In late October I got tired of seeing those freeloading tree rats eating up all the acorns on my porch, so I figured that if the squirrels eat them, I can eat them and maybe I’m really missing out on something.
My daughter and I went and collected them all up. This got us to bed time for one day, so before it even began, the experiment was worth it.
Next I sorted the bad ones out and cracked open the good ones with channel locks and jabbed my finger repeatedly with a walnut pick. Apparently, they are much easier to remove from their shells if you dry them in the oven on low temp. I don’t do this I was running on instinct.
I nibbled a nut, it might have been the most bitter thing I’ve ever tried. 0/10, not edible unless I was dying of hunger.
I put them all in a shaker bottle and filled it with water. Just about every day between October 20 and yesterday I would drain off the dark, tannin filled water, rinse with fresh water, and refill my shaker with fresh water. At first, the nuts would release a gas that would pop the top on the shaker bottle and spew a staining mist all over the counter. This subsided a couple of months in.
Along the way I would sample raw nuts (heh) and each time was a little better than the last, but not good.
Until yesterday, when I was able to eat a whole one without spitting it out, so I figured that’s enough, let’s dry these things out and see how they taste.
I made a concentrated salt water and let them do a final soak in that in hopes that it would give a decent flavor.
It did not. After months of prep and a couple hours in the oven at 170F, they were slightly more edible than before.
Taste - 2/10, bitter and salty, the salt did not help.
Texture - 1/10, Not much I can compare to. Sort of leathery but soft. Gritty when chewed and they dry your mouth out.
Appearance - 1/10 looks like deer poop. These aren’t burned, just deeply stained with the tannins from the nuts.
Overall - 2/10, which is an improvement over their raw form but I’ll probably put them back outside to see if the squirrels want them. I gave one to my daughter and she cried, and she’s happily gotten into the cat food before.
My daughter and I went and collected them all up. This got us to bed time for one day, so before it even began, the experiment was worth it.
Next I sorted the bad ones out and cracked open the good ones with channel locks and jabbed my finger repeatedly with a walnut pick. Apparently, they are much easier to remove from their shells if you dry them in the oven on low temp. I don’t do this I was running on instinct.
I nibbled a nut, it might have been the most bitter thing I’ve ever tried. 0/10, not edible unless I was dying of hunger.
I put them all in a shaker bottle and filled it with water. Just about every day between October 20 and yesterday I would drain off the dark, tannin filled water, rinse with fresh water, and refill my shaker with fresh water. At first, the nuts would release a gas that would pop the top on the shaker bottle and spew a staining mist all over the counter. This subsided a couple of months in.
Along the way I would sample raw nuts (heh) and each time was a little better than the last, but not good.
Until yesterday, when I was able to eat a whole one without spitting it out, so I figured that’s enough, let’s dry these things out and see how they taste.
I made a concentrated salt water and let them do a final soak in that in hopes that it would give a decent flavor.
It did not. After months of prep and a couple hours in the oven at 170F, they were slightly more edible than before.
Taste - 2/10, bitter and salty, the salt did not help.
Texture - 1/10, Not much I can compare to. Sort of leathery but soft. Gritty when chewed and they dry your mouth out.
Appearance - 1/10 looks like deer poop. These aren’t burned, just deeply stained with the tannins from the nuts.
Overall - 2/10, which is an improvement over their raw form but I’ll probably put them back outside to see if the squirrels want them. I gave one to my daughter and she cried, and she’s happily gotten into the cat food before.
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