North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>]

I have an abundance of acorns this year.  I thought last year was the 
"on" year, but my white oaks are as productive as ever.

Is there anything I can do with the acorns, other than grinding them to 
pulp as I drive up and down the driveway?

The tree closest to the driveway has very large nuts:  nearly as big 
around as a dime, and more than an inch long.  The other two front yard 
trees have much smaller nuts, more like the ones I grew up with, a bit 
smaller around and not much longer than wide.  All are prolific.  all 
are also sprouting right and left, but at least a quarter of the nuts 
are clean, intact, and unsprouted.  I've gathered a couple of cups of 
them, and am about to gather some more, mostly just to get them off the 
driveway.

I'm looking for something relatively easy and useful for a suburban 
family.  I don't have pigs, and I'd rather not spend 50 hours preparing 
something that only the starving would eat.  On the other hand, I've 
tried odd things in the past.  (Grinding eggshells into the pasta to 
boost the calcium content was not a winner, but adding crandall currants 
or cranberries to apple pie was.)

I also have some black oak acorns (less prolific this year) and access 
to red oak acorns, which I find collected on my car when I pick it up at 
the lot at the end of the day.  Red oak acorns are enormous, and always 
look tasty to me, but they taste awful.

Thanks,
Ginda Fisher
eastern Mass, where fall seems to be here, at least today.