Thanks, Cory!  This is great info.  I love the pictures.

 

 

And it also confirms for me the wisdom of the Chumash who did this complex processing in community, rather than individually in each home.  Does anyone know, by the way, if the acorns she is using (Calif. black oak) are less tannin-y than our local Coast Live Oak acorns?

 

For most working folks (I note that Orchid is retired), tedious steps like cracking each acorn and changing the water on the acorns every day would probably be an overly time-consuming and onerous task (and what does she do with all that "waste" water full of tannins?) and not really practical for one family unless you don't have a job.

 

I'm still wondering if someone couldn't find another way of doing this and if it couldn't become a local community business?  Our society has amazing technical "food processing" skills which we've used to create stupid things like cheese doodles and fake potato chips.  Could we use any of this technology to help create a really useful product like protein-rich acorn meal from our native trees?

 

Thanks for your great input...

 

Linda