Making Acorn Bread from Foraged Acorns

I have been wanting to make acorn bread ever since reading Octavia Butler's novel Parable of the Sower. Acorns have long been a food source in indigenous populations, yet many people tend to avoid using them because preparing acorns for consumption can be very time consuming. Both Green Deane's Eat the Weeds and the Prodigal Gardens posts on acorns provide extremely helpful step by step instructions on leaching acorns and making acorn flour. My own process represents a blend of these two.

First, I collected acorns in a bag. I avoided any with holes or cracks. After getting a bagful, I poured the acorns into a large bowl of water, discarding the acorns that floated to the top.

I then needed to dry the other acorns, which I did by putting them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 150 degrees.

After dehydrating the acorns, it was time to crack the shells. This was probably the most tedious part of the process, and it will destroy your fingernails. I literally cracked them open with a hammer, one by one, and then pried them apart with a knife.

Now the longest part of the process: leaching the acorns. Acorns have a very bitter taste because they are high in tannins. Leaching the acorn removes the bitter tannins, leaving a sweeter, nuttier taste in the meat. The blogs mentioned above indicate several methods for leaching, but mainly cold leaching and hot leaching. I chose the hot leaching method, which involves pouring the acorns into boiling water, boiling for 5-8 minutes, and then pouring out that water and pouring the acorns into another pot of boiling water. (Incidentally, the tannic water has excellent healing properties, so you may want to save it or even make it into ice cubes for medicinal purposes, like treating a rash or poison ivy.)

I was rather impatient with the boiling process, which Green Deane says can take many hours, but the Prodigal Gardens blog suggests only takes 5-6 water changes. I could still taste a little of the tannins, but the acorns were edible after I had done 5 water changes. Next time I will probably do many more, or try the cold method.

After leaching the acorns, I dehydrated them. There are plenty of ways to dehydrate food, including leaving it in the sun or cooking it at a low temperature in the oven, but I have a food dehydrator, so I used that.

Next step was to grind the acorns into a flour, first removing the papery sheaths. To grind the acorns, you can use a flour mill, a mortar and pestle (if you want to really do it the old-fashioned way), or a food processor (Vitamixes are great for making flours).

I used the following recipe to make my acorn bread:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a loaf pan.

2) Mix the following dry ingredients: 1 cup acorn flour, 1 cup wheat flour (oat or white flour is fine too), 2 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup raw sugar.

3) Add the following wet ingredients: 1 egg (slightly beaten), 1 cup milk, 1 tbsp honey, 3 tbsp oil.

4) Mix the ingredients and pour into loaf pan, then bake for 25 minutes (or until a knife or chopstick inserted into the loaf comes out clean).

5) (Optional): After 10 minutes of baking, drizzle honey over the top of the loaf.

The results were delicious! I added a pat of butter and ate a slice fresh from the oven. 

Figs are beginning to ripen

In New Orleans fig trees grow everywhere... often in people's yards, on private property, but also on public street corners and other public spaces. Right now, many figs are still green, but some are beginning to turn purple or bright yellow––a sign that they are ripe for the picking.

You can recognize fig trees pretty easily by their large, green palmate leaves (and, of course, by the fruit itself).

As I noted in a previous blog post, you can dehydrate the leaves and make a delicious, healthful herbal tea from them. You can also eat the figs raw, right off the tree (though it's better to wash them first, just to be safe). The sweetest figs I've found growing in New Orleans ripen to a soft purple.

These have a sweet, light taste and a rich texture, almost like biting into a ripened peach.

My absolute favorite way to eat foraged figs, however, is to partially dehydrate them. I put them in my food dehydrator just long enough that they are warm and beginning to ooze some of their sweet liquid, and then I eat them. The short (about 1-2 hours) dehydration makes them taste sweeter.

If I buy figs, I tend to buy them dried––they taste sweeter and keep longer. I also cook with dried figs rather than raw ones. One of my favorite recipes is a slow-cooked pot roast with dried figs. You can find the recipe here (just substitute dried figs for the dried fruit). Very healthy and delicious.

Happy foraging!

Bamboo, Oyster Mushroom, and Fish Stir Fry Recipe

Harvest of Oyster Mushrooms by Rudi Ardiansyah

Gilled underside of my oyster mushrooms

Bamboo and oyster mushrooms grow all over the place in New Orleans, and the rain we're currently seeing means it's a great time to "mushroom hunt" (I recommend the trees along the river) and to look for new, tender bamboo shoots.

I talked a bit about the health benefits of bamboo in my last blog, so I will focus more on oyster mushrooms here and then give a yummy stir-fry recipe at the end.

