Fall is upon us, and the leaves are all manner of beautiful. We need to take the time, however, to look a little closer at those leaves, knowing that we can identify useful trees by the shape of the leaves.
In the eastern woodlands -- like Tennessee, where I live -- there are several varieties of indigenous oak trees. The acorns from oak trees have been used as food for thousands of years by native peoples of North America. This year, I tried some out for the first time.
According to my friend Jeff Webb, who shares his wisdom on the DIY2Thrive podcast, acorns are high in thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, B-6, pantothenic acid, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, copper, manganese, and omega-6 fatty acids. <whew!>
They are also a complete protein and boast a low glycemic index. Studies show they help control blood sugar. They are sweet, but with low sugar.
So, I tried harvesting, leeching (necessary to remove the bitter tannin from the nuts), drying, and grinding about 3 cups of acorns. I incorporated a cup of the acorn flour into some bread, which gave the bread a heavy, dense consistency and dark color -- reminiscent of Banana Nut Bread. The taste was hard to describe, but not unpleasant. Then I put a handful of the coarsely ground nuts in a pot of soup, and the result was surprisingly good! They thickened the pot likker a bit, and gave it a mildly nutty flavor.
I would think that in a survival situation, acorn flour could be used with no oil, because the nuts themselves contain oil.
However, it is worth noting that not all acorns are created equal. The nuts that have higher tannin -- primarily from red and black oaks -- will be more bitter, while the nuts with lower tannin -- white and chestnut oaks -- will be sweeter, and better suited to use in flour.
The easiest way to distinguish the two types is by the leaves: The first leaf in the photo above is from a white oak. Both the white oak and the chestnut oak have rounded lobes on their leaves. The squared-off, spiky-looking leaves (center) belong to the red oak. Pointed leaves on an oak tree mean bitter acorns, with a higher level of tannin.
You can't always tell by the color of an autumn leaf what the tree is, because some of them go through several color changes before they fall.
The third leaf in the picture above is from a maple tree, which is the traditional source for syrup. Maple leaves are some of the first to change on my mountain. The first ones are crimson. Then other maples follow with colors ranging from sunshine yellow to orange.
Last winter, we did an experiment on some maple trees in our yard. We took a cordless drill and drilled a hole about 2 inches into each tree, and pounded a small piece of PVC pipe into the hole. We then hung a bucket on the tap and left it for a few weeks. The slow drip of clear liquid didn't look like syrup, but when we gathered the buckets and put the liquid on the stove to boil, it began to taste sweet! Then BINGO-BANGO, it turned into hard candy! I kid you not, the clear sap went from the consistency of apple juice (just a little thicker than water) to taffy in a matter of seconds! We tried eating some of it, but it nearly pulled our fillings out!
Well, the experiment was a success, even though we had nothing to pour up in a Mason jar from it. We knew that we could make syrup from the maple trees around the house.
From what I've read, it takes over 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. No wonder it costs so much in the store!
We all have natural food and medicine sources in the woods and fields that surround us. I behooves us to educate ourselves to what's available. We never know when we might have to rely on that knowledge for survival.
In the eastern woodlands -- like Tennessee, where I live -- there are several varieties of indigenous oak trees. The acorns from oak trees have been used as food for thousands of years by native peoples of North America. This year, I tried some out for the first time.
According to my friend Jeff Webb, who shares his wisdom on the DIY2Thrive podcast, acorns are high in thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, B-6, pantothenic acid, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, copper, manganese, and omega-6 fatty acids. <whew!>
They are also a complete protein and boast a low glycemic index. Studies show they help control blood sugar. They are sweet, but with low sugar.
So, I tried harvesting, leeching (necessary to remove the bitter tannin from the nuts), drying, and grinding about 3 cups of acorns. I incorporated a cup of the acorn flour into some bread, which gave the bread a heavy, dense consistency and dark color -- reminiscent of Banana Nut Bread. The taste was hard to describe, but not unpleasant. Then I put a handful of the coarsely ground nuts in a pot of soup, and the result was surprisingly good! They thickened the pot likker a bit, and gave it a mildly nutty flavor.
I would think that in a survival situation, acorn flour could be used with no oil, because the nuts themselves contain oil.
However, it is worth noting that not all acorns are created equal. The nuts that have higher tannin -- primarily from red and black oaks -- will be more bitter, while the nuts with lower tannin -- white and chestnut oaks -- will be sweeter, and better suited to use in flour.
The easiest way to distinguish the two types is by the leaves: The first leaf in the photo above is from a white oak. Both the white oak and the chestnut oak have rounded lobes on their leaves. The squared-off, spiky-looking leaves (center) belong to the red oak. Pointed leaves on an oak tree mean bitter acorns, with a higher level of tannin.
You can't always tell by the color of an autumn leaf what the tree is, because some of them go through several color changes before they fall.
The third leaf in the picture above is from a maple tree, which is the traditional source for syrup. Maple leaves are some of the first to change on my mountain. The first ones are crimson. Then other maples follow with colors ranging from sunshine yellow to orange.
Last winter, we did an experiment on some maple trees in our yard. We took a cordless drill and drilled a hole about 2 inches into each tree, and pounded a small piece of PVC pipe into the hole. We then hung a bucket on the tap and left it for a few weeks. The slow drip of clear liquid didn't look like syrup, but when we gathered the buckets and put the liquid on the stove to boil, it began to taste sweet! Then BINGO-BANGO, it turned into hard candy! I kid you not, the clear sap went from the consistency of apple juice (just a little thicker than water) to taffy in a matter of seconds! We tried eating some of it, but it nearly pulled our fillings out!
Well, the experiment was a success, even though we had nothing to pour up in a Mason jar from it. We knew that we could make syrup from the maple trees around the house.
From what I've read, it takes over 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. No wonder it costs so much in the store!
We all have natural food and medicine sources in the woods and fields that surround us. I behooves us to educate ourselves to what's available. We never know when we might have to rely on that knowledge for survival.