Cooking With Acorns

I wish I’d stumbled across this post a year ago. Back when we lived in a house surrounded by black oaks.

ca. 2008. One of three generous oaks in our yard.

Every fall we battled the acorns. Two of the seven autumns we lived in the house were actually mast years—back to back. If you’ve never had a mast year for acorns—or anything—you’ll have to trust I’m not being hyperbolic when I describe the deluge of acorns as a carpet. There’s no other accurate way to describe it.

For weeks the acorns rained on us, rocketing through the canopy and pinging off cars and roofs. We all ran for cover. At night we lay in bed and drifted to sleep to the sound of acorns echoing through the neighborhood on early fall nights.

When it was over, we fought against impending winter to shovel and haul them all away. Buckets. Ninety-five-gallon rubbish-barrels full. It was unreal. I spent years picking the oak saplings out of the gardens.

If only I had thought to collect and mill this abundant resource.

Have you ever turned acorns into food? What other “pest” have you made into food?