North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 08:26 PM 10/6/2002 -0700, Sam wrote:
> When I was in Louisville, KY a few years ago there were acorns on the 
> ground in a Park there that were as big as a quarter and 2 inches long. I 
> tried eating a couple and they were not half bad. I was amazed at the size 
> of them . I have never seen any that big on the east or west coast. I 
> don't know what kind of oak it was but the trees were huge, at least 18 
> inches at the butt or larger and they seemed to be 150 to 200 feet tall. I 
> had no way to measure them.

Sam, they could have been white(Q.alba) or chestnut oak(Q.montana, 
previously Q.prinus), but from your description, may well have been bur 
oak(Q.macrocarpa).  I have seedling bur oak selections from the 
southern/western portions of its range(AL, TX, OK) that are HUGE - they run 
in the neighborhood of 6-7 acorns per pound - and that's with their 
substantial caps removed.

We've had this discussion before - but it's been several years 
ago.  Traditionally, the native Americans collected acorns and stored them 
in well-constructed granaries for later use.   I suspect that the red/black 
group were stored, but that they probably used the white oak group fairly 
soon after dropping, as they tend to germinate soon after maturity.
The acorns would be hulled and winnowed to remove the shell and pellicle, 
then pounded to meal/flour and leached to remove the tannins.
I think Donna Hudson indicated that she had leached some chestnut oak 
acorns in a good, heavy-duty blender - accomplishing two feats - leaching 
and grinding all at the same time.

Probably more work than most modern folks are willing to put into it, but 
in a subsistence hunter-gatherer lifestyle, it was at least something to eat!


Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY