Something is nutty about this!

I was off on another tangent this afternoon! Last evening, I was reading about the Native Americans and their use of acorns in baking. They would dry the nuts and grind them into a flour! Since the yard is covered in acorns and the rooftop is constantly being pelted by the little gravel-sized nuts, I figured that I might like to give this a try! Personally, I had never been a big fan of the incredibly bitter-tasting acorns but hey!...if there is a method of making them palatable then I say, "Why not?" I eagerly read up on the process of "leaching" the bitterness from the nuts and thought to myself.."That is not to overly difficult!" Ha! Was I in for a surprise!

This afternoon after chores were finished, I set out to collect my acorns! They were everywhere..the ground was littered with the nuts! My little pail should be filled in no time at all! I proceeded to pick up the nuts as I gather pecans..the old tried and true method of "reach down and grab"! I picked..and picked..and picked. Keep in mind that I only had a one gallon pail..so when I tell you that it was taking hours, you can see why I might have been having a bit of a complaint! I finally just gave up filling the pail and brought what I had picked into the house. The little bucket WAS close to being full!

Now came about the job of shelling my acorns! This should not be difficult as acorns have relatively thin shells unlike pecans! I squished an acorn between my fingers..yep..the nut felt sort of rubbery. Maybe I picked them a bit green..but they WERE on the ground so they should be ripe and ready to use. I squished again..ahhh..there was the "crack"! Off went the shell..my first acorn meat was in the bowl! Now I just had several hundred more to do! Get crackin'! I found it was easier to use a paring knife to slit the sides of the green nuts and then slip the meat from the shell. The harder brown nuts were a different story..they would need to be cracked. This proved a bit difficult as the nut cracker was too large for the teeny acorns. I resorted to using a pair of pliers. After about an hour of shelling (with the help of Mark, my oldest son) a grand total of half of the acorns were shelled. The other several billion still sat in the little pail. Hmmmm..my hands were getting sore so I called it quits on the shelling. Tomorrow, the others will be cracked and leached but now...on with the bitterness-leaching process!

To remove the bitterness from the acorns, the instructions said that I needed to heat some water until it was boiling, add the acorns and let them sit for about ten minutes. The water should turn brownish..maybe looking a bit like tea. This brownness is the tannins being leached from the acorn. Come to find out, it is the tannins that cause the bitterness..well, that makes sense! (Sure, it does..hmmm?) Anyway, after the water turns tea-looking, I was to drain off the nasty stuff and repeat with fresh, boiling water until the water stayed clear. "I can do this!", I said as I started humming a little ditty. "This is the way we wash the acorns..wash the acorns..wash the acorns. This is the way we wash the acorns in the early afternoon!" Yeah, I know..not quite the right words but I was feeling quite chipper today! I washed and drained..washed and drained...washed..and so on.

I am on my tenth rinsing and the "tea" is still just as dark as it was with the first wash. Something is wrong with this picture! So.....I asked Son, Michael, to taste an acorn. "Test this!", I said brightly all the while trying to not let on that I was dubious about trying one myself! He bit into the acorn and chewed. Nothing..no reaction whatsoever! Nada, zilch, nothing! I fully expected his face to screw up into a knot and for his eyes to water..nothing. He looked at me and said.."Not bad." Well, I will take that "Not bad." as a good enough! The leaching is finished! (Or at least I hope it is!)

The instructions went on to say that I should now dry the acorns. Wait a minute! Did I not just soak these suckers for the last five hours? Now I am supposed to dry them? Oh, geez!....this is taking forever! I already have eight hours invested in what will amount to about two cups of acorns! Dry them!??? Ok..I pulled out the dehydrator and set about drying the acorns. This flour sure better be good!

I will keep you posted on the saga of the acorn flour!