1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 cup acorn flour
salt and pepper to taste
10-12 puffball mushrooms, sliced
butter or olive oil for frying
Mix milk and egg together. Mix flour, salt, pepper together in seperate container. Put butter or olive oil in skillet and turn on medium heat. When butter is hot, dip mushroom in egg mixture, then in flour mixture and place in skillet. Fry until brown, turning once.
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 cups ramps, thinly sliced (best if using white part only)
3 cups sliced apples
salt if desired
1 tablespoon honey
(a little water if needed)
Put oil in iron skillet and fry the ramps until tender. Add apples, honey and salt if desired. Cover and steam for about 10-15 minutes. Stir this every once in awhile and add a bit of water if it begind to stick.
This dish is great with any wild game like racoon, possum, boar, deer or bear.
The juice from Goats Beard is good for constipation. It also helps with gall bladder function.
You can take two handfulls of the leaves, stalks, flowers and roots and clean them with cold water. Boil this in water for about 10 minutes and strain. Drink this with a little honey and it is good for bladder and kidney infections.
You can also use this tea for cuts, scrapes, wounds to relieve pain.
Do only the roots as stated above and make a tea to drink for heartburn. This tea can also be used for kidney stones.
Peel the roots, boil them and saute with onions. This is good for colds.
Here are several recipes for Poke Salad. It is best to get the tender leaves and shoots. Do not cut below the ground as it is poisonous. The mature leaves, berries and roots are the poisonous parts of the plant. It is said that eating three messes of poke salad in the Spring will keep you from getting those late Spring colds. It is also said that you should go out to get your first harvest of Poke Salad when the frogs start croaking in the Spring.
Boil the leaves and shoots in two changes of water if using older leaves. If very young leaves you will be OK to just boil them. If in doubt, do as follows: Poke Salad is poison if not cooked correctly. Let boil a few minutes, drain the water off and boil again. After a few minutes, drain and add more water. After adding water the third time, cook until tender. Drain well and squeeze out the juice with a fork. Now try one of the following recipes:
*Place poke salad hot in a bowl and top with boiled eggs.
*Add some olive oil to a pan and saute’ poke salad with leeks or onions.
*Add oil to a pan and put the poke salad in, when good and hot, break an egg into the pan and stir with a fork. Continue to fry until the egg is done.
*Cut the whole plant when it is about 8 inches high. Cut this up like okra and parboil once if desired. Roll in flour or cornmeal, salt and pepper and fry.
This is often eaten with some fried streak meat.
(this is sometimes spelled Polk Salad)
Use 8 cups of Sassafras Tea (*how to make Sassafras Tea)
Mix one package of sure-jell with 8 cups of tea and bring to a hard boil, stirring occasionally. Add 8 cups of sugar and bring back to a full boil. Boil this for one minute, stirring constantly. Skim off the foam and pour into jars. You can seal this with Paraffin wax or in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
To make one gallon of tea:
Get about 4-5 average size roots, preferrably young roots, wash in cold water, peal and cut into pieces. Boil in one gallon of water for about 20 minutes. Strain, sweeten with sugar or honey and serve hot or cold.
1 cup sorrel leaves and stems (finely chopped)
2 cups water, veggie broth OR chicken broth
3 quail eggs (or two chicken egg yolks)
1 tablespoon Sassafras Powder (*how to make Sassafras Powder)
1 tablespoon Muscadine Wine (or 1/2 cup of freshly chopped muscadines)
Bring liquid to a boil and add sorrel. Simmer for 10 minutes. Mix eggs, muscadine and sassafras powder and add 2 tablespoons of hot soup. Add this mixture to the soup, stirring constantly to prevent lumps and sticking. Cook on low until desired consistency.
This is good serves hot or cold. You can add a few chipped muscadines to top of soup before eating or freshly chopped sorrel.
Elderberry:
Dry the berries and add one half cupful to two cups of hot water and SIMMER for 10 minutes. This helps with diarrhea from a stomach virus if you drink one half cup, cold, twice a day.
