Traditional and Modern Methods of Acorn Preparation

Bay Nature article by Emily Moskal about how the Indians used acorns and bay nuts for food, and how you can use analogous methods today with modern kitchenware! Acorns were probably the most important single food source for all American Indians, constituting up to over half their diet! Oaks are almost everywhere in the US, and all of them have edible acorns.

Winter Foraging

On Saturday, Emily and I went on a foray for mushrooms at a park on the SF peninsula. We were with MSSF people who were out to collect for the fungus fair which was the following day. But the rains were super late this fall, and despite the fact that it poured on Friday, the mushrooms were apparently quite scarce. Chris Schoenstein, the leader of the foray, told us just one good rain in Sept. would’ve probably been enough, and kept pointing out areas that were rife with mushrooms on the same day the year prior.

Good thing plants are always around. I wasn’t too bothered by the dearth of mushrooms since there was plenty of edible and useful flora to gather. See my cornucopia of a haul:

Toyon berries, bay nuts, buckeye seeds, soaproot bulbs with fibrous covering and young shoots, mint leaves, two spp. of mushrooms, an oak gall, and madrone walking/digging stick.

TOYON BERRIES TO EAT

There was plenty of toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) berries which are good to eat, though are kind of acidic and mealy raw. The California Indians usually cooked the berries to make them sweeter by tossing them about in a basket with hot coals or sometimes by boiling (Chesnut 1902). I’m going to try the cider recipe on this site: http://www.livingwild.org/winter/toyon/

Straight toyon shoots were used to make arrow shafts, the wood being rather strong, but fairly light. The California Indians also used a decoction of the leaves for stomachache and various aches and pains (Chesnut 1902), but they contain cyanide compounds, so I wouldn’t use too many leaves. Interestingly, Hollywood got its name from the many large toyon trees that grew there back in the day. Toyon is not a holly (genus Ilex, Family Aquifoliaceae), but its berries and leaves look pretty similar.

CA BAY LAUREL NUTS TO EAT

I also collected a basketful of California bay laurel (Umbellularia californica) nuts. These are so good to eat once cooked. Se my below post about the bay laurel tree for more info on prep.

We recently made “California Native cookies” (our invention) using half bay nut flour, half acorn flour, and manzanita berries.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup acorn flour (from the valley oak, Quercus lobata)

1 cup roasted bay laurel nuts

1 cup California wildflower honey

1/2 cup manzanita berry flesh (seeds removed)

1/2 cup organic butter, softened

1 organic free range egg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp hot water

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together butter and honey. Beat in egg. Dissolve baking soda in hot water and add to batter along with salt. Stir in flours and manzanita berries. Drop large spoonfuls onto ungreased sheets. Bake 10-12 mins in the preheated oven. Enjoy!

Thanks to Jill Miller from Olompali State Historic Park for the inspirational recipe she cooked us with acorn flour!

BUCKEYE SEEDS TO PROCESS AND EAT

On our foray, I also collected a number of California buckeye (or horse chesnut, Aesculus californica) seeds. These are highly toxic raw, but the Indians would cook these to eat. I’ve not done this and I don’t recommend you do without further research but here is their method:

Methods for processing varied, but basically consisted of roasting, then washing out the toxin (Chesnut 1902). The seeds were first cooked in a earth oven (Chesnut 1902). A pit was lined with rocks which were heated by a fire burning inside the pit (Chesnut 1902). Once it burned down, the pit was lined with willow leaves, the seeds placed over these, more willow leaves covered the seeds, and the pit was covered with hot ashes and dirt, cooking for 1 to 8 or 10 hours (Chesnut 1902). When done cooking, the seeds have the consistency of boiled potatoes, and were thinly sliced, put in a basket, and soaked in running water from 2 to 4 or 5 days (Chesnut 1902). Alternatively, the (less thin) slices were mashed into a paste with water, while the red-brown skins floated to the surface where they were removed (Chesnut 1902). The paste was then placed to soak from 1 to 10 hours in a basin of sand (as was done for leaching acorns). After either such soaking process, the resulting food, which had the consistency of gravy, was ready to eat (Chesnut 1902). It was often eaten cold without salt (Chesnut 1902). The seeds were not preserved for long times (as in the case of acorns), since they decay or sprout rapidly, and after sprouting, the taste is bad (Chesnut 1902).

Once I collect more buckeye seeds I’m going to try this method… carefully eating the first bits and waiting a while…

The Indians would sometimes use buckeye seeds crushed up to poison fish in pools or sluggish streams, but this didn’t work near as well as other plants they used preferentially for this purpose such as soaproot or turkey mullein (Chesnut 1902).

Buckeye wood is soft and sticks of this species were preferred for the spindle stick for friction fire starting (Chesnut 1902).

The Indians also used mistletoe growing on buckeye as an abortifacient (Chesnut 1902).

SOAPROOT FOR SOAP AND FOOD

On our foray, we collected soaproot (Clorogalum pomeridium) from a large patch. We made sure to leave the lower part of the root to resprout, place any seeds from the dried stalk into the hole, and re-cover it with dirt and litter. That’s how the Indians assured sustainable harvest (Anderson 2005). We taught the other foray members about this harvesting method when they wanted to collect some soaproots too.

Soaproot had lots of uses for the Indians. They gathered the fresh young shoots in March and roasted them to make them sweet and tasty (Chesnut 1902).

Raw, the saponins make it toxic, but the bulb is good to eat after being slowly roasted or boiled in its skin. The Indians would use an earth oven of course, like most of their Indian potatoes were cooked I found the following recipe, a comment by “Julie” on this webpage: http://www.tulipsinthewoods.com/wild-plants/soaproot-chlorogalum-pomeridianum/

“Soap root Recipe.

Prepare:

1. Choose young and tender soap roots.
2. Peel the outer husk till you reach the white meaty part.
3. Snip stems off.
4. Wash thoroughly.

Cook:

1. You can either boil or bake them, but in our experience, boiling is better.

To boil:

1. Set a boiling pot of water on the stove, drop soap root shoots in.
2. Boil for 45 minutes – to an hour.

To bake:

1. Wrap in foil.
2. Set in baking pan.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Bake for an hour and 10 minutes.

Scraping:

1. Peel down sides of root.
2. With a butter knife, scrape the meat off the inner side of peel.

Mixing:

1. In a bowl, mix thyme, nutmeg, baking powder, cornstarch, flour. (5 tsp of each)
2. Bake at 400 for 20 min.

Warning!

Has very strong flavor. Sprinkle brown sugar on top before baking.”

I’m going to try this. I’ll update when I do. Thanks Julie!

The fibrous root cover was gathered into bunches and used to make brushes used for processing acorns, being used to sweep up bits of flour and nut pieces while grinding and sorting out the hulls (Parker and Ortiz 1991). These fibers were also occasionally used to make beds (Chesnut 1902). Roasted, the bulb was used as an antiseptic poultice for sores (Chesnut 1902).

Fresh, the bulb was rubbed on the body for cramps and rheumatism (Chesnut 1902).

A decoction of the bulb was used as a diuretic and laxative and for stomach ache characterized by excessive gas in the stomach (Chesnut 1902).

Juice of the fresh green leaves was used as green ink for tattooing (Chesnut 1902).

The leaves were highly esteemed in summer, when other leaves are dry, as the best succulent, flexible, and large leaf for baking acorn bread (Chesnut 1902). The dough is completely covered with the leaves, then placed on hot rocks and covered with other leaves and ashes (Chesnut 1902).

When the bulb is roasted, a viscid juice is exuded that served as a substitute for glue for for attaching feathers to arrows (Chesnut 1902). This glue diluted with water was applied to bow backs and soot upon the bow just after to turn it permanently black, making it appear old (Chesnut 1902). The reason the probably did this was to make it less conspicuous to their prey, a bright, shiny, whitish object being alarming and suspicious to any animal.

The name soaproot comes from the fact that when the bulb is crushed and rubbed into any fabric with water, it froths up and is an effective soap (Chesnut 1902). This soap was preferred by Indians to soap made by settlers for cleaning baskets, washing silk and delicate fabrics, removing dandruff, and washing hair, which was left very soft and glossy (Chesnut 1902). That’s mainly what I collected it for.

