Acorns?

[bhowle]

It looks like we'll have another bumper crop of acorns this year. We're still figuring out what to do with them.

Last year we hulled a bunch soaked 'em water and tried to roast 'em. Not too tastey.

Hope someone has a better idea - it seems a shame to let them go to waste.

-bob

[Michael W. Smith]

Goats love to eat them!

[Tabitha]

I put a thread in the cooking forum since I am wondering what to do with acorns myself. there are some good recipes there.

[Highground]

Grind the White Oak Acorns (the meat) and boil it a few times to get the tanic acid out. Let it dry and add to flour for bread baking.

[Shadow]

Acorns were a staple of the indians diet. We have tried preparing them in different ways have decided the indians must have been a starving bunch to eat them.

[uncle Will in In.]

Years ago we had a cow that chowed down under an oak tree, and dried up in one day. She slowly regained part of her milk flow but never completely recovered.

[Gideon]

They make good deer bait. Persimmons do also. I have several saplings I will be transplanting this fall.

[goatlady]

I keep hearing goats love them - HOW? Just shovel them into a pan whole? soaked then feed whole, grind raw, crack, what form is fed?

[tinknal]

Pigs and turkeys like them to.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Acorns were a staple of the indians diet. We have tried preparing them in different ways have decided the indians must have been a starving bunch to eat them.

Makes a difference in the type of oak. White Oak have much less of the bitter tannins than Red Oak.

[Paul Wheaton]

In france they have pigs eat the acorns and then they sell the meat for $500 per ham.

Not a typo: $500 per HAM!

[IMContrary]

When I was a kid back in Missouri, my grandpa would have us kids pick them up by the bucketful and pour into the hog lot. He said they made good pork.

[Monte Sano]

Originally Posted by Paul Wheaton

In france they have pigs eat the acorns and then they sell the meat for $500 per ham.

Not a typo: $500 per HAM!

50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong

[agmantoo]

I have read there is a process that must be adhered to in order to get the tanic acid removed. Once the water and acorns are boiling the acorns have to be transferred hot to another pot of boiling water and not permitted to be cooled and started fresh in the second and third rinses. Acorns were the mainstay of the poor in Europe prior to the introduction of corn.

[titansrunfarm]

I thought they were poisonous to livestick? I've been keeping my horses of the front pasture every fall when the acorns drop. Would really like to be able to use it though.