So regardless of what method you choose to leach your acorns, you’ll want to make sure to repeat multiple soaks and rinses until the tannin color leaves and the water runs clear through it. Hot water treatments, especially boiling, alter the texture and flavor that we expect from acorns. I fall down on the side of the cold since we are trying to preserve flavor, texture and vitamin content of the acorns. There is some disagreement among foragers about whether the water used to leach the nuts should involve cold or boiling water. We are able to clear several batches in a few days this way. As an afterthought, we end up leaching the tannins out of our acorns.īut my favorite and most used method is to leach the nuts in small batches by bagging them and hanging the bags within the tank behind our ceramic toilet fixtures. Then we drive around with the bin sloshing and agitating the contents while we go about our daily errands. Or we can achieve a somewhat speedier result by placing the nuts in a plastic garbage bin strapped to the top of our car or wedged in the back seat so as not to tip over. We pour water through it again and again. More traditionally, we scrape out a sand basin and line it with a cloth sack liner. The finer the pieces, the more surface area is exposed to water, thus bringing more tannins in contact with water to be flushed away.

Take the shell-less nuts and pound them roughly, into a powder consistency. Next, you’ll need to rid them of their tannins which stain them dark and make them bitter. Dry the acorns and put them in a canvas bag or other breathable bag. Once you’ve got the shell off, soak the nuts to clean off any debris. This means cracking and removing the outer shell with a hammer. The first step in processing acorns is to get the outer husks off. The traditional Indigenous way of sun drying the acorns slowly is a tried and true method of removing insects, as well. If it floats, it’s no good, likely underdeveloped or hollow inside from predation.Ī quick fix to remove bugs from acorns is to immediately store them in the freezer. A simple test to see if an acorn is good is to put it in a bucket of water. Such spoiled or unripe acorns can be left for wildlife. They should be undamaged and they should have their caps, but those caps shouldn’t be green. So it isn’t always necessary to get up into the branches of a tree to harvest them. GATHERINGĪcorns can often be perfectly good straight off the ground, even if wet. Acorn gel is famous for taking on the flavor of whatever it is cooked with. They have a flavor somewhat reminiscent of chestnuts once processed and their sweetness is very subtle, making them ideal bases. They’re filled with amazingly high quantities of sugars, fiber, carbohydrates, fat and protein.

Acorns, once released of their tannins, are remarkably sweet foods.

Acorn flour