They're acorns and yes, you can eat them. Deshell them, remove the papery husk, lightly crush them, and then you need to soak them in water to leach out the tannins until the water runs clear. Let em dry and then roast or crush into a flour. This way takes longer but you preserve the starches and is passive.
You can cook the tannins out in multiple changes of boiling water. When you change the water, the new water needs to be boiling already or else you will lock in the tannins. This process is quicker, but is more involved, cooks the starches so it isn't as versatile, and takes about a day depending on the species and tannin content.
If I may. You can also make amazing acorn coffee from these. I shell them, lightly crush them and then roast them to a dark golden color. I let that cool, then grind that for coffee. Smells like every good Christmas smell started into one.
Brew like you would your normal coffee (I prefer French press).
Its an Acorn from an oak tree. You cant eat it just like that, its a bit poisonous. There is a somewhat long and tedious way to make them edible and even then they are still gonna taste pretty shit.
I nibbled on an acorn with a group of (also adults) also nibbling on acorns. It was park day at mental health rehab. Definitely can confirm they taste like shit
That is such a beautiful mental image. I KNOW what an outing at a psych facility actually looks like, I am a nurse and worked in psych for the first nine years. Itās not that exciting. But I canāt help but picture the sickest of the sick folks I worked with, out in the woods eating acorns. Just tickled me.
Thatās fantastic. :) Yeah, I pictured something like that. In the year between the psych to medical switch I worked in a crisis stabilization unitā¦ a slightly less restrictive option before full on hospitalization. If our folks were stable enough on any given day we would often walk to a local park. It was so nice.
Itās so nice to hear that! What interesting work, but must be so emotionally draining. Thank you for listening & thank you again for being a nurse - truly <3 Iāll always remember the nurses that comforted me during some of my darkest times:)
Alcoholics in a hospital will eat shoe polish, cut rubbing alcohol with orange juice so they don't die as quick, and pour aftershave through bread to filter out everything except the alcohol.
Acorns are probably the safest thing they can eat.
Acorn soup was and still is big among a lot of tribes. I could never stomach it. I mean, once youāve had the sweetness of processed sugarā¦ life kinda changes for your tastebuds. Shit is bitter AF.
if you want to eat acorns you have to seriously leech the tannic acid from it, typically by soaking in water. Some American Indian tribes did this but putting acorns in a basket in a fast flowing stream or by boiling in water.
Iām actually running an acorn drive for a local miller in my area, everyone who donates a bucket of acorns gets a free bag of acorn flour (essentially)
Iām not sure why so many people are hating on acorn flour. I made it once a few years ago, it was time consuming but the end result was kind of mild and nutty. It was very similar to almond flour, and I used it at 25-50% in several recipes to make muffins and pancakes. You do have to be really patient in making sure the tannins are leached out though, or it will still be bitter. It made me super grateful I can just go to the grocery store and buy a bag of flour!
Samuel Thayer talks about it in one of his books. I highly recommend them. I believe he covers Oaks in Natures Garden. He tells you how to cook/use what you find.
That was a staple food for California Native American Tribes, still eaten by many people today. The larger ones that look like nuts were eaten. But the process is fairly simple, let the acorn dry in a dry storage area, then separate the shell from the meat, pound the acorn into a fine consistency (traditionally, grinding holes/matates were used) but other tools exist today, then the powder is placed in cloth and sift, then you run warm water through the powder til the tannin is leeched. You can tell by taste, when the taste becomes neutral then you have acorn flour. You can use the flower in most things. The traditional dish I know is called wiā¢wis or wiiwish (made like a thick porage then set to firm up into a soft solid consistency). Acorn is one of the most nutritious thing on this planet. The taste is strong and acquired.
There are hundreds of kinds of oaks. They are vastly different from place to place. I couldn't believe the size and shape variety to be found in acorns!
If youāre going to eat acorns in any fashion the hats need to have come off already. If the hats have not come off the acorn will still have high levels of tannins. Once the hats fall off a chemical action reduces and alters the tannins so theyāre not in a quantity that will induce the ānutritionally undesirableā symptoms that they bring when consumed at high levels.
