GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

19-11-2004, 12:11 AM

(Christopher Green) wrote in message . com...
Archimedes Plutonium wrote in message ...
Tue, 16 Nov 2004 17:24:44 GMT Christopher Green wrote:
(big snip)

Lots of people. Pioneers learned to prepare acorns from the Indians,
who had lived on acorns for thousands of years. Probably the greatest
authority on the subject of acorns as food is Julia Parker; see Ortiz
and Parker, "It Will Live Forever: Traditional Yosemite Indian Acorn
Preparation" (Heyday Books).

Acorns from low-tannin species of oak are more palatable, but all
acorns need to be leached to extract tannins.

Acorns are rich and nutritious food, even if impressively bland; acorn
flour runs about 500 calories/100 grams, largely carbohydrate and
(mostly unsaturated) fat but also some protein (incomplete: it's short
on tryptophan, a common fault of plant protein sources).

Forget the acorns! Plant the oaks anyway, cos we badly need the timber for our wine.

Jim G
South Australia