Acorn Harvest

We have been doing an acorn harvest with Mary for a homeschool project. Since Rich is part Cherokee Indian we thought Mary would enjoy exploring some of her Native American roots. The valley floor here was a beautiful oak savanah that was cultivated by the local indians and they harvested a rich crop of acorns that are gluten free and packed full of vitamins. We read up on how to harvest and process them and they are a wonderful source of free food that was part of the indian diet for centuries

The mighty Oak Tree

Giant Black Oak tree leaf

acorns that we picked up



harvesting in a local park



medium brown ones are the best



drying the nuts in the shell



the acorn meat is pretty large



cracking the shells



love the little caps they wear

our hand crank grain mill



It worked pretty well



This is day one of soaking the ground acorns to get the tannins out



This is day 6 of rinsing each day.  The bitter taste is gone!



letting the water drain out through a coffee filter



drying the acorn gruel



ground the hardened gruel into a flour using the food processor



Adding the acorn flour to our pancake mix



It had a wonderful nutty aroma as it cooked



We enjoyed the pancakes with butter, peanut butter and syrup!