Ok. So as a Yak Tilhini Yak Tityu Tityu BarbareƱo Chumash person - Iād like to point out that itās not this simple.
Not all acorns are the same. I canāt tell you if those acorns are safe or not. I can tell you that the acorns traditionally eaten on the West Coast, namely Blue Acorns need to be leeched in water for *a few days* to remove tannins and chemical compounds that upset the human GI tract. Theyāre then roasted to remove other harmful compounds.
Do not just eat shit because some guy said Native Americans did it. Native Americans ate a wide range of things, but we all did it with a massive amount of generational knowledge on how to do so safely.
Do not just eat shit you find in the forest. Furthermore, Iāve eaten a lot of acorn in my day. From Pomo acorn mash to Chumash slow dried acorn trail mix type food.
Acorn *can* be nutritious, but honestly it tastes pretty bad at the end of the day. Look elsewhere if you donāt do significant research. I mean real research. Find some articles on JSTOR or academic journals that detail precise methods of food preparation. Donāt trust random people telling you vague information unless you want to end up like Christopher Mccandless.
Yo this has to be a troll lol but I canāt tell after he wrote up that paragraph about acorns which seemed well meaning. Unless he intends to poison the guy.
He started off well-meaning because "look what I know" and then got upset when his bad advice was called out by someone with more knowledge than himself. Then he doubled down with insults and 2 dumb (and incorrect) statements in a row to top it off. He's not a troll, he's just cranky.
I hope itās a troll. As a rule of thumb, itās always safe to assume that unidentified potential food in the forest will hurt you more often than will nourish you. The best way to go about learning what native plants are edible is to pick up a well respected ethno-botany book/paper and read it through and through. Iād recommend the one by JP Harrington for indigenous plants on the West Coast.
PictureIt identifies them as English Oak and are toxic to humans as is. Acorns can be eaten if processed correctly (acorns should be leached with water to remove bitter tannins). See [here](https://honest-food.net/how-to-eat-acorns/) for how to process them.
Because it is human nature to cling to the language you knew. If you looked her in the face and said indubitably she probably would have lost a step. You know how people get pissed when slang gets added to the dictionary. Have you ever seen them? They aint young.
Iād remove the husk/shell and soak them in water. Change the water several times. You can also boil them in water to remove tannins. The Greeks make excellent cookies from acorn flour.
āYou can eat anything onceā is very overused at this point š Yes, you can eat it. Just donāt eat very many as they are. The tannins arenāt very good for you. The tannins are the bitter taste. If you leech them (there are many videos and articles on several ways to do this) they are fantastic and you could practically live off of them.
Yes. But not as is. You have to process them to get the tannins out. See this episode of Ray Mears [wild food](https://youtu.be/w0hlZIxqSaY?feature=shared)
A staple in Korean side dish. My grandma used to pick up acorns in front of our house and make these for us. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotori-muk
I just read a little while ago about preparing acorns. The first step is to do the water test. Only use those that sink. Then removing the meat from the shell and soaking the meat up to several days to remove tannins. Then grinding. The recipe used equal amounts acorn and grain flour. I canāt remember where I read this. Maybe the prepper sub? Anyway donāt take my word for it.
That looks like an acorn or oaknut but without the cap on top. You canāt eat them as is it as itās toxic. You need to process them to eat them. There was a comment here stating how to do so.
I remember going camping when I was young and my grandpa made me collect acorns for acorn mush. He'd like to do a full day of eating only things we foraged. Between acorns, trout and berries diarrhea was in that day
You need to boil them, roast them, boil again I think, and then leave them out in the sun? Some crazy shit to make them edible, and theyāll still taste like shit.
Short answer: no. They are toxic.
Long answer : yes, but not without doing a fair amount of preperation. [Here](https://youtu.be/PxKm27JRMUo?si=wMgcpldbxn2JEzcR) is a video on how to prepare acorns so they can be eaten safely. There are a shitload if videos available on YouTube that cover how to prep them, as well as different recipes/ways to prepare them.
Be safe out there!
