Lots and lots of Acorns - a Mast year?

[veggiechicken]

There are lots of ways to eat or drink acorns - but they all take so much effort to end up with something that sounds quite disgusting

[Mikey]

Found this one to show you how to remove tannins.

I quite like the suggestion that in the spring you go out and taste the young leaves and if they taste bitter try and find one that doesn't, and eat those acorns instead.

[veggiechicken]

OK - once the rain stops I'll go taste some acorns.................

[Mikey]

What rain, you telling porkies VC?

[veggiechicken]

Its stopped now Mikey
I have 2 mature oak trees and, surprised myself, by noticing that the acorns are different shapes - one has shorter, rounder acorns and the other has longer, slimmer ones

I cut one of each in half and had a lick - not the awful tannin that I expected. Then I had a nibble of each. The shorter ones were slightly sweeter and its the inner brown coat that seems to have the tannin. It was like eating an under ripe hazelnut.
Definitely better than I expected. Might try toasting a few and see if that improves them

[Mikey]

Until reading the linked thread I didn't know why we didn't eat acorns only that it was not the norm. I'm tempted to try a few from my walks and see what they are like.

If you put the kernel into boiling water and throw the water away after steeping for 5 minutes it reduces the level of tannins in the kernels apparantly, again I haven't tried this yet.

Well if you have a whole new food source VC its got to be a good thing.

[veggiechicken]

2017 - another Mast year?

Its time for the hardhat again in the garden. Hundreds of acorns rattling down.

Just wondered whether I'm the only one to have noticed it - or are you all inundated with nuts