I Am Delighted or, How I amused myself today by playing once again with acorns.

I started an experiment last fall; you know, in March, and on September 22,  the official first day of spring in this southern hemisphere, I completed it. As I mentioned in my header, I am delighted with the results of this six month long study of the pin oak acorn. 

I imagine that I hear groans out there among those of you who have bravely followed my posts all these years. A rolling of the eyes and a shaking of the heads complete the outward signs you exhibit and a sinking feeling is endured internally. 

"So stop with these blasted acorns already!" you grumble. "We don't care about them. They don't grow where we live, and even if they did, we wouldn't pick them and we certainly wouldn't eat them. Knock it off!"

Well, the problem is that I am fascinated by them and I haven't done much experimenting yet with these little pin oak nuts. Since it's my post and I get to choose the topics, I'm going to write this one, for my own enjoyment at least, if no one elses'. 

And, since this was an experiment, I really should be writing a paper on it. Consider that, as you complain. I've listed what should be in a properly written scientific paper just below. (and Allie could give me pointers besides)

• Prepare the figures and tables.
• Write the Methods.
• Write up the Results.
• Write the Discussion. Finalise the Results and Discussion before writing the introduction. ...
• Write a clear Conclusion.
• Write a compelling introduction.
• Write the Abstract.
• Compose a concise and descriptive Title. 

Just think what you'd have to wade through if I actually did all that!  I'm going to make it much easier on you by just telling you what I learned. Although, you might notice that I did compose a concise, descriptive, and very snappy title. (though unsuitable for a scientific paper) 

I did not find big numbers of pin oak acorns. The summer was dry, but then they all are here, so I don't know if the small pin oak acorn crop was due to that variable, or if there was another reason. The English oak trees did as well as ever so who knows? I didn't intend to pick many in any event, so it really didn't matter. 

I picked those nuts directly off the trees. They were rinsed clean, dried in the sun, and stored in the plastic tray that you see in the photo. 

My first step today was to open a number of them. I considered using a hammer, but reasoned that my left thumb and forefinger would not fare well using that method, so I decided to use the pliers you see instead.  It worked great. It wasn't long before I could predict just how much force to give it to pop the shell.  The only trouble was that it was slow going. I'd squeeze the pliers just so, hear the shell pop and then have to put down the pliers and use my fingers to separate the shell pieces and remove the nut.  

Once it was out of the shell, I'd place it in a bowl of water to soften, so I could more easily grind them. Once ground, I'd soak them further in water to remove the tannins and then dry the acorn meal. 

If I had lived a few thousand years ago, and had to process a lot of these, because that determined if my family would eat or not today, one at a time would not be an efficient way of getting dinner. There had to be a better way. 

I soon noticed that as I placed each nut in the water, bits would float to the surface. These bits were pieces of skin or shell. The meat of the nut always sank to the bottom of the bowl. Aha!

I used the wrench a little differently with the next acorn. I squeezed it hard, and crushed the nut completely. Then, I threw it into the bowl of water. The crushed nutmeat parts sank and the shell parts floated to the surface, nice as you please.  I continued. There were a couple of acorns whose nutmeat and shell stuck together a bit when I put them into the water, but this was not a problem. After I had done several, I just squeezed the entire mass of nuts between my fingers for a moment or two and swished the water around and all the stuck pieces separated. The nutmeats when down and the shells floated up. That was the secret!

Early man needed to be productive. He, or more probably she, would not have used a pliers. She could have used a rock to simply crush up a quantity of these pin oak acorns. She'd then, I'm guessing, throw the whole works into a container of water, skim off the shells and skin that floated, and continue soaking the partially crushed nutmeats until they no longer tasted bitter.   

I was delighted. I now understood that processing large quantities of them would be fairly easy. Smash 'em up and let the water do all the work! Yes, these are small acorns. But they are seven percent protein and provide lots of carbs and fat. These could definitely sustain people, even if they had been stored for six months. 

I intend to continue to store the remaining nuts and see if they'll last a full year. My guess it that they will.  

Finally, I studied how successful I had been in preserving them. Did many rot? I opened up about 40 of them today and found that two were rotten. Very dry, but black and unappetising. That's not too bad.

The bowl on the left holds the shells I had skimmed out of the water in the bowl on the right. 

Also note that this retired Safety Director wore eye protection.  

Consider what a treasure all the types of acorns must have been in the past. Quality nutrition available every year that even the smallest child could help harvest. 
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Okay, that wasn't so bad now, was it? Since you liked it after all, even if you won't admit it, I can now announce that another acorn treat is in store for you. Yes!  I found somebody in Henderson selling acorn starch jelly!  It's true. I'll tell you all about it some time when you least expect it...                                  -djf