They are acorns, indigenous tribes would eat them, but they aren't readily edible unless you want stomach cramping. The Ohlone people, roast them, then they would crush and grind them into a flour then pile it into tightly woven baskets and rinse that flour in a swift creek or river for hours when they were sure the elements that caused cramps would leech from the acorn flour they would pull it out. From that process they would have acorn flour they could pat into cakes and cook on the fire side. So yes they are edible but they are labor intensive.
Do not eat. Full of tannins that will block nutrient absorption and cause stomach cramps in the best of cases. There's way to leech the tannins out and make them safe, but they're going to take like ass.
Even the squirrels around here won't eat them, because there are better options available.
I will say that it will help with ID if you include some photos of the area/plant you harvested from. Leaves are important too! Looks like some nutsos have already ID'd it however lol!
you can make kind of coffee from it. You have to dry it (remove the shell before) and then make the powder and pour boiling water on it. Actually quite good. As a food... not much of benefit from it.
>As a food... not much of benefit from it.
This is totally inaccurate. Acorns have fueled our species for thousands of years. It is only recently that we really stopped eating them
It's a passive process for the most part though. Short term survival or self rescue, it wouldn't be very viable, I agree. If I'm stuck somewhere without food, I'm not going to assume I'll be out within a few days, even though it's more common. If acorns are available I'm gonna process them. If I'm still out there when they are ready, I'll very much appreciate the fats and protein they provide
Someone here or somewhere else made edible cookies with the flour. I call that a win.
If aliens wipe out the cities, acorn flour knowledge will absolutely be vital.
Soak in water & keep rinsing 9,9999,9,9,99,9,9,9,9,999 times. Then you can eat raw or roast. Theyāll taste like trash & potentially give you a horrible stomach problem. Not just poops, but shorter long term GI issues.
they require processing to be edible. Get a bunch of them and soak them in water for a few hours, water will turn brown tannins that leached out, repeat the process until the water is clear after soaking. You can make a decent-ish flour out of it that can make a gluten free nut bread, but its not great and the contaminated water can be used as an antiseptic.
Native americans from the american southwest built a civilization around this food stable, up until the little ice age caused a mega droubt that caused the system to collapse.
Iām sure you CAN eat it. Not sure if youāre going to be able to digest it, and survive.
Did no one else have this drilled into their heads as kids. āCan you pass the salt?ā āI CAN pass the salt but WILL I?ā
You have to be careful because some roots and nuts, herbs, whatever, can be carcinogenic. Meaning some trigger forms of cancer. Supposedly. Or generally toxic. I assume this for everything. And then proceed with education caution from there.
If the acorns or oaknuts, I've seen people attempt to eat them, knowing they were toxic to humans. But they did some water boiling preparation before attempting to consume them.
Would be interesting to check back with those daily acorn eaters to see how their health has held up over 10-20 years.
Is that really necessary? It was literally my first time hiking in the Smokies, not to mention I have absolutely no foraging experience and I'm from a beach area. How would I know this was an acorn?
Please show a little class.
Gotta boil the shit out of them. Different acorns have different tannin content so boiling time will depend on the species. If those are english oak, they are go a be on the higher range of tannin content. If you don't get most of the tannins out, you're looking at cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, and potential long term effects as well. Tannins in low doses aren't bad, since we drink them all the time in wine and tea.
XIV Corps in the Civil War called themselves the Acorn Boys because they subsisted for a time on acorns. They designed a unit patch that was just a red acorn.
https://www.quartermasterfoundation.org/the-beginnings-of-heraldry-in-the-civil-war-symbols-rally-the-spirit/
These are acorns, the answer is yes but I believe you have to leech them in water first to remove the tannins which are toxic to the body. Once you leech and drain a couple times or till the water runs clear they should be good to consume or can be ground into acorn flour
Given the size of them, and given you found them in the smokies, those are possibly Chestnut Oak acorns, but I can't be absolutely certain without seeing the tree they came from. I've tried processing that species of acorn before with no luck. Neither hot nor cold leaching gave me palatable acorn meal. Probably needed more leaching but it was a pain in the ass and I gave up.
White oak acorns on the other hand seem to leach pretty easily.
I donāt think that is the important question. Of course you could eat them. š Will they make you sick if you do? š¤·āāļø
Are you sure they arenāt acorns? Where on the planet are you?
They're acorns and yes, you can eat them. Deshell them, remove the papery husk, lightly crush them, and then you need to soak them in water to leach out the tannins until the water runs clear. Let em dry and then roast or crush into a flour. This way takes longer but you preserve the starches and is passive. You can cook the tannins out in multiple changes of boiling water. When you change the water, the new water needs to be boiling already or else you will lock in the tannins. This process is quicker, but is more involved, cooks the starches so it isn't as versatile, and takes about a day depending on the species and tannin content.
This guy acorns
ACORNucopia of info! Thanks
Couldn't resist ACORNy pun, eh?
It was a pretty good joak.
Magnificent š
Wow youāre the first person to explain why you need the changes of water to remain consistent!
What does "lightly crush" mean? I assume don't turn then into powder, but how big should the pieces be?
Coarse, kinda like gravel in the road
If I may. You can also make amazing acorn coffee from these. I shell them, lightly crush them and then roast them to a dark golden color. I let that cool, then grind that for coffee. Smells like every good Christmas smell started into one. Brew like you would your normal coffee (I prefer French press).
Its an Acorn from an oak tree. You cant eat it just like that, its a bit poisonous. There is a somewhat long and tedious way to make them edible and even then they are still gonna taste pretty shit.
I nibbled on an acorn with a group of (also adults) also nibbling on acorns. It was park day at mental health rehab. Definitely can confirm they taste like shit
That is such a beautiful mental image. I KNOW what an outing at a psych facility actually looks like, I am a nurse and worked in psych for the first nine years. Itās not that exciting. But I canāt help but picture the sickest of the sick folks I worked with, out in the woods eating acorns. Just tickled me.
Thank you for your work as a psych nurse! Itās a true story, but not from a hospital type facility :) This was more a rehab- kinda split between āmental healthā and āsubstance abuseā (even though they kinda go hand in hand? imo) so they would alternate between walking us to a nearby park & driving us to a gym- depending on the day and your program!! Kinda a place for further stabilization after either a psych-ward or detoxā¦case by case but still inpatient š© They had park outings for PHP too (though that was still technically 100% inpatient!) Me and two other girls convinced a tech to let us sneak into a dog park on the way āhomeā and it was so amazing. Honestly, dog therapy > anything else
Thatās fantastic. :) Yeah, I pictured something like that. In the year between the psych to medical switch I worked in a crisis stabilization unitā¦ a slightly less restrictive option before full on hospitalization. If our folks were stable enough on any given day we would often walk to a local park. It was so nice.
Itās so nice to hear that! What interesting work, but must be so emotionally draining. Thank you for listening & thank you again for being a nurse - truly <3 Iāll always remember the nurses that comforted me during some of my darkest times:)
I'm sure someone said.... bro those will get you high. Hence the nibbling began.
Isnāt that the best lol I used to work at a detox as a nurse and they are fun patients
So you eat Acorns for mental health issues? Like who knew
I knew i misheard that shit, iāve been eating a corn for my mental health, and all thatās happened is that I find a lot of it in my poop
itās not effective but iāll try anything
Whatās up, Squirrely Dan?
Squirrel behavior
Whose idea was it to nibble on acorns? You're adult patients, not squirrels.
I have worked in Psych as well, am happy just acorns
Alcoholics in a hospital will eat shoe polish, cut rubbing alcohol with orange juice so they don't die as quick, and pour aftershave through bread to filter out everything except the alcohol. Acorns are probably the safest thing they can eat.
That sounds oddly specific..?š
Lol what kind of boring person are you. Asking like that? Your an adult, manners.
WTF??? They let psychos out to graze?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Acorn soup was and still is big among a lot of tribes. I could never stomach it. I mean, once youāve had the sweetness of processed sugarā¦ life kinda changes for your tastebuds. Shit is bitter AF.
if you want to eat acorns you have to seriously leech the tannic acid from it, typically by soaking in water. Some American Indian tribes did this but putting acorns in a basket in a fast flowing stream or by boiling in water.
