Acorns !

by Arlene Correll

Monday, November 18, 2002

Nita asked me if I had any knowledge of making dyes with acorns or turning acorns into something else.

After searching through the attic of my mind and some old notes I had, here is what I came up with. The following is for both obtaining tannin for dye and for getting rid of the tannin in order to eat the meat of the acorns. Also, I found some old notes on making crafts with acorns.

All acorns contain tannin. White oak acorns contain the least tannin of any oak that is native to North America. Some people find eating the acorn as it is, however, the tannin should be leached out if one intends to eat a quantity of acorns without doubling up with digestive complaints.

I would avoid scrub oak and the sour-smelling red oak as these do not leach clear of tannin no matter how hard you try. So if you are going to eat these, make into flour or whatever for consumption, look for white oak acorns. Look for plump, full-sized nuts. You can tell a fully mature nut when shells are getting dry and brown or tinged with green. With this in mind, if you are going just for the tannin for dye, then one can presume that the scrub oak acorns and the red oak acorns might do well. You will have to experiment. Regardless, one has to harvest the acorns and one has to mash them to achieve either.

Remember, the dryer the better. However, any full sized nut is usable. If you use soft-shelled, green acorns, you will find them full of moisture and more bitter, but still edible.

Without having to climb into the tree and shaking the branches, you can spread a tarp, cloth, or sheet under the tree and wait until the mature nuts drop to the ground, unto your cloth. This way, the cap of the acorn will stay on the tree. You will have to check daily and you will have to get up early to beat the squirrels.

Throw away any misshapen, discolored nuts or those with small holes bored into them as the insides will be eaten away and may still contain insect larvae.

The nuts must be mashed to allow the quick release of the tannin. So do not worry about trying to harvest the nuts whole. One can smash the acorns between two stones or rocks as the Indians used to or one can devise some sort of method using a hammer and a old roasting pan or whatever. Toss out the shells and retain the mashed kernels. Sniff each one and discard any that smell sour as they have all ready fermented and will taste bad because they have lost their nutrients.

If you live by a flowing stream, then leaching out the tannin will be easy. Put them in a old pillowcase (one you do not care about) and tie the top well and toss into the stream, securing the whole thing well to the shoreline.If not, just soak the pillowcase in an old washtub, changing the water often until clear. Remember to agitate the water by dunking the pillowcase up and down several times during this process.

Now if you want the tannin for the dye, do not discard the water, just retain it in another vessel. For faster leaching of tannin, you can boil the mashed kernels in several changes of water until the water remains unstained. For tannin for dyeing, again retain the darkest of waters. If you are using just the tannin for dye, you may have to soak your fabric in a color fixative before the dye process. This will make the color set in the fabric.

Here is the color fixative recipe I have in my files.

For berry dyes: Mix ½ cup salt to 8 cups cold water.

For Plant dyes: Mix 4 parts of cold water to 1 part of vinegar.

It is best to use an old pot for dyeing and wear rubber or surgical gloves when handling your fabric as the dye will probably stain your hands. Always remember that some plant dyes may be toxic and you should check with the Poison Control Center if unsure.

Now you can place your wet fabric in your tannin dye bath. Simmer together until the desired color is obtained. The color of the fabric will be lighter when its dry. It is important to remember that when you wash these home dyed fabrics, you should launder them separately from your other laundry and always in cold water. Why? Because these dyes are not color fast.

Muslin, cotton and wool work best for natural dyes and the lighter the fabric in color, the better. White or pastel colors work best. The stronger the shade you want your fabric to retain, the longer the fabric will have to stay in your dye solution.

Before I go onto acorns as a food source, just remember that the above dye rules can be used with just about any natural dye found in your own back yard. Roots, nuts and flowers are just a few common ways to give you yellow, orange, red, blue, green, gray and brown.. So have fun experimenting.

And remember, you can always save the tannin to tan hides.

So lets get back to using the meat as food. Now you will have to air-dry the leached kernels. The Indians used drying platforms on 5 ft poles to keep the animals away and had a guard on duty 24 hours a day. Not my kind of job.You could spread a sheet in an old mesh hammock and prop it open with sticks and let the sun do the job.I would probably dry on cookie sheets in a low set oven or in a dehydrator.

