Woodland values in the Middle Ages were based on how many pigs could be fed on the mast. Pigs don’t mind a little bit of bitters: grazing hogs on the mast is an ancient and delicious agricultural tradition in Mediterranean wood pastures, like the dehesas of Spain and montados of Portugal. But leach the acorns first! Tannins give them a bitter flavor, but those tannins are handy for tanning hides and medicinal uses (as well as casks for whiskey and wine). Humans have eaten acorns, fresh or flour ground, for thousands of years, certainly longer than we’ve been eating wheat. We’re excited about the potential for tree crop economies of balanophagy (eating acorns), always on the lookout for Oaks in mowed yards or pastures where we can easily squirrel away nuts to make flour and oil. Only one in about 10,000 acorns grow into treehood, with many thousands feeding nut-foraging species, such as us! Which is definitely appropriate, because this rich food feeds the forest in a mast year. These trees bear incredible amounts of nuts known as mast, a word descending to us from Old English and probably related to meat.
In many ways, Oak is the preeminent keystone species. Around here, we live in Oak-Hickory Forests of the Central Appalachian Valley, which means Oak is a keystone species that sustains many others, including 500 species of insects, such as Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), who feed on the leaves. We see Oak in a different light, as a forest caretaker and carefree giver. But this connotation has also been terribly misshapen with Oak as a symbol of war, empire, and racist states. The name Oak conjures up symbols of strength and power, both because of its appearance and its common use as dense timber. In Europe, the tree often associates with lightning and thunder gods, perhaps because lightning often strikes tall heights with deep taproots.
Tannins and iron produce lovely shades of gray.Oak has been a sacred tree in many mythic traditions around the world, speaking to the spread of Quercus’ nearly 500 species, 90 of which grow in North America. I had also experimented some time ago with making a mordant from rusty objects– by soaking them in water and vinegar. I dehydrated the meal- and saved that for a future batch of acorn cookies. At one point after several hours of leaching, the acorns were done- and the water ran clear. The tannic acid comes out of the acorn in the form of a thick starchy like substance. I squeezed the bag occasionally to see thick brown water leaching from the acorn meal. I let the faucet water drain through them.
It can also be used as a dye–creating shades of light brown when used on its own.Īfter pounding the acorns with a rock and peeling them, I added them to a food processor to blend them into smaller chunks. Tannin is a non-metallic mordant- and the only mordant that I have found locally available. My intention was to use the renewable part of the tree–the acorn, and make the most of the acorn meat in the process. Tan oak bark and shavings have long been known for their role in tanning hides, they were harvested almost to the point of complete decimation in our area.
With acorns raining on the rooftops–I felt inspired to see how I could put this abundant resource to use in the dye process.
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