Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Here is a new word for you, or it is for me, balanophagy – the practice of eating acorns. Although the word may be new, for thousands of years, acorns were an important food source for people and/or for their domestic animals. The Maidu Native American peoples of California collected acorns and stored them woven structures called granaries.
For over half the year, this was the major food source as acorns were cracked and hulled to be made into flour as needed. After being pounded into flour the bitter tannin compounds were removed by rinsing and rinsing with water. In European cultures, there are records of people’s using acorn flour to bake what was called famine bread during time of crisis. Not so long ago in our own state, acorns were gathered, leached and roasted to make ersatz coffee during the Northern blockade of Southern ports in the Civil War.
