After shelling my acorns, I froze them immediately as per Suellen Ocean’s instructions, which I don’t believe now is the best method. From the freezer, they went right into the pot where I boil them several times, changing the water in between each boiling. Ocean and several other sources have said to do this until the water poured off is clear. From the two or three batches I’ve done, it appears that this  does not happen within any reasonable amount of time (several days). What seem to indicate the turning point in terms of losing their bitterness is that they take on a coolish, bluish tone.

The skin/husk: a lot of it comes off at this point, just by boiling, but I also rubbed them between my fingers to get some more off. Whatever didn’t come off at this stage will hopefully come off in the baking step.

After they are boiled, blueish, and drained, I spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at 170 (which is the lowest my oven goes) for several hours. I removed the ones that seemed fully dried as they seemed ready. The acorns shrink a bit as they dry, but the husk does not, so the remaining husk kind of popped off nicely at this point.

“All my Relations” – Ulali

To our elders who teach us of our creation and of our past so that we may preserve it for ancestors yet to come

This is dedicated to our relatives before us, thousands of years ago
And to the 150 million who were exterminated across the Western Hemisphere in the first four hundred year’s time, starting in 1492

To those who have kept their homelands
And to the nations extinct due to mass slaughter, slavery, deportation and disease unknown to them
And to the ones who are subjected to the same treatment today

To those who survived the relocations
And those who died along the way

To those who carry on traditions and live strong among their people
To those who left their communities by force or by choice and through generations no longer know who they are

To those who search and never find
To those who turn away the so-called “non-accepted”
To those who bring us together
And to those living outside, keeping touch, the voice for many

To those that make it back to live and fight the struggles of their people
To those that give up
And those who do not care

To those who abuse themselves and others
And those who revive again

To those who are physically, mentally, or spiritually incapable, by accident or by birth

To those who seek strength in our spirituality and way of life
To those who exploit it
– even our own

To those who fall for the lies and join the dividing lines that keep us fighting amongst each other

To the outsiders who step in
– good or bad
And those of us who don’t know better

To the leaders and prisoners of war, politics, crime, race and religion
– innocent or guilty

To the young
The old
The living
And the dead

To our brothers and sisters in all living things across Mother Earth and her beauty we’ve destroyed and denied the honour that the Creator has given each individual:
The truth that lies in our hearts
All my relations

Here is a link where you can hear the song: http://youtu.be/b8LzOXVsC70, with a link to where you can buy it.

To the wonderful women of Ulali: If you would like me to take this post down or if I got any lyrics wrong, I would be happy to take it down or fix it. I just wanted to share your stirring words with the world.

Context: I currently live in Santa Cruz, but I grew up in Oakland; all of the acorns and oaks I will be talking about will be from these areas. For now all the acorns I’ve gathered are in Santa Cruz. It can be difficult sometimes to identify exactly what kind of oak you’ve got, but I did my best. When I finally get a digital camera, I’ll post pictures of the trees. I have mostly:

Quercus wislizeni – known as the Highland Live Oak, Interior Live Oak and the Chapparal Live Oak. Includes various subspecies.

It seems that the past month has been prime acorn collection time for the Highland Live Oak. Until recently, we were mostly dry on the UCSC campus (where I gather them), so decay wasn’t too much of a concern. Now, even though the acorns are still coming down in buckets, the ground is damp and rarely completely dry, making me wary of collecting them. But as I said, for the past month they have been falling faster than I can count and carpeting the ground.

For identifying purposes please refer to the experts. Also know that every tree is different and how I might describe trees as opposed to another person may be different.  But here is what I have observed: the bark is dark, thickish and often vertically striated with furrows. The trees I have seen grow close (relatively) to one another and assume a normal, straight, tree-like shape. That may seem obvious but other oaks tend to grow in more of a semicircle profile, casting branches swooping almost to the ground and they like to stand in lone splendor (I’m thinking of Quercus agrifolia, described below). The leaves are un-lobed, dark green, spiny and more long and narrow. The acorns – when “ripe”- are what I would call a chestnut brown, perhaps even “golden mahogany”, oblong shape with a gently pointed end and tend to have subtle vertical stripes.

I have a very few acorns from:

Quercus agrifolia – known as the Coast Live Oak, Coastal Live Oak and the California Live Oak. Includes various subspecies.

This does not seem to be Coast Live Oak acorn season. I am finding very few acorns on the ground and they seem a mix between greenly pre-mature and old, so I am not sure if their season is coming or going. My observations: the bark tends to be smoother than Q. wislizeni and while it may be vertically furrowed, it doesn’t do than near as much as Q.w. and will sometimes have faint horizontal lines – not furrows, just darker areas. As said before, they like to be dramatic, stand alone and branch considerably, often making a semi-circle shape. For an idea of how this looks, check out the Oakland city emblem, an example here. The leaves are also unlobed and spiny, but tend to be lighter green and short and stout. The acorns have a smoother, almost slippery shell, unstriped and extra long and more pointed. Sometimes the point is even bending a bit towards one side or the other, like a sickle.

The meat in both these acorns is generally a yellowish-ochre and if you split it open the right way, there is a little sheen and slight slick of oil. They feel a little bit like a large, soft peanut. Anyway, these are the acorns that I will be working with.

For pictures and more information, check out Cal Flora ( a great website) which has a nice page on all the California oaks, located here.

There are a lot of basics on acorns that other people have described better than I can so I compiled a list of the most helpful sites I have found.

PDF of a book Acorns and Eat ‘Em

Jack Mountain Bushcraft

Hunter Angler Gardener Cook <– definitely one of my favorites