It appears that the birds get them as they get ripe. I think I got pretty lucky for my first time picking them. The main patch appeared to be just at the peak of ripeness and the plants were loaded. I believe I harvested an exceptional amount.
Eric Wanderweg what do you do to them to process for eating? We don't have any here so I have never used them.
What I do is cut an "X" straight through the outer shell then soak them in water overnight. The next day I'll coat a frying pan in a light film of vegetable oil, then roast them on both sides (covered) for about 20 minutes. From there you can saute them in a stir fry, add them to a slow cooker meal, or just eat them by themselves, which is what I typically do.
It was in the 40s this morning when I woke up and finally feeling like fall. I made 2 loaves of pumpkin bread with the last of 2023’s leftover acorn flour. Hopefully next year the white oaks produce some acorns and I can resupply.
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I start out by peeling the shells off white oak acorns, then getting as much of the brown "paper" skin off the nut meat as possible. Then I leach the bitter-tasting tannins out of them by soaking them in a bucket of water and doing a water change 3 times a day, for several days. You need to be thorough with this step otherwise the flour will be bitter rather than sweet/nutty. Once the astringent taste is gone, they're ready to be pulverized. I grind them in batches in a blender with some water, on high until everything is finely chopped up and blended smooth. Then I strain as much as the water out as I can, using an old T-shirt. Next I'll spread the ground acorn "flour" onto baking trays and dry it in the oven on the lowest temperature setting for a few hours, stirring it up once an hour or so. When it feels completely dry it's done. Lastly I'll run the flour through a fine mesh strainer to catch any of the larger crumbs, and then break those up into smaller pieces. As far as cooking with it goes, I use standard bread recipes and whatever amount of flour is called out, I mix it 50/50 standard flour-acorn flour. The acorn flour by itself is too heavy to use it straight in my experience. The whole process is a lot of work, but I find it to be enjoyable in small amounts.