Crushed pulp of the root was thrown into small, low-water streams, or deep pools to stupify fish and eels, which were then collected in great quantity to eat (Chesnut 1902). One account tells of how after the last rains of June, a village would assemble and mash up many bushels of soaproot bulbs on rocks (Chesnut 1902). Meanwhile, a 6-7 ft high weir is built downstream by driving willow poles into the river bed and lashing them with redbut bark (Chesnut 1902). Indians stationed up the stream for 3 miles or so evenly spread out the crushed bulbs while constantly agitating the water (Chesnut 1902). Shortly the fish and eels, but not frogs, floated to the surface stupified and were captured by hand or in a shallow, coarse-meshed basket (Chesnut 1902). As much as 100 bushels of fish and eels were thus captured at one time, and this quantity evenly divided between everyone in the village (Chesnut 1902). No ill effects resulted from eating such “poisoned” fish Sometimes pther plants were used in combination, or alone, but only turkey mullein (Croton setigerus) was as effective as soaproot (Chesnut 1902).

Soaproot and yucca, (esp. twisted- leaf yucca) are very similar taxonomically, superficially, and in uses by Native Americans. Yucca has saponins, its roots were used as soap, to stupify fish, and was eaten after cooking.

MINT TEA

Also on our foray, we collected a few species of mint leaves. These are great for tea. Various species have various medicinal uses, but an important trait of them all is relaxing the smooth muscles, especially the gastrointestinal tract, making them great for upset stomach, digestion, or bowel problems. The tea tastes great just plain for no reason.

ETC

We got a few mushrooms, which I haven’t ID’d yet.

Another thing we got was a gall. It’s from Quercus lobata, and is the biggest one I’ve ever seen, and perhaps this kind is the biggest of all types. Fresh green galls make a great black dye if you mix it with a bit of rusty metal, and you can make a permanent black ink from it (Chesnut 1902). In fact, if you poke an old steel pen into the gall, you can dip out a permanent ink that works great to write with (Chesnut 1902)! The one pictured is old, and I just picked it up for a curious decoration.

Lastly, I made a walking stick from madrone, which has finely close-grained wood, so makes for a smooth handle and strong wood. I’ll harden the pointed end with fire to make a traditional digging stick.

So don’t think just because it’s winter, or there’s not been enough rain, there’s no foraging to be had. There’s always many different plant parts ready for use at any season! The Indians might take a trip looking to collect one particular species or taxon like mushrooms, but they’d always end up getting other stuff available at the time that they happened upon. That’s optimal foraging!

References:

Chesnut, V. K. 1902. Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Anderson, M. K. 2005. Tending the wild: Native American knowledge and management of California’s natural resources. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Parker, J.F. and Ortiz, B.R. 1991. It will live forever: traditional Yosemite Indian acorn preparation. Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA.

Disclaimer: Always be 100% certain of the identity of any mushroom or plant before ingesting. Many mushrooms and plants superficially look very similar, and without expert identification, it is easy to mistake a poisonous and edible species. I assume no responsibility for any harm, injury, or death from information given in this post.

Oyster Mushroom Gathering

The rains have finally begun here in the east SF bay area, and you know what all they promise?…. Mushrooms!!! That’s right, from the toxic to tasty, they’re a-springing up everywhere in the dank woods.

Now being from a highly fungophobic culture, no one has ever personally showed me what wild mushrooms are good to eat. Although Chris Hobbs once ID’d some pics I’d taken of a Boletus sp. for me back when we were co-gsi’s for intro bio:

Boletus rubripes – bitter bolete

Boletus rubripes – bitter bolete

But with All That the Rain Promises and More, plus Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora, perhaps the best field guides ever written on any subjects, I’ve finally gone and collected huge bunches of wild edible oyster mushrooms, and feasted on their tasty flesh!

I was also able to identify some toxic and artistic mushrooms on the same foray!

I love eating mushrooms, and a local market (Monterey Market) sells wild-picked chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, and more, but they cost about an arm a dozen. I splurged a few times, mainly to familiarize myself with these species in hopes of encountering them in the wild.

I also have spent over a year absorbing what I’ve read in the above books by Arora (1986, 1991). All That the Rain Promises and more is pocket-sized and covers mainly bay area and California species, while Mushrooms Demystified covers most of North American mushrooms, excepting mostly southeastern species. Both are also laced with hilarious anectdotes, witticisms, and clever turns of phrase; the author really puts the fun in fungi (see, I stole that from him)!

And no, this doesn’t hinge on magical mushrooms… which are still fully described and appreciated by the book, though he doesn’t have much appreciation of those who only care about such types of mushrooms.

So about my foray yesterday….

I first gathered my ‘shroomin outfit: wet-weather boots and jacket, knife (for digging out mushroom bases for ID and for scraping them clean with the back of the blade), camera and field notebook for recording field observations, collecting bag with a stiff sheet of cardboard to prevent the mushrooms from being crushed, waxpaper and aluminum foil for wrapping my collected specimens (don’t use paper or plastic bags due to moisture issues he says), and don’t forget a cheese sandwich (since I’m always hungry like the author apparently is, who has a little bit more than a fondness for these).

I set out, with a gleam in my eye and spring in my step, but not yet a song in my heart…

At first, I was a little disappointed the woods weren’t exactly burgeoning with mushrooms… but maybe I was a little early. It has been super dry here; I don’t think it’s rained all fall. But the last two days it had dumped and poured and finally just sprinkled the night before last, when I decided it was time to gather.

The first mushrooms I found were small and bright yellow, growing on a dead (unidentifiable, severely decomposed) log in a little ditch leading toward and just near Strawberry Creek. I was pretty excited. I collected some and took pictures. Just next to it, also on a dead log, was an artist’s conk.

Sulfur tufts (Hypholoma fasciculare) growing on a rotten log

Sulfur tufts (Hypholoma fasciculare) growing on a rotten log

Sulfer tufts (Hypholoma fasciculare) growing on a rotten log

My intuition told me the little yellow guys were toxic, but anyway there weren’t really enough to eat. But I collected a few to take home and ID. It turned out my intuition was correct (bright colors usually equal toxic); these guys were Hypholoma fasciculare  (Naematoloma fasciculare is a synonym), common name sulfer tufts, aka the clustered woodlover, which are poisonous.

The sulfer tufts can be used to make dye though; I’ll try this sometime since they’re so abundant and vibrantly colored.

I wandered around more and soon got occupied collecting California Bay Laurel nuts, which were just overflowing in this one spot under a grand tree (see my post below about this tree species and eating their nuts, and their many other uses).

I kept wandering around, examining dead logs, and under trees looking for “mushrumps” or what Arora (1991) calls humps of leaf litter indicating a newly popping out mushroom. Not much luck.

I found some toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) berries, which I gladly gathered.

Then, while stopping to… ahem “water a tree,” there they were: two huge clumps of oyster mushrooms!

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) growing on dead coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) log

Something like eep-yaaah!! came out along with a little skip-hop. I knew exactly what they were the second I saw those! But my fungophobic heritage made me double-check my field guide right on the spot and later back home I also consulted Mushroms Demystified and both these guides fit the description of what I found perfectly. The most similar appearing and toxic mushrooms to oyster mushrooms were the jack-o-lantern and Clitocybe. So I checked these descriptions and made sure it wasn’t those.

After finding this first two clumps (I only collected the fresher one, leaving the second,larger clump for animals), I kept wandering around, hoping for a feast.

And persistance paid off, because soon enough, I found another huge clump of oysters!

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) growing on standing dead branch of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) growing on standing dead branch of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)

I gathered less than half of these, just the fresher ones from which I still had to shoo off some pleasing fungus beetles (actually their common family name), and one big black beetle, (which was not so pleasant-looking), leaving most behind for the animals, or perhaps a more cavalier mushroom hunter than me. Before and after gathering all these mushrooms, I made sure to say a short prayer of thanks to the oyster mushroom, oak tree, and forest spirits, something like: Yes! Thank you mushroom! Thanks Oak! Thanks Forest!

I immediately found another huge clump, but it was under a log and behind some shrubs and looked older (can you find it in the below photo?), so I just left it, feeling satisfied with my haul.

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) growing under dead log of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia)

Oh yeah. Now I had that song in my heart. Inspiration struck! I began my ditty: “(high voice) how big is your fungus, say is it humongous? (low voice) Yes my fungus is humongous; there’s enough to share among us!” Some vivacious, Mozart-esque whistling was the refrain. Kept that going with an even springier step and gleamier eye til I cavorted out of the forest, my mushroom bag heavy with delight!