Partridgeberry:
One of my favorite. I use to eat these in my oatmeal when on lengthy backpacking trips. They kind of taste like apples…..tiny apples.
*Dried or fresh leaf or even tea made from the berries is good for late, irregular or painful periods.
I remember the first time I ever prepared acorn flour. It was not the best, but was edible. I was on top of Starr Mountain on a backpacking trip and decided to try something I had read about in a book long ago. So I gather the acorns and leach them out in Bullet Creek. My first mistake was not leaching them out as long as I should, which made my flour a bit bitter. After several tries over several days, I was able to develop of fine tasting and filling “pancake” that I topped with fresh raw honey.
Gather acorns and the process of turning them into a flour, and later a food source, is something that can connect one to the Earth in amazing spiritual ways. Not only do you become firmly connected to the Mighty Oak, you are connecting with the amazing aspects of Nature…and many times your ancestors as well. I find myself getting that overwhelming desire when the leaves begin to turn and I know the acorns will be dropping soon. Every aspect of harvesting the acorn can become spiritual. I never take the acorns from the ground without first thanking the tree for the gifts and nourishment it has provided. I never take all of the acorns, our brothers and sisters in Nature need that nourishment as well. It is best, I have found, to pick and choose which acorns you take with you. Choose the heaviest, healthy acorns. Look for holes or slits and leave those for our animal friends.
Sometimes I prepare the acorns as soon as I return home. If there is a situation that prevents me from doing this, I will dry the acorns and store them for future use. Acorns can turn bad by mildewing and you really have to dry them if you plant o use them in the future. Shelling the acorns can be a pain sometimes. With experience I have found the best way is to turn the acorn up on the end, on hard surface and tap the other end with a stone or hammer. This will cause the shell to split and you can easily peel it open at this point. Remove the “nut” and peel off any skin remaining. This skin is extremely bitter, so you will want to remove as much of it as possible prior to preparation.
After this you need to leach out the tannic acid in the acorn. Taste one at this point and you will totally understand why. There are several ways to do this. You can place the corns in a cloth, tie it tightly and put it in a cold, clear running creek or branch for about 8-12 hours. You can taste one of the acorns to see if it needs to remain in the water a bit longer. Another way is to boil out the tannic acid. To do this you will need to start water boiling. It is important that you add the acorns to BOILING water as this helps remove the tannic acid and doing otherwise can make you flour very bitter. I boil my acorns for about 10 - 15 minutes per change of water. You should change the water, bring clean water to a boil, add the acorns again and boil for another 10 minutes. Do this at least three times and some acorns may take up to 7-8 times. Again, taste the acorn and you will know when it is ready.
Now you are ready to make flour or use the acorns as you desire. You can eat them as is at this point. You can roast them and eat them like any other nut. You can chop them and add them to stews and soups for great texture and flavor. Or you can make a flour out of them. Some people will dry them and pound the dry acorn into flour. You CAN grind them while wet and make flour as well. If you plan to use this in the future, you will need to dry the flour prior to storing it. If not, you can use the flour damp as is. The flour is a pretty dark brown color and has a wonderful Earthy taste. You can use this flour to make pancakes, muffins, breads, etc. I am including two recipes, but if you would like more, feel free to contact me.
Cranberry/Hickory Nut Acorn Muffins
2 cups acorn flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup chopped hickory nuts
2 cups cranberries
½ cup spicebush blossoms or dried clover blossoms
Mix all dry ingredients together, stir in wet ingredients. Add the Berries, blossoms and nuts. Pour into an oiled muffin pan and cook at 400F for about 15 minutes. You can make muffin tins with aluminum foil and oil them, pour in batter and place in your dutch oven to bake over an open fire.
Acorn Pancakes
1 cup acorn flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
2 cups water
hickory nuts (optional)
chopped persimmon (optional)
Mix all ingredients and cook as you would pancakes. These are absolutely delicious when drizzled with raw honey, mashed persimmons, fresh blueberries or maple syrup!
When preparing your food from items you gather by hand in Nature, it not only gives you healthier nourishment, it gifts you with that special connection we need with all things sacred.
More of my acorn recipes below: