“Why Would You Want to Eat That?” - In Defense of Acorn, Part 1
Acorns have the unusual distinction of being an ancient crop that is considered a “novel food” in America. For the vast majority of human history, acorn has been one of our most important foods: archaeological record shows pre-human hominids were processing and eating acorns in the Middle East more than 750,000 years ago. Modern Homo sapiens have only existed for around 300,000 years, and the first grains were only domesticated around 10,000 years ago!
Because Acorns are delicious
The flavor of acorn is hard to describe, but if you’ve ever enjoyed a glass of bourbon, chardonnay, or port wine; you’re already familiar with the distinctive flavors of oak tannins. Acorn can range from very oak-y to so mild you’d hardly know it’s there, depending on the species and how it’s processed. It brings a wonderful depth of flavor to dishes of all kinds and dramatically improves cookies and many other baked goods, as well as noodles, sausages, and more.Y
You just have to try it for yourself - head over to Eat Acorn and pick a recipe! One favorite is a non-dairy chocolate acorn pudding, which has been a huge hit with everyone who’s tried it - even the ones who can eat dairy.
Because Acorn Is a superfooD
Unlike most nuts, acorns are a complete protein: they contain a full set of amino acids used by the body to build muscle. Acorns oils are much higher in unsaturated fat than saturated fat, which can improve cholesterol levels and protect against heart disease. Acorn flour has a low glycemic index, and is ideal for people with diabetic or pre-diabetic symptoms, or anyone trying to cut sugar. Put simply, it does not provoke an insulin response like wheat flour.
Because acorns are a common heritage for humanity
Acorn didn’t disappear when grains were domesticated: they have been eaten alongside grains in every culture of the northern hemisphere up until a few hundred years ago. Colonization took acorns out of the mainstream, both via culture and via land use. Some examples: in the Celtic nations of the Atlantic Isles, oak forests were clearcut by the British government to build the British navy even as the best farmland for conventional crops was taken by elites. The result was mass starvation and mass immigration - and not just during famine years. In the Americas, colonization of native people deliberately forced them off their land and removed access to native foods. That injustice has never been corrected and even today Native Californians face trespassing charges or fines if they try to access the trees their ancestors cared for on their traditional lands.
In other places it was classism. White bread made from bleached flour became a status symbol during the industrial revolution, and acorn makes brown bread, and became stigmatized as a low class food for peasants.
Even so, unbroken traditions of eating acorn persist in rural communities throughout Europe - particularly southern Europe - to this day. Meanwhile acorn is commercially grown and harvested in Korea, China, and (to a lesser degree) Japan to this day.
Where there were oak trees (read: the entire Northern Hemisphere), there were people eating the nuts. If your ancestors are from the Northern Hemisphere, they ate acorn.
why aren’t we eating them in America?
Well, some people are. Native Americans and Native Californians in particular still harvest, process, and eat acorn. But the larger society mostly doesn’t because processing acorn by hand is hard and incredibly time consuming.
Machinery to process acorn more efficiently already exists, and is widely used in Asia and southern Europe where commercial acorn harvest and processing still takes place - but there’s plenty of room for improvement. We’ve developed a new leaching process that uses no chemicals or solvents and can leach acorn in hours instead of days. Combined with machinery repurposed from other tree nut crops, we have everything we need to bring acorn back to the mainstream in California.
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