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.
Mulberries, never messed with them before other than eating a few handfuls straight off the tree. Gonna try some jelly and/or jam.
That’s an huge haul! Ours are pretty much at peak now, but I did notice that a couple trees with the lighter purple (almost white) berries need another week.
The native black raspberries are just getting ripe now. I trimmed the canes a couple years ago which made this whole patch explode in size.
Might be a huge haul but even huger pain in the butt. Lots of time sorting and not a lot of yield. As tedious as doing elderberries was last year, I’m looking forward to doing them again. We’ll see how it goes with the mulberries but I’m not really sold on them yet. Doesn’t seem like they have as much flavors as I think they should, but hey, add enough sugar and pretty much anything is edible. I bet my recovery rate was only around 5% on the mulberries
I’m gonna go check on the local chokecherry crop this afternoon. I’ve seen several patches that are so loaded the branches are bowing. Talked to a lady that said she and her sister got a bunch last week. I thought that seemed a bit early but I haven’t checked up close for ripeness. Looks like a good year for wild fruit around here, plum bushes seem pretty full too.
Huckleberries are ripe and the salal are coming ripe. Salmonberries have been ongoing for a month. I don't pick them as they don't have a lot of flavour to them.
