Quercus species<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fagaceae<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today the Oaks are best known for their strong, attractive\nwood (or as the best firewood), but for most of human history they have been\nfar more important as a source of food. Acorns (Oak seeds) have been called the\nancestral food for much of humanity and have been a primary source of food for\nhumans almost everywhere they grow; in America, Asia, Africa and Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many Native American tribes used\nacorns for food, but they are probably most associated with those in\nCalifornia. An indication of their importance to these people was the fact that\nfamilies often held ancestral gathering rights to certain groves of trees. The\nacorn harvest was a major annual event of their lives and (when the harvest was\ngood) a time for celebration, feasting and dancing (even the men helped gather\nthem). In some places one can still find mortar holes in large rocks, used by\ngenerations of women to grind their acorns. These stone mortars were too heavy\nto move around, so there were permanent ones at each campsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nutrients: Leached acorns contain from 5 \u2011\n20% fat, 2 \u2011 5% protein, 50 \u2011 70% carbohydrate and lots of minerals. The\nunleached nuts are inedible because they contain up to 6% percent tannin. This\nis quite toxic if ingested in quantity and can damage the liver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Food: One might imagine that acorns are a\nsubsistence food, eaten out of necessity rather than choice and not very\npalatable, but this would be quite wrong. Certainly they don\u2019t taste very good\nin their raw state, but properly prepared acorns are a wholesome and tasty\nfood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gathering: In a good year a single Oak tree\nmay give several bushels of acorns and in early autumn it is often possible to\ngather hundreds of pounds of food in a single day. Watch out for acorns with\nholes in the shells, as these contain insect larvae and should be discarded.\nThere is an easy test to see if acorns are wholesome, just put them in water.\nThe good ones will sink, the bad ones will float. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Where sweet and bitter acorns grow together they should be\ngathered separately. Don\u2019t mix them up, as they need different degrees of\nleaching. You might think its only worth gathering the low tannin White Oaks,\nas they need less leaching, but Native Americans often preferred the flavor of\nthe Red Oaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You shouldn\u2019t feel guilty about destroying all those potential Oak trees. The tree produces far more seeds than it needs to reproduce itself, and at best only one in a thousand has any chance of becoming a new tree. If you do feel bad, you could plant a few of the very best acorns in a suitable spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storage: Prepared acorn meal can be dried and\nstored, but it tastes much better when fresh, so usually only small amounts\nwere ground and leached at one time. The tannin in the whole acorns helps\npreserve them and deters insects such as weevils. For storage they were dried\nin the sun, which also kills them so they don\u2019t germinate. In California they\nwere often stored in granaries on stilts (to deter rodents), often with wood\nashes or insect repellant herbs such as Mugwort or Sagebrush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Preparation: Like their cousins the\nChestnuts, acorns have a tough leathery skin, rather than a hard shell. This can be removed from the dried acorns,\nby cracking them between two rocks. You can also soak them overnight, which\ncauses them to swell, soften and split. Removing the kernels from the shells is\na rather tedious job, so it was often given to children and old\npeople. The kernels can be leached whole, but the process is speeded up by\nfirst grinding them to meal. The easiest way to do this is with a blender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaching: Though some acorns are sweet\nwithout any preparation, most need leaching to remove their tannin. There are a\nnumber of ways to do this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Use: Acorn mush, made by boiling the leached\nmeal, was the staple food of many tribes. It swells up considerably with\ncooking, so that a quart of meal may yield five quarts of mush. They often\nadded berries, ground seeds and nuts for additional flavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prepared meal was also used to thicken soup, make tortillas and to bake bread. They made bread by mixing the meal with water and forming little cakes, which were dried in the sun. It could also be made by baking the dough overnight in a fire pit. Pit baked bread was said to be sweet and dark brown, with excellent flavor and keeping qualities. John Muir often carried acorn bread on his treks and claimed it gave more strength than wheat bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The leached whole nuts can be used in breads, cookies, trail\nmixes, roasted and cereals. The leached meal can be mixed with an equal amount\nof wheat flour for baking muffins, bread and pancakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New crop: Today the oaks are almost totally ignored as a food resource, but they\ncould become important once again. They are probably the most valuable wild\nfood of the northern Temperate Zone. It has been said that the Oaks produce\nmore nuts annually than all other wild and cultivated nut trees\ncombined. It is somewhat strange that we go to exotic distant lands to find\nAmaranth, Tef, Quinoa and Spirulina, while ignoring such valuable native plants\nsitting in our back yards. I think acorn flour has\nthe flavor and nutritional value to be a viable commercial food product. There is a good opportunity for some\nenterprising individuals to produce acorn flour, breads, muffins, pancake mix\nand cereals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oil: Some tribes apparently extracted oil\nfrom the acorns (they contain about 20% fat), by boiling and skimming as for\nHickory (See Carya<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Medicine: An astringent decoction of Oak bark\nhas been used as a douche, enema, gargle and to wash smelly feet. It is emetic\nso is not taken internally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Native Americans used the mold that grew on old acorn mush\nto treat wounds and open sores. This sounds a lot like an antibiotic to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tannin: Oak bark has long been\nan important source of tannin for tanning leather. In Britain this was one of\nthe main products of Oak coppice. The tannin from an acorn food processing\nplant might be sold for this purpose. It has been said that the acorns with a\nhigh tannin content might be preferred by such enterprises, because the leached\ntannin is a valuable commodity in its own right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Animal food: Oak trees provide food and\nshelter for innumerable creatures, from insects to wild turkeys, woodpeckers,\njays, rodents, raccoons, peccaries, deer and bears. The acorn crop is an\nimportant factor in determining the population levels of many of these animals.