The first thing you should know (and that I learned): mushroom hunting is dangerous - if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. Some species are deadly, and others aren't deadly but will still make you very sick.

I know what oyster mushrooms look like because I have had a friend I trust with the knowledge point them out to me on multiple occasions, and I have seen him cut them off a tree, prepare them, and cook them, and I've eaten them with no dangerous results. Whole Foods also sells oyster mushrooms. Don't rely on photographs alone - either harvest them with someone whose knowledge you trust, or buy some and get familiar with the texture and varying sizes.

In Backyard Foraging, Ellen Zachos advises novice foragers to avoid mushrooms with gills (instead focusing on pored and toothed mushrooms. Deadly mushrooms tend to have gills. Unfortunately for beginners, oyster mushrooms also have gills.

The Recipe

These mushrooms are delicious and meaty. When I harvested some, along with the bamboo shoots, my partner and I decided to make a stir-fry. Here is our recipe (for 2 people):

Two small to medium size white fish fillets (we used tilapia)
Some bamboo shoots, boiled for 15 minutes and peeled with pointy ends cut off (I had about a half cup; anywhere from 1/3 cup to a cup is fine)
Some oyster mushrooms (we had about a cup)
Half an onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
Pinch of ginger powder (or 1/4 tsp minced or grated ginger)
Pinch of salt
1/4 ground black pepper
Garnish: black sesame seeds and scallions

Stir fry the mushrooms, bamboo shoots, onions and garlic in some olive oil, adding a dash of either minced ginger or ginger powder (which is what we used), salt, and fresh ground pepper. (You can adjust the seasoning measurements according to your taste preferences.)

Lightly sauté the fish filets in olive oil in a separate pan; then slice and briefly toss with the other ingredients.

Serve garnished with black sesame seeds and chopped scallions (if you have them).

Enjoy a healthy, nutritious and tasty meal.

The Amazing Loquat Tree

I first noticed loquats (also known as Japanese plums) when I was walking from my car to Jazz Fest this year. There is a large loquat tree at the corner of Esplanade and Crete in Mid City. I saw the small pale orange fruits on the ground and wondered if they were kumquats. I looked up and saw the large tree with its glossy dark leaves - not a kumquat tree.

A few days later, I saw one just off of Maple Street. I stepped on one of the fallen fruits with my shoe and a couple large, slimy seeds popped out. I saw a man tending his yard and asked if he knew what kind of tree it was; he said it was a Japanese plum.

These trees grow all over New Orleans. I see them along the River Road (Leake), but also all over the Uptown, Garden District, and Mid-City neighborhoods. They have some low-hanging fruit, though much of it is too high for me to reach.

After reading a little about loquats, I plucked one from a tree and tried it, first peeling off the skin since I hadn't washed it (you should always wash your fruit!). It tasted like something between a peach and an apple, with a little citrus thrown in.

That next weekend my friend Patrick and I picked some loquats as well as some wild blackberries, and we made a fruit cobbler - which turned out delicious (and very pretty!). I will provide the recipe at the end of this post.

When reading about loquats, I discovered that they are very nutritious, and that the leaves also have medicinal properties. The fruit is rich in Vitamin A, fiber, and potassium, among other nutrients. The leaves can be used in a tea that can beautify skin, treat a sore throat, combat diabetes, and release antioxidants.

Recently, I dried some loquat leaves (used my dehydrator to expedite the process), and my partner and I made tea. It was delicious and soothing.

To put this into perspective: you can order loquat leaves for over $40 per pound, or you can pick them for free.

Recipes:

Dried loquat leaves and crumbled leaves for "tea."

Loquat tea:

1) Pick several leaves and wash them thoroughly.
2) Dry them.
3) Crumble the dried leaves and put a pinch in a teacup (maybe a teaspoon's worth).
4) Pour boiling water over the leaves and steep until the leaves sink.

Loquat and blackberry cobbler:
*The size of the pan really depends on how much fruit you get. For a 9x13 pan, you should have about 3-4 cups of fruit. I like to use half loquats and half blackberries, but it's fine if you get more of one than the other. If you have less than 3 cups, adjust the pan and lessen the other ingredients.

Ingredients:
Loquats and blackberries*
1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup of milk (I use 1%)


1) Half, peel, and de-seed loquats. Mix with blackberries and sugar.
2) Melt butter in pan.
3) Mix other ingredients and pour into pan.
4) Pour fruit/sugar mixture into pan.
5) Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes (check after 30 - cobbler is ready when the batter has risen and started to brown).

Serve warm - maybe add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!