Now that you have this stuff, what do you do with it? Just use as you would any other nut. Salt it as a snack, mix with dry fruits and whole grains in your favorite trail mix or cook in tea breads or cookies. You can toast in a medium oven until light brown for a product that you will find tastier. You can grind bone-dry kernel, raw or toasted into flour and use in your bread recipes. Since dry acorns do not contain a lot of oil, they will store well if you keep them dry. Protect from rodents in sealed containers. The Indians used to hang in bags from the rafters of their hogans.

Here is a Pemmican recipe:

Mix leached, dried acorn meats with dried venison or other lean meat, whole ripe grains, dried berries and enough hard fat and maple sugar to bind. Then pack it in some sort or sausage casing, or outer layer of intestine. This was a trail ration of the Eastern woodland Indians. You could roll up in wax paper as stated below in the vegetarian recipe.

For the vegetarian, you can substitute dried soy crumbles and chunky peanut butter for the hard fat. You can add your own leached acorn meat, split dried cranberries, blue berries, strawberries, raspberries or black berries. Mix together and roll in waxed paper like a giant tootsie roll. I have read that one can walk for half a day on a thumb’s length.

Here is a chart I have for vegetable tanning materials for dyeing hides:

Oak Bark gives firm and full leather, yellow-brown color with dark cut.

Pine Bark High sugar content and therefore, strongly acid-forming. Gives yellow-brown leather with a reddish cut; becomes darker.

Hemlock Bark Gives pronouncedly reddish leather.

Acorns Gives tough, firm leather of brown-grey color.

Sumac Leaves Gives soft supple leaster of pale color high lightfastness and this is good for fancy leathers.

Here is a chart I have for vegetable tanning materials for dyeing fabrics:

Orange: Sassafras leaves

Brown: - Sumac (leaves) - Walnut (hulls) - Tea Bags (makes a light brown)

- Juniper berries - Coffee grinds

Shades of Pink: - Strawberries – Cherries - Raspberries (red)

Shades of Light Green: - Lily-Of-The-Valley (leaves)

Shades of Red: - Dandelion (root) - Beets - Rose (hips) - Red onion (skins)

- Chokecherries - Madder

Shades of Blue-Purple: - Red cabbage - Elderberries - Grapes - Blueberries

- Cherry (roots) - Japanese indigo (deep blue)

Shades of Red-Purple: Pokeweed (berries)

Shades of Black: Sumac (leaves)

Shades of Gray-Black: Iris (roots)

Shades of Green: - Spinach leaves - Black-Eyed Susans - Grass - Nettle

- Plantain Roots

Shades of Yellow: - Onion (skins) - Marigold (blossoms) - Willow (leaves)

- Queen Anne's Lace - Burdock - Celery (leaves)

- Golden Rod (flowers) - Sumac (bark) - Weld (bright yellow)

Shades of Peach: - Broom Flower

Acorn Crafts

Making faces!

Paint the tops of acorns any bright color, maybe each family member's favorite color.

When bottom half is dried, paint on a simple face. To make very thin tiny lines, try using a very sharp pencil instead of a paintbrush. Just dip pencil tip into paint and lightly draw on acorn. When all the paint is dried, you can display your acorn family in a candy dish. If you wish to use your acorns as a hanging ornament, put a small drop of glue on top part of acorn. Knot the ends of thread together and press knot into the glue drop on acorn. Let dry.

Acorn Wreaths

You can make a nice wreath by gluing you acorns onto a wicker wreath, adding some plastic greens, leaves, flowers or whatever. Just get creative.

Acorn Jewelry

Spray paint your acorns, either gold leaf or silver or whatever turns you on. Let dry and then drill tiny holes into the nibs of the tops and attach earring findings or rings for connecting to necklace chains. One can string these on a leather lace for a necklace or hair braids.

Does anyone else have some good ideas? Just email to me at [email protected]

Well, I sort of wandered all over the place with this article; Nita; and I hope you get some good ideas on what to do with all your acorns. Of course, one could always feed them to the pigs. I think they used to do this.

Just email me with any questions or if you are in the area, stop in and say hello. Please remember to ……

“Tread the Earth Lightly”… and in the meantime… may your day be filled with… Peace, Light and Love,

Arlene W. Correll