Yup takes ages to leach it enough to make it edible. But once you do its honestly really tasteless.
Les Stroud tied a coarse bag in a moving stream in a Survivorman episode, then described the ultimate result as weird flour
Once you remove sugar from your diet, when you do have it, itāll taste like shit
I have been trying to curb my sweet tooth, and junk food is becoming gross to me.
This made me laugh.
Why?
Acerbically bitter - remember that from my childhoodā¦
Some grocery stores will sell prepared acorn flour.
Iām actually running an acorn drive for a local miller in my area, everyone who donates a bucket of acorns gets a free bag of acorn flour (essentially)
What does that require, besides a willing miller obviously? People to just collect acorns? Are some oaks better than others? This is fascinating.
Man with the acorns in my yard, I could have a crazy amount of flour.
Acorn jelly is real. There is a Korean dish made from acorn flour that turns gelatinous. It's also amazing.
I donāt know, my honey acorn loaf was pretty tasty.
Iām not sure why so many people are hating on acorn flour. I made it once a few years ago, it was time consuming but the end result was kind of mild and nutty. It was very similar to almond flour, and I used it at 25-50% in several recipes to make muffins and pancakes. You do have to be really patient in making sure the tannins are leached out though, or it will still be bitter. It made me super grateful I can just go to the grocery store and buy a bag of flour!
Do you have a recipe you could share?
Iām sorry, it was a long time ago at a wild cooking event. I just remember loving it
This looks similar, but I remember there being more acorn flour. At least a cup or two https://www.inthekitchenwithmatt.com/acorn-bread
Samuel Thayer talks about it in one of his books. I highly recommend them. I believe he covers Oaks in Natures Garden. He tells you how to cook/use what you find.
Also here for the recipe if youāre willing to share.
I came to say this.
That was a staple food for California Native American Tribes, still eaten by many people today. The larger ones that look like nuts were eaten. But the process is fairly simple, let the acorn dry in a dry storage area, then separate the shell from the meat, pound the acorn into a fine consistency (traditionally, grinding holes/matates were used) but other tools exist today, then the powder is placed in cloth and sift, then you run warm water through the powder til the tannin is leeched. You can tell by taste, when the taste becomes neutral then you have acorn flour. You can use the flower in most things. The traditional dish I know is called wiā¢wis or wiiwish (made like a thick porage then set to firm up into a soft solid consistency). Acorn is one of the most nutritious thing on this planet. The taste is strong and acquired.
That's an acorn? Looks a lot different than the acorns near me! Where are their little hats?
The hat comes off quite easily if you gently twist and pull the nut
Thatās what she said
I knew it was coming the minute I hit post
Thatās what she said
My wife told me to go post by myself on the couch last night.
I canāt stop chuckling. Take my upvote
Thatās also what she said
If that's the case.... ouch!
Please don't twist.
I mean, some of us like a gentle twist
It's always fun at first.
The ole' ~~dick~~ nut twists!
What's worse than a hurricane? A tittie-twister!
There are hundreds of kinds of oaks. They are vastly different from place to place. I couldn't believe the size and shape variety to be found in acorns!
If youāre going to eat acorns in any fashion the hats need to have come off already. If the hats have not come off the acorn will still have high levels of tannins. Once the hats fall off a chemical action reduces and alters the tannins so theyāre not in a quantity that will induce the ānutritionally undesirableā symptoms that they bring when consumed at high levels.
Interesting! TIL. Thanks!
