Foraging acorns :3
I recently figured out acorns are edible when properly prepared, and it is extremely painful and time consuming but it is so worth it for a desk snack if you've got nothing to do. These nuts are not poisonous and when cooked properly they can be used similar to peanuts with a much nuttier taste.
Here's your steps in case you want to try it:
Find an oak tree from September to October (if you're not a time traveler, it's a good time right now) and get yourself some acorns! Remember to look for any holes in the shell, and if the nuts are a sandy color. Sandy colored nuts are generally bad in my experience, and worms have usually gotten in there. Acorn weevils probably don't taste good, so avoid em if you can. If you can crack or dent the acorn in your fingers, toss it.
Float your acorns in a bucket of water. Any time you collect nuts you need to float them. Any nuts that are missing meat will float up to the top thanks to the air in the shell. Works for acorns, walnuts, etc. toss all the floaters and now you have a bunch of good acorns!
Crack them with a big rock or hammer and peel them. Try not to mess up the heart of the nut, cuz then you have to scoop a bunch of crumbs off your surface. It's suggested you let them dry a few days but you can do it on the day of harvest. Please have fingernails, because you will have to PEEL these nuts. My fingers started bleeding after I was done.
Boil them for 3 hours minimum or until the bitterness in the nut is gone. This step is VERY IMPORTANT. If you're sitting, reading this post and thinking "Well I've eaten a raw acorn and it tastes awful!" This step is what takes that poison out of your food. The thing making acorns bitter are called tannins, and they suck to eat. They're bitter, dry your mouth, and fuck up your stomach. They also smell terrible when you boil them off. (You can tan raw hide with it for leather though! In case you're on my kinda page) Boil your acorns for about 30 mins, the water will darken, and change the water until it runs clear (~3 hours or so)
Let your nuts dry. Spread out your nuts on a cookie sheet or any lipped pan and set it out in a warm room, the sun, or in the oven to dry them out (I put mine on 350°F for maybe 20 minutes?)
You now have some hot leached acorns, all bitterness should be out of the nuts. You can make a caffeine free coffee, roast them for a snack, use them as a peanut substitute, whatever you want to do with some nuts you picked up off the ground!
I hope you all enjoy your time in the woods, enjoy the fact you're human, and you were able to do just that, as other people have done for thousands of years. You are human, just as they are. Go enjoy your time in the wild, friends.
