Acorns

[Patrick]

The time of abundant acorns is coming, and I would love to harvest them in hopes of making a bunch of flour. I know though that after shelling them you have to wash the tannin off either before or after grinding the nuts down finer. However, I cannot find out a consistent answer on the best way to do this, any advice?

[Patrick]

Just to add, I'm looking particularly for any advice on ways one can be sure all of the tannin is gone, since it is poisonous.

[Quaker Dan]

When I saw this thread I thought it was a continuation of last year's thread


http://forums.jesusradicals.com/show...ghlight=acorns

or
http://forums.jesusradicals.com/show...hlight=walnuts
or
http://forums.jesusradicals.com/show...hlight=walnuts

Anyway you don't 'wash the tannin off' you soak them out through many changes of water. If you have a relatively clean stream nearby you can put them in a mesh bag and leave it there for a few days. Otherwise just leave them in a pot. A friend of mine saves the acorn water to tan hides (get it, tannin?) but you don't have to. Get white oak acorns if you can http://forestry.about.com/od/hardwoo...ercus_alba.htm as they have lower tannin content than red oak.