i finally found the piece i'd written a while back about acorns. i've been
considering whether to post it here or not, since it's most definitely
"processed" food. true, you can can do the processing with a rock and a
bowl, but still...

anyway, here it is:

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It helps to have the proper baskets for preparing and storing acorns and
acorn meal. You can do without, but the process is slightly different.

The steps are, essentially:

1) thank the oaks for providing food
2) prepare the acorn kernals
3) grind the meal
4) leach the meal
5) prepare the food

We thank the trees for providing us with acorns for a couple of reasons.
First, the acorn used to be very important for food -- if we didn't have
them, we'd go hungry. Second, the oak is giving up an important part of
itself for us. Every acorn we eat is an oak tree that will never grow.
Therefore we respect an honor the oak for providing for us, and promise
to use the strength it gives us to continue to protect and honor it.

To prepare the kernals, crack them open and remove the insides. Usually,
you'll end up with a pile of brown-colored lumps of acorn meat. Arrange
them in a single layer and set them in the sun to dry, or put them in a
low oven. You don't want to roast them, just dry them out.

Once they're dry, grind them into flour with a mortar and pestle. It's
important to break up all the large chunks into fine meal. Make sure the
meal is evenly textured. If there are any unground lumps left over, they'll
take a lot longer to leach, and make the meal bitter.

Place the meal in a thin layer at the bottom of a flat pan. Cover it
with water (about two inches). Let it sit for a few hours, then change
the water (you can use cheesecloth to strain the acorn meal, or you can
just carefully pour off the water.) Let it sit again, and change the
water again. You'll have to do this several times - how many times
depends on the acorns, the time of year, what kind of growing season
they've had, how strong a flavor you're looking for, etc. The meal will
lighten with each leaching.

After leaching the meal a final time, pour off the excess water and pour
it out to dry. Usually, this was done in specially made baskets, or else
on a patch of sand in an undisturbed place. You can lay it out on a
clean towel, if you want. Let it dry slowly, either in the sun or at room
temperature.

Collect the resulting powder and store it like flour. You can make mush
by cooking it in some boiling water (think Cream of Wheat). You can make
bread by mixing with a little fat and/or water and making dough (sort of
like making thin biscuits or matzos or tortillas) and then baking.
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 Wolf Lochland Logan                      Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation
                 xue elo xonia eune - I come from the rock
 The fact is, there may be hope                  http://www.talamasca.org