Upcoming Workshop - How to Eat Acorns

Hello Friends!! 

I am very excited to announce that in October, Courtney will be hosting a workshop on how to eat acorns! 

Details of the workshop will be announced shortly, but in the meantime, it's acorn-gathering season! Here's a note from Courtney with some acorn gathering tips! 

find your oak trees. there are only a few oaks common in toronto, and all oaks produce potentially edible acorns. the different species of oak vary in size of acorn, and in levels of tannins in the nuts. the tannins are the bitter compounds that mean you can't just crack an acorn open and eat it like you can a walnut. we'll talk about how to remove the tannins on the day, but basically you wash them out of the nuts with water in various ways. there are kinds of acorns that you can eat straight off the tree but they aren't growing around here anywhere.
we can divide the local oaks into two broad categories, oaks with rounded leaves and oaks with pointy leaves. round leaf oaks are english oak, burr oak, and white oak. these have the sweetest acorns. they have acorns that have small hats and long nuts. english oaks often have very skinny almost columnar appearance, and are planted next to houses and buildings. some can be found on u of t campus, one is at the corner of harbord and spadina in front of the athletic centre. they have small rounded leaves. white oaks are big trees, sprawling in shape and they have larger leaves. burr oak have been planted in toronto by the city in the last 10 years, many are not large enough to produce many acorns yet. they have very big mitteny leaves, corky bark and gnarly twigs, and acorns with bristly hats. acorns from round leaf oaks will be very hard to find, because they are so delicious. squirrels, bluejays, raccoons and other wildlife will probably eat them all before you get there. 
the pointy leaf oaks you'll have more luck with. the black, red, and pin oaks all have pointy leaves, and big sprawing shapes, with crooked branches. pin oaks make extremely tiny acorns, so they are not worth harvesting. black and red oaks make very large acorns, round with big hats. these are less popular with the animals until frost and fall rainstorms have washed them and made them sweeter. go for these! they are often in parks north of davenport in the west end of the city. 

gather acorns:
ideally, you want acorns that have just fallen to the ground, with brown shells and no hats, or very loose hats. these are the ripest and best. gather acorns from the ground by raking, or put down a tarp and wait a couple days. i like gathering from areas where you know there won't be weeks old acorns (acorns on ground get infested with ants, worms and fungus) driveways, decks, and well maintained lawns are ideal. choose acorns with no visible holes, and discard acorns with bites out of them, cracked shells, or attached hats. wash and air-dry, and save them in a cool dry place until october 19!
email me with any questions. courtneyjanetlake@gmail.com

Top left - Pin Oak with tiny acorns!

Right - Black and Red Oak 


Bottom - English Oak