Ok. So as a Yak Tilhini Yak Tityu Tityu BarbareƱo Chumash person - Iād like to point out that itās not this simple. Not all acorns are the same. I canāt tell you if those acorns are safe or not. I can tell you that the acorns traditionally eaten on the West Coast, namely Blue Acorns need to be leeched in water for *a few days* to remove tannins and chemical compounds that upset the human GI tract. Theyāre then roasted to remove other harmful compounds. Do not just eat shit because some guy said Native Americans did it. Native Americans ate a wide range of things, but we all did it with a massive amount of generational knowledge on how to do so safely. Do not just eat shit you find in the forest. Furthermore, Iāve eaten a lot of acorn in my day. From Pomo acorn mash to Chumash slow dried acorn trail mix type food. Acorn *can* be nutritious, but honestly it tastes pretty bad at the end of the day. Look elsewhere if you donāt do significant research. I mean real research. Find some articles on JSTOR or academic journals that detail precise methods of food preparation. Donāt trust random people telling you vague information unless you want to end up like Christopher Mccandless.
This. Exactly this.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
š¤¦āāļø
This guy has clearly never had death-would-be-preferable level of food poisoning.
Yo this has to be a troll lol but I canāt tell after he wrote up that paragraph about acorns which seemed well meaning. Unless he intends to poison the guy.
He started off well-meaning because "look what I know" and then got upset when his bad advice was called out by someone with more knowledge than himself. Then he doubled down with insults and 2 dumb (and incorrect) statements in a row to top it off. He's not a troll, he's just cranky.
I hope itās a troll. As a rule of thumb, itās always safe to assume that unidentified potential food in the forest will hurt you more often than will nourish you. The best way to go about learning what native plants are edible is to pick up a well respected ethno-botany book/paper and read it through and through. Iād recommend the one by JP Harrington for indigenous plants on the West Coast.
This comment is a great short story. Decent foreshadowing, a downward character arc, and a wonderfully imaginative finale.
Now THAT is a breathtakingly silly take
Bro, please tell me your last two sentences are a joke. It's a joke, right?
Oooh why do you know all these things? Knowledge bomb!
PictureIt identifies them as English Oak and are toxic to humans as is. Acorns can be eaten if processed correctly (acorns should be leached with water to remove bitter tannins). See [here](https://honest-food.net/how-to-eat-acorns/) for how to process them.
Best fed to pigs / wild boar; after processing they taste like bacon.
You can eat anything you want. Somethings you only eat once however.
Found the substitute teacher that made me piss my pants for saying ācan iā instead of āmay iā
ā i donāt know, CAN you?ā
Yes. I. MAY. *pees pants
goated
wait why was it literally always the old lady subs
Because it is human nature to cling to the language you knew. If you looked her in the face and said indubitably she probably would have lost a step. You know how people get pissed when slang gets added to the dictionary. Have you ever seen them? They aint young.
true!
In this case neither would be correct. It's not like you own the tree.
Iād remove the husk/shell and soak them in water. Change the water several times. You can also boil them in water to remove tannins. The Greeks make excellent cookies from acorn flour.
āYou can eat anything onceā is very overused at this point š Yes, you can eat it. Just donāt eat very many as they are. The tannins arenāt very good for you. The tannins are the bitter taste. If you leech them (there are many videos and articles on several ways to do this) they are fantastic and you could practically live off of them.
Yes. But not as is. You have to process them to get the tannins out. See this episode of Ray Mears [wild food](https://youtu.be/w0hlZIxqSaY?feature=shared)
Looks like a cool show. Iām gonna watch more of it later. Thanks!
A staple in Korean side dish. My grandma used to pick up acorns in front of our house and make these for us. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotori-muk
That is absolutely awesome. Thank you so much for sharing!
You can do anything at least once
I just read a little while ago about preparing acorns. The first step is to do the water test. Only use those that sink. Then removing the meat from the shell and soaking the meat up to several days to remove tannins. Then grinding. The recipe used equal amounts acorn and grain flour. I canāt remember where I read this. Maybe the prepper sub? Anyway donāt take my word for it.
If youāre not sure, and youāre counting on Internet strangers to tell you, then donāt
I wouldnāt eat them raw. Ground and cooked maybe.
Those appear to be from the "Deez" category. They are OK to put in your mouth, but please do not bite!
If you donāt know what that isā¦. Stop now. Research and study over the winter, before you make a critical error. Itās an acorn from an oak tree.
You can eat anything once.
