. I either add them to a recipe that needs cooking, or I simmer the thoroughly leached acorns in water for about fifteen minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly, (they can stick to the pan and burn). After they cool, I freeze this water and meal. The freezing separates the mush from the water. Freezing in two-cup size portions, after thawing, (don’t thaw out in the microwave or using heat, you’ll get porridge,) I like to turn them into a kitchen strainer. You can also just squeeze the water out of the thawed acorns, and you now have a fabulous food to cook with.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
Acorns can be leached in a shorter period by other methods, like constant water running through them, but I like to leach them in the refrigerator for at least a week. Leaching large quantities in big bowls or buckets is fine too, but difficult to keep refrigerated.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
Acorns are nature’s food, unfortunately, in California, the Oaks are falling to the hands of developers and agriculture. It is a great loss. Besides producing tons of food, there’s always the charming silhouette of your favorite oak against the horizon. Acorns can help local economies. They are there for the taking. They’re everywhere! In the parks, on school grounds, along the roads, maybe right outside your door.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
All the Indian names for this Oak ought to give you a pretty good idea how well loved this tree was and still is. This Oak is deciduous; the leaves are four to six inches long. The leaves are sharp and the lobes are bristle pointed. The acorns reach an inch or so in length, and the acorn cups are heavy and thick. Over and over again, I read that Black Oak acorns make the best bread. I’ve made bread with them and it was good. Once, I somehow got the tiniest bit of peppermint into the recipe, by accident, and it was a surprise how delicious it was.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
You might be surrounded by several varieties of Oak that aren’t easily identified. To help you, in my book I have provided information to identify the Oaks you have access to. If you live near a college, I’m sure you could take a leaf and an acorn, possibly a drawing or photo of the tree, and the botanist in the agriculture department will help you identify it. High school biology teachers probably know, and of course, the library will have books on identification.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
Big acorn harvests this year. Some folks are dismayed. They threaten to cut their oak trees down because they don’t like acorns everywhere. Please don’t. Those oaks and their acorns play a big role in human existence. Our ancestors survived because of them. Try gathering them, leaching and cooking them into something delicious. Like burritos. Or cheesecake. Be a hot shot. Be the talk of the neighborhood.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
Acorns sprout when they are still in the shell and exposed to moisture. At this stage you can plant them or if the sprout is only a quarter inch or so, you can grind, leach, and cook to eat. I’ve processed sprouted acorns and sometimes the sprout was kinda long. I broke it off before processing. What you want to avoid is green acorns and sometimes this is the case when they’ve been sprouting too long. California Indians used to bury their bitterest acorns in mud, to encourage them to turn pink and sprout, thereby making them sweeter.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
The weather could not be more beautiful. Fresh air, colorful fall foliage. The birds are abundant. This is their harvest. Why not make it yours too? Get your gardening gloves on and pick up those plump acorns. See if you can find a Texan Nut Sheller to make it easier to bust them open and after the leaching process, cook up something wild.
Suellen Ocean is the author of Acorns and Eat’em, a how-to vegetarian cookbook and field guide for eating acorns:
suellenocean 