I'm glad you brought this up - I don't think acorns are something we can ignore in the food security discussion (or any other native plant). Your suggestion of a cottage industry of preparing acorn foods could possibly be a really viable business for someone...

Los Angeles native plant specialist and fellow permaculturist Orchid Black gives classes on "modern" prep of acorns that uses food processors, etc, to speed the process. She said she gathered 200 pounds of acorns right on her city block, and she felt there may be enough there to feed the whole neighborhood in a pinch.

Here's a little taste of her workshop:

http://earthhomegarden.blogspot.com/2007/12/orchid-blacks-acorn-processing-class.html

The fritters and other foods she made for us from acorns she picked in her neighborhood were incredibly delicious, by the way. And a pretty complete food, packed with proteins, vitamins, minerals, etc.

She also gives classes on other native edibles - I'd like to have her do that in the hills behind where I used to live, full of buckwheat and other goodies. :-)

After seeing her prepare acorns, I feel I could do it myself and would do so, except I missed the harvest this year, was out of town! But next winter, expect to see me out there gathering pounds of acorns, competing with the squirrels...

Cory

--- On Mon, 8/10/09, LBUZZELL@aol.com <LBUZZELL@aol.com> wrote:

> From: LBUZZELL@aol.com <LBUZZELL@aol.com>
> Subject: [Scpg] a wild idea...
> To: sbperm2006@googlegroups.com, sbfoodfuture@googlegroups.com, Scpg@arashi.com
> Cc: cobb.shelly@gmail.com, info@sbfoodnotlawns.org
> Date: Monday, August 10, 2009, 2:01 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Larry and I were brainstorming this morning about
> local food security and
> we thought about acorn, the freely-available, ubiquitous
> native protein source
> that we waste 1000s of pounds of each year here on the
> South Coast.
>
> There has been a lot of talk over the years on these
> and other lists about
> how the Chumash harvested and processed acorn (and some
> still do), but many of
> us got discouraged by how difficult and lengthy the
> processing is and how we no
> longer have the fresh, clean streams to remove the tannins.
> The traditional
> methods seemed to require a whole community, lots of time,
> plus a pristine
> environment.
>
> So we wondered... what if some clever permaculture or
> food tech person
> could come up with plans for an updated version of the
> traditional process?
> Perhaps a community-owned, sustainable acorn
> processing facility? Not
> an easy technical problem, but we've put people on
> the moon so surely this
> can't be beyond us if we put our minds to it?
> Such a facility would also
> provide sustainable local jobs and would qualify as what
> the Transition
> Initiative folks call a "Transition
> Industry." The trick is how to do the
> processing without excessive water use -- or find a way to
> use the water that
> contains the tannins for another use? And also how to
> turn the processed
> acorn into products that the factory can also make or that
> local cooks would be
> eager to use -- for flour, in soups, baked goods etc?
>
> Also, in the past, Loren Luyendyk had the clever
> idea of grafting
> less-tannin oak varieties onto our native coast live oaks
> for an
> easier-to-process acorn. This might allow us to do
> much less
> processing.
>
> Can we come up with a method that both respects local
> indigenous traditions
> and highly productive native food plants like oak, but
> applies modern know-how
> to the processing so we can once again enjoy the benefits
> of this high-protein
> local food that is so productive and easy to grow in our
> area?
>
> All ideas welcome!
>
> Linda
>
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>
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