The second method blends the old and the new. After a few hours the purified meal would be carefully scraped into another basket (the lowest layer in the depression would be left alone to minimize sand in the food) and this leached meal could then be dried and used for flour or gruel.įor details on this method as well as the spiritual and functional role of acorn in Graton Miwok and Sierra Miwok traditions please check out "It Will Live Forever" by Bev Ortiz and Julia F. The basin was then filled with freshly pounded acorn flour and then water tight baskets would be filled from the stream and slowly poured over the meal effectively leaching the tannic acid into the sand below. The first, the traditional method, involved digging a small bowl-shaped depression in the sand next to a stream. The bottom line is that acorn must be leached! There are two main ways this is done. ![]() The explorers, not knowing that leaching was essential, collected, ground, and consumed massive amounts of the bitter fruit thinking it to be edible in its natural state. A group of starving explorers in Humboldt or Mendocino (I can't quite remember) saw the mortars, pestles and acorns left behind by a group of Native Americans who had run when they realized Europeans were near by (likely due to many stories of disease and massacres). The tannins in acorns are not nearly as toxic as say the cyanide in hawthorn pits, but there were a few deaths reported in historic times linked to raw acorn consumption. This process takes time but it is essential to produce meal that is sweet and non-toxic. ![]() Leaching is a process whereby poisonous tannins in the nuts are rinsed away with water. Once the flour is consistent, light, and smooth it must be leached.
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