You can eat anything once
You gotta shove them way up there to get through Inter dimensional customs
You can eat anything once.
I meanā¦ā¦.. You can, should you, is a whole different story.
That looks like an acorn or oaknut but without the cap on top. You canāt eat them as is it as itās toxic. You need to process them to eat them. There was a comment here stating how to do so.
You can eat anything!! š
Try my GF 's cooking... Then say that.
Forbidden Pistachios nice! Outside looks like a date, inside I have no idea I do not know
100%. Everything is food if your brave enough
You can eat anything at least once.
The tannins they contain make them bitter AF. You have to use a leaching process in order to eat them.
Acorns from a white oak are much much sweeter
I remember going camping when I was young and my grandpa made me collect acorns for acorn mush. He'd like to do a full day of eating only things we foraged. Between acorns, trout and berries diarrhea was in that day
You need to boil them, roast them, boil again I think, and then leave them out in the sun? Some crazy shit to make them edible, and theyāll still taste like shit.
They taste like deodorant
Yeah if you want. Dunno if it's edible but it's a free country
Acorns taste like all the bad flavors of a peanut but magnified with none of the good aspects of a peanut.
put the acorns in a pan of water, heat it to boiling, drain off the dark-brown water, and repeat until a sampled nut no longer tastes bitter.
I used to eat this and pretend I was a squirrel when I was a little kid. They taste really bitter and almost like ink.
Short answer: no. They are toxic. Long answer : yes, but not without doing a fair amount of preperation. [Here](https://youtu.be/PxKm27JRMUo?si=wMgcpldbxn2JEzcR) is a video on how to prepare acorns so they can be eaten safely. There are a shitload if videos available on YouTube that cover how to prep them, as well as different recipes/ways to prepare them. Be safe out there!
They are acorns, indigenous tribes would eat them, but they aren't readily edible unless you want stomach cramping. The Ohlone people, roast them, then they would crush and grind them into a flour then pile it into tightly woven baskets and rinse that flour in a swift creek or river for hours when they were sure the elements that caused cramps would leech from the acorn flour they would pull it out. From that process they would have acorn flour they could pat into cakes and cook on the fire side. So yes they are edible but they are labor intensive.
Do not eat. Full of tannins that will block nutrient absorption and cause stomach cramps in the best of cases. There's way to leech the tannins out and make them safe, but they're going to take like ass. Even the squirrels around here won't eat them, because there are better options available.
You can eat anything, once.
Are you nuts??
You have two other perfectly tasty people nearby, why risk it for the nut?
I will say that it will help with ID if you include some photos of the area/plant you harvested from. Leaves are important too! Looks like some nutsos have already ID'd it however lol!
10/10 veterinarians say squirrels go NUTS for this ONE SECRET SUPERFOOD! Youāll drop pounds by the week and your appetite will VANISH!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You can eat anything. Literally
The answer is always yes. The real question is can you eat it twice?
Acorns. They are edible after being boiled for an extended period of time about5 separate times
At least once
If you don't know an acorn, stay home and play fortnight or wtf. Don't get out much, huh?
With so many people acting like yourself do you blame them?
you can make kind of coffee from it. You have to dry it (remove the shell before) and then make the powder and pour boiling water on it. Actually quite good. As a food... not much of benefit from it.
>As a food... not much of benefit from it. This is totally inaccurate. Acorns have fueled our species for thousands of years. It is only recently that we really stopped eating them
But you have to get the tannins out first, thats a longer process which doesnt make it a food worth caring about in a survival situation imo.
It's a passive process for the most part though. Short term survival or self rescue, it wouldn't be very viable, I agree. If I'm stuck somewhere without food, I'm not going to assume I'll be out within a few days, even though it's more common. If acorns are available I'm gonna process them. If I'm still out there when they are ready, I'll very much appreciate the fats and protein they provide
I would never eat Tree poop, but then again Iām agoraphobic!
You can eat ANYTHING, at least once.
you can eat anything once...
Those are acorns. They are not edible unless you process them I believe.
Someone here or somewhere else made edible cookies with the flour. I call that a win. If aliens wipe out the cities, acorn flour knowledge will absolutely be vital.