\nAcorns are also valuable feed for livestock and Europeans have allowed cattle\nand pigs to forage in Oak woods for centuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wood: The Oak genus supplies\nmore hardwood lumber than any other, though the quality of wood varies\nenormously with the various species. Quite a few species tend to have short\ntrunks and gnarled branches and are useless as lumber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The White Oak (Q. alba)<\/em> is one of the best North American\nhardwoods. It has an unsurpassed combination of toughness, durability, hardness\nand ease of working and is widely used for cabinetmaking, flooring, veneer, paneling and millwork. In earlier\ntimes it was also the first choice for building construction. Unlike most other\nOaks, White Oak wood is non\u2011porous and was prized for whiskey barrels and shipbuilding. It was once commonly used for\nroof shingles and\nsiding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Coppice: Oak sprouts readily from the stump\nand in Europe the trees were once widely coppiced for poles, fenceposts, basket\nmaterials, tanbark, charcoal and firewood (for more on coppicing see Hazel \u2011 Corylus<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baskets: White Oak splits were a\nfavorite material for making baskets. Saplings up to six inches in diameter\nwere cut in spring or summer, trimmed to length and then split into strips of\nthe desired width. These strips were split along the growth rings to make thin\nsupple splits, ideal for weaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fuel: The Oaks are the most important\nfirewood trees in\nNorth America, as they are excellent fuel, giving from 22\u201127 million Btu per\ncord and are widely available. I mentioned timber rustling under Walnut (Juglans<\/em>),\nbut most timber rustling is of Oak, cut for firewood. In California even the\nlegal cutting of the slow growing native Oaks is a problem and native Oak\nwoodlands are shrinking rapidly in many areas. Part of the solution to this\nproblem could be Oak fuel wood plantations, as the trees coppice well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ink: Oak galls (swellings\ncaused by insect larvae) were used for making ink, notably that used for\nprinting money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Propagation: Oaks are easily grown from seed.\nSelect ripe acorns from the most suitable parent trees and plant immediately\nunder a mulch, with protection from rodents. Acorns die if they dry out, so\nkeep them moist. You can plant them in containers, for planting out at a later\ndate. The seeds naturally germinate almost as soon as they fall to the ground,\ntheir strategy being to use up their food reserves up as quickly as possible\nand so reduce their attractiveness as a food source. Seedlings are often abundant\nunder Oak trees and these can be transplanted successfully when very young.\nThere are species of Oak for all soil types and growing conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fertilizer: Chopped Oak leaves (run\nthem over with a power lawnmower to shred them) are invaluable as a soil\nbuilding mulch or soil amendment. Sifted leaf mold from\nthe forest is often used in potting soils, or for mulch. Contrary to popular\nbelief Oak leaves don’t acidify the soil very much, though you might want to\nadd lime if your soil is already acid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New crops: Oaks improve the soil, encourage\nwildlife and provide timber, fuel, fodder, fertilizer and tannin, as well as an\nedible crop. Such useful trees could be an important component of a future\nfarm, which relies on a mix of trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses, rather than a\nsingle species monoculture. Some of the best food species are adapted to hot\narid climates and could be potentially valuable as multi\u2011purpose crops for\nthird world countries. There are already a number of improved cultivars that\nbear sweet acorns with a low tannin content (notably of Q. alba<\/em> and Q.\nmacrocarpa<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Species\ninclude:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These trees are divided into two\ngroups, the White Oaks and the Red Oaks. Species in each group may hybridize,\nin which case it may not be so easy to tell which species you have. Fortunately\nthis doesn’t matter, as any acorns can be eaten if leached properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White Oaks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These species are distinguished by the rounded lobes on\ntheir leaves. They take only one year to produce acorns and generally produce\nthe sweetest types. A few species produce acorns that can be eaten without any\nleaching at all. The best species include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. alba<\/em> \u2011 White Oak \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. douglasii<\/em> \u2011 Blue Oak<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. dumosa<\/em> \u2011 California Scrub Oak <\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. emoryi<\/em> \u2011 Emory Oak<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. gambelii<\/em> \u2011 Gambel’s Oak \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. prinus<\/em> \u2011 Chestnut Oak \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. macrocarpa \u2011<\/em> Bur Oak<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. michauxii<\/em> \u2011 Swamp Chestnut Oak<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. lobata<\/em> \u2011 California White Oak<\/p>\n\n\n\n This big tree can be very productive (one very large tree\nwas observed to yield a ton of acorns) and its large acorns are of high\nquality. Consequently it was one of the most important Oaks to Native\nAmericans. At least one improved cultivar is available (Ashworth).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Red Oaks<\/p>\n\n\n\n These species can be identified by their pointed leaf lobes.\nThey take two years to form their acorns, and these contain a lot of tannin.\nSome bitter ones contain so much tannin as to be quite toxic. One benefit of a\nhigh tannin content is that they stay wholesome for a longer period. The best\nspecies include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. agrifolia<\/em> \u2011 Coast Live Oak<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. kellogii<\/em> \u2011 California Black Oak <\/p>\n\n\n\n These are two of the best tasting and most nutritious Acorns\nand were among the most important species for Native Americans<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. chrysolepis<\/em> \u2011 Canyon Live Oak <\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. rubra<\/em> \u2011 Northern red Oak<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. wislizenii<\/em> \u2011 Interior Live\nOak <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"