Some of the Indians had maize
(US: corn), but I don't know how far North this extended

In the eastern woodlands and prairies, it extended at least to southern New
England and the Ohio Valley. In the western desert, not much beyond Arizona
and New Mexico. It was unknown on the West Coast.

So does someone have any experience with grinding down oak acorns
and making a dough like paste?

Remove the shells with a nutcracker. Break up the acorns into small chunks
with a mallet, then run the chunks through a grain grinder (or you could do it
the labor-intensive way, with mortar and pestle). Once you have flor/meal,
then you make the paste -- try the same ingredients you would use to turn wheat
flour into dough.

I find that once acorns have been leached, they have a nut-like texture
(predictably, since they are nuts); I wonder if one could make acorn butter
(like peanut butter or hazelnut butter)?

Jie-san Laushi

Huodau lau, xuedau lau, hai you sanfen xue bulai
_____________________________________________
to email: eliminate redundancy