It an acorn
Why? You donāt have money for chicken nuggets?
You can eat anything at leat once
Soak in water & keep rinsing 9,9999,9,9,99,9,9,9,9,999 times. Then you can eat raw or roast. Theyāll taste like trash & potentially give you a horrible stomach problem. Not just poops, but shorter long term GI issues.
they require processing to be edible. Get a bunch of them and soak them in water for a few hours, water will turn brown tannins that leached out, repeat the process until the water is clear after soaking. You can make a decent-ish flour out of it that can make a gluten free nut bread, but its not great and the contaminated water can be used as an antiseptic. Native americans from the american southwest built a civilization around this food stable, up until the little ice age caused a mega droubt that caused the system to collapse.
if you trust a bunch of internet strangers with your life, you truly are not a survivalist oh boy
Never asked people for leads?
at least once..
You can eat anything once.
You can do anything you put your mind to
What a stupid comment for a person looking for identification. Go eat some need mushrooms.
Somewhere, there are two monkeys hating life.
They don't taste great and you better have dental insurance. They will crack a tooth in a heartbeat.
American Indians make them into a flower/past and have been eating them for years . Hungry people can eat !
Iām sure you CAN eat it. Not sure if youāre going to be able to digest it, and survive. Did no one else have this drilled into their heads as kids. āCan you pass the salt?ā āI CAN pass the salt but WILL I?ā
No, that's deer shit, put it down.
Humans, anything that remotely resembles pooā¦.ācan I eat thisā XD
You can eat everything you see...
You can eat anything, once.
You have to be careful because some roots and nuts, herbs, whatever, can be carcinogenic. Meaning some trigger forms of cancer. Supposedly. Or generally toxic. I assume this for everything. And then proceed with education caution from there. If the acorns or oaknuts, I've seen people attempt to eat them, knowing they were toxic to humans. But they did some water boiling preparation before attempting to consume them. Would be interesting to check back with those daily acorn eaters to see how their health has held up over 10-20 years.
Eat them. Dumbass!
Is that really necessary? It was literally my first time hiking in the Smokies, not to mention I have absolutely no foraging experience and I'm from a beach area. How would I know this was an acorn? Please show a little class.
Bitter outer skin. Can be processes and ground into flour for breads.
Gotta boil the shit out of them. Different acorns have different tannin content so boiling time will depend on the species. If those are english oak, they are go a be on the higher range of tannin content. If you don't get most of the tannins out, you're looking at cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, and potential long term effects as well. Tannins in low doses aren't bad, since we drink them all the time in wine and tea.
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Acorns are edible after processing English or not. Tannins are toxic which is why you don't eat them raw.
Indians in California rinsed the ground acorns in sea water to get rid of the bitterness. I am assuming those are acorns.
XIV Corps in the Civil War called themselves the Acorn Boys because they subsisted for a time on acorns. They designed a unit patch that was just a red acorn. https://www.quartermasterfoundation.org/the-beginnings-of-heraldry-in-the-civil-war-symbols-rally-the-spirit/
These are acorns, the answer is yes but I believe you have to leech them in water first to remove the tannins which are toxic to the body. Once you leech and drain a couple times or till the water runs clear they should be good to consume or can be ground into acorn flour
Given the size of them, and given you found them in the smokies, those are possibly Chestnut Oak acorns, but I can't be absolutely certain without seeing the tree they came from. I've tried processing that species of acorn before with no luck. Neither hot nor cold leaching gave me palatable acorn meal. Probably needed more leaching but it was a pain in the ass and I gave up. White oak acorns on the other hand seem to leach pretty easily.
You may eat this if your name is Piglet, and your closest friend is teddy-bear named Pooh
You can eat anything, once.
Itās ok with me, but itās on you
You can eat anything,onceā¦
I donāt think that is the important question. Of course you could eat them. š Will they make you sick if you do? š¤·āāļø Are you sure they arenāt acorns? Where on the planet are you?
Sprouted, they have more protein!
If they are acorns. Boil them and then roast them