Along the way I found some more artist’s conks, and left a little drawing of the oyster mushrooms on a well-displayed one.

Artist’s conk (Ganoderma applanatum) on a CA bay laurel log with drawing of oyster mushrooms

Back home, I excitedly displayed the day’s (3 hours…) haul to Emily:

Wild plants and mushrooms gathered in a few hours: three large clumps of oyster mushrooms, sulfer tufts (poisonous), toyon berries, peppernuts, bay leaves (for flea repellant)

Fungophobic paranoia made me first cook up a few caps from each clump to eat a small amount with Emily to make sure we didn’t have some allergic reaction. We only waited an hour or so, then I decided to cook up all of one of my three large clumps.

I followed the recommendation of Arora (1991, 1986) to cook them. First I cut off the tough, short stalk part, then washed them, allowing them to drip dry a few minutes. Then I dry-pan-fried them on high, finally adding a little butter and olive oil at the end. A pinch of salt… and done!

dry pan frying oyster mushrooms

Dry pan fried oyster mushrooms with a pat of butter and dash of salt added at the end

One of the clumps seemed to taste a little better and more oystery than the other, which didn’t have all too much taste. But I liked the texture of them both. And the fact I just gathered these from the wild, applying my newfound knowledge made them taste soo much better!

Dinner was good that night.

I can’t wait to go mushroom gathering again!

Beyond being delicious, mushrooms are nutritious. Quoting from Anderson and Lake (2013):

“Today Central Sierra Me-Wuk elder Phyllis Montgomery says, “the willow [oyster] mushrooms [possibly Pleurotus cornucopiae (Paulet) Rolland formerly P. ostreatus] are like a steak —they’re chewy” (Anderson unpublished field notes 2010). Generally, protein concentrations in mushrooms range from 1 to 4% of fresh weight, or about 10–45% of dry weight, a significant amount (Hobbs 1995:54–55). For the amount of crude protein they provide, mushrooms rank below animal meats but well above most other foods, including milk (Chang 2008). Additionally, mushroom protein contains all of the nine essential amino acids required by the body (Cheung 2008). They are high in fats, phosphorus, copper, iron, various trace elements, and such vitamins as B, D, K, thiamine, riboflavin, ascorbic acid, ergosterol, and niacin (Arora 1986; Barros et al. 2008; Cheung 2008).”

Plus, now that I know where to find the oyster mushrooms I can keep going straight back to the same spot after the next rains, and year after year, since this species (species complex) tends to regrow from the same dead logs (Arora 1991). In fact, you can take home a log from which you collect oyster mushrooms and water it occasionally to make it grow more mushrooms (Arora 1991)!

The California Indians were of course well aware of this fact. Quoting again from Anderson and Lake (2013):

“Many kinds of mushrooms, such as sorog (Neolentinus ponderosus (O.K. Mill.) Redhead & Ginns), appear in the same places year after year, arising from the surfaces of rotting wood, dead stumps, snags, or downed logs during the long process of decomposition. Other mushrooms arise from the ground and have long-term associations with trees, shrubs, and grasses (Douhan et al. 2005; Hynes et al. 2010; Plamboeck et al. 2007). Thus, many California Indians have special areas that they repeatedly visit (Anderson 2009; Richards and Creasy 1996). “These sites are hundreds of years old,” said N. Turner Behill, regarding mushroom gathering areas (Anderson unpublished field notes 2006). Tom Carsoner, Central Sierra Me-Wuk, described his mushroom gathering sites as “a garden” because “you always know where to go” (Anderson unpublished field notes 2010).”

Anderson, M. K. and Lake, F. K. 2013. California Indian ethnomycology and associated forest management. Journal of Ethnobiology 33(1): 33-85.

Arora, D. 1986. Mushrooms demystified. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA.

Arora, D. 1991. All that the rain promises and more… : a hip pocket guide to western mushrooms. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley CA.

Disclaimer: Always be certain of the identity of any mushroom or plant before ingesting. Many mushrooms and plants superficially look very similar, and without expert identification, it is easy to mistake a poisonous and edible species. I assume no responsibility for any harm, injury, or death from information given in this post.