THE ACORN, A POSSIBLY NEGLECTED 

 SOURCE OF FOOD 



By C. Hart Merriam 



Formerly Chief of the U. S. Biological Survey 



IN VIEW of the present pressure on 

 the food supply of the United States, 

 and with special reference to the uni- 

 versal effort to reduce the consumption 

 of wheat by the substitution of corn meal, 

 bran, and other cereal products, it may 

 be worth while to call attention to the 

 high nutritive value of a wholly neglected 

 food of wide distribution. I refer to the 

 acorn. 



There are in the United States more 

 than 50 species of oaks, of which 30 

 occur in the Eastern States and about 15 

 in the single State of California. 



To the native Indians of that State the 

 acorn is, and always has been, the staff 

 of life, furnishing the material for their 

 daily mush and bread. And when it is 

 remembered that the Indian population 

 of California at the time of its discovery 

 numbered probably not less than 300,000 

 persons, and that from the Oregon 

 boundary to the Mexican line, except in 

 the desert region, where oaks do not 

 grow, acorns were universally eaten, and 

 in most cases were the principal article 

 of diet, some idea may be had of the vast 

 quantity and high food value of those 

 annually consumed. 



In the fall, when the acorns are ripe, 

 the Indians gather them and spread them 

 out to dry in the sun, and when thor- 

 oughly dried store them in large baskets 

 and wickerwork caches, sometimes in 

 trees, but usually on rocks or poles.' 



These receptacles are built to shed the 

 rain and to keep out rats and mice, but 

 are sufficiently open to permit the circu- 

 lation of air, thus avoiding the danger of 

 molding. 



Another and very different way of 

 preserving acorns, practiced by the Win- 

 toon Indians of western Tehama County, 

 in California, was described to me bv 

 F. B. Washington, of Oakland. The 

 acorns were buried in boggy places near 

 cold springs, where they became swollen 



and softened and turned nearly black in 

 color, but remained fresh for years. 

 When needed they were dug out and 

 roasted, never dried or pounded for flour, 

 the mush and bread being always made 

 of dried acorns. 



White men in plowing have opened up 

 caches Of acorns that had lain in these 

 cold, boggy places for fully 30 years, and 

 found the acorns black, but still good. 



When preserved dry in the usual way, 

 the acorns are shucked as needed, and 

 the dry meats, each splitting naturally 

 in two parts, are pounded in stone 

 mortars Until reduced to a fine meal or 

 flour. This at first is disagreeably bitter, 

 but the bitter element is removed by 

 leaching with warm water, which in seep- 

 ing through acquires the color of coffee 

 and the bitterness of quinine. The meal 

 is then dried and stored to be used as 

 required, for mush or bread. 



According to V. K. Chesnut, the In- 

 dians of Round Valley, California, some- 

 times practice another method of getting 

 rid ' of the bitter element, namely, by 

 burying the acorns with grass, ashes, and 

 charcoal in a sandy place and afterward 

 soaking them in water from time to time 

 until they become sweet. 



BOILED IN BASKETS BY USE OE HOT STONES 



The ordinary method of cooking is by 

 boiling in baskets by means of hot stones, 

 the result being a thick jelly-like mush 

 or porridge. Acorn flour makes a rich, 

 glutinous food and contains a surpris- 

 ingly large quantity (18 to 25 per cent) 

 of nut oil of obvious nutritive value. 



Mrs. Merriam tells me that it is easy 

 to work, being what cooks call a "good 

 binder," which means that it holds to- 

 gether well even when mixed with several 

 times its bulk of corn meal or other 

 coarse or granular materials. 



Mush and bread made wholly of acorn 

 flour are not pleasing to our taste, but 



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