Are you nuts?

White oak acorn at the Jesup Blair Park (Photo credit: Yantar Yoga)

Me? Very! I’m all about nuts in fact. For one, I love squirrels and enjoy at least some key aspects of what they do: spending active time outdoors, preferably close to trees, and munching on tasty nuts of all kinds. I am also a big fan of a local company called Family of Nuts. They sell at Eastern Market every weekend and I make my weekly pilgrimage there to resupply. Some may even call this behavior a mild addiction, but given the many health benefits of nuts I just consider it part of a balanced diet. One disclaimer: nuts are high in calorie, so it's important to consume responsibly and do a lot of cardio - just like the squirrels.

This weekend I expanded my nut palate thanks to a local wild foods nature walk focused on acorns. At this time of the year in the DC area oak trees are masting and acorns are everywhere. Different kinds of oak trees produce different acorns and some are more suitable for culinary purposes than others. During the walk I learned that white oak seems to work well if you have the time and patience to do the proper processing. The interior portion of acorns holds edible flesh, but it contains tannic acid that needs to be removed through a lengthy and repeated process of boiling or rinsing. After they are made safe to eat, acorns can be ground up and used as a flour - at the walk we tasted delicious (and naturally gluten-free) acorn pancakes.

Historically, many cultures relied on acorns as a staple part of their diet and some still do. For Native Americans acorns represented life and were a major source of food because of their availability, productivity, storability, and nutritional content. Given that I live in DC’s Capitol Hill, once the land of the Nacotchtank from which the name of our river Anacostia is derived, I feel that learning more about acorns as a source of sustenance helps me connect with this land and its past.

While I’m not likely to actually go through with the acorn-based cuisine on a regular basis (it is rather labor intensive) I learned a lot during the walk and we found other more readily edible native species, the most delicious of which were persimmons and yew berries. As an extra bonus, I also tried surprisingly tasty fried… acorn grubs! This wasn’t my first time eating insects and not particularly exotic after my culinary adventures at Beijing’s night markets, but still a special experience.

Thank you, oak trees, for all the sustenance you give us, be it acorns or wonderful shade to practice yoga outdoors!