The article below is from a forum where I hang out, Bushcraft USA. This pretty much sums it all up.

A Bushcrafter Is (Original work by DrGizmojo)

A Bushcrafter understands, appreciates, and respects the Natural World. Neither sappy about Nature, nor arrogant to its reality, the Bushcrafter is constantly learning how to develop his crafts for living with Nature. Confident in his skills, a Bushcrafter could be placed in the wilderness with nothing more than the clothes on his back, a knife, a blanket and a pot and improvise needed shelter and tools, acquire and store potable water, build fire for safety and comfort, forage, hunt and fish for food, and progressively add comforts and technology to his situation.

A Bushcrafter is fiercely independent and self-reliant. Neither sentimental nor cynical about the world around him, he uses his own wits and common sense to judge the world around him. Because of this, he is frugal with his finances, resourceful with materials, and smart with his preparations to maintain his independence and freedoms.

A Bushcrafter is big-hearted and encouraging with others of his persuasion, and generous with those of lesser resources. Though he may be a hermit most of the time, he loves to rendezvous, and has a fondness for tall-tales, history, and simple humor. Able to laugh first at himself, he lustily laughs with others. He may be able to sing, whistle or play an instrument, but a lack of talent never stops him from enjoying himself.

A Bushcrafter is passionately patriotic, often having served in the military himself. He believes in the values that made America great, and the form of free-market republican governance that stands at its core. He is proud of the country that---built through smarts and sweat to the highest standard of living---has done more good for more people, stood tall as a beacon of liberty and opportunity, and served to protect and defend liberty throughout the world from the chains of tyranny and despotism.

The Bushcrafter prefers simple, practical and rugged over the fancy, complicated and fashionable. He will adapt and utilize any of the latest technologies to achieve his goals, yet understands that old ways, in their tried-and-true simplicity, have bounteous virtues.

Though the Bushcrafter is a practical observer of the worldly, he understands that some things are bigger and more mysterious than man can comprehend or explain. Nonetheless, he gains strength, humility, and resolve from the Creator.

The Bushcrafter knows there is much to learn, and he enjoys his journey on earth.

Update 2 on staff

The staff is completely dried and by leaving the bark alone there are no cracks. I removed the thick layers of glue from the ends and everything is bone dry. I had it on my balcony and it was low humidity and over 100 degrees for a month so I'm sure that had plenty to do with it.

Acorns part 2

This is part 2 of "Gathering and processing acorns for food.

The bag contains 20 pounds of acorns from the valley oak. It took me 1 1/4 hour to gather these. Thats a lot of acorns! The tree was a young one and maybe 50 feet high. This is a very good year for valley oaks. I don't know how the other oaks are doing. When there is a crop of acorns its called "masting". In one small area I could probably gather 200-300 pounds of acorns. Its a shame this good food is considered trash and go's to waste. When will we ever learn? Some folks consider the Indians ignorant for eating such stuff. I beg to differ.




In the photos you may notice that some of the acorns are an olive drab color. I find these to be at the peak of ripeness. The brown and black ones have been ripe for a while and are nearly dry. Some actually rattle when you shake them. Most of these acorns are 2" long and weigh about an ounce.

I did a test that the Miwok Indians did. I threw some in the water and most of them sank. The ones that floated I put in one pile and the sinkers in another. Sure enough, the floaters were bad (worms, fungus) and all the sinkers were good.

Why do you have to leach them?
Most acorns contain tannin in various degrees. Red oak are the strongest and valley oaks are about midway in tannin content. White oaks and a few others have very little or no tannin and usually need no leaching and can be eaten as found, cooked or raw. The tannin gives the acorns a bitter taste and is not edible. It will cause digestion and kidney problems. There are a few different methods of processing the ground acorns to leach out the tannin. The California and other Indians would dig a shallow pit in the sand near a stream and pour boiling water over the meal until leached. Others used baskets and still others buried the acorns in the creek mud and dug them up about 8 months later. The dug acorns were black but tannin free and edible.
The biggest mistake is to put the acorns in water and bring to a boil. This will set the bitterness ruining the acorns. Always pour boiling hot water over them or add them to already boiling water.

These next two photos show the leaching can I made from a 42 oz. juice can. You can use any kind of medium or large size can but this size works best for me. I punched a bunch of holes in the bottom and punched two holes on each side near the top for a wire bail.

How it works:
I put a regular paper coffee filter in the bottom of the can and then I add about 2-3 cups of coarse ground acorn meal. I then pour boiling hot water over the grinds and let it hang over the sink. Depending on bitterness, you will use a lot of water. I keep a tea kettle and a large pot going all the time. Keep adding water as soon as it drains from the leach can. You may go through a gallon or more per leaching.




When are they done?
Take a pinch of the fresh ground meal and taste it. It will be bitter/astringent. This is the tannic acid. After the first two or three leaching's, take a pinch of the acorn meal and taste it. It should be a lot less bitter. Keep doing this after every leaching until there is no more bitterness. Its done and ready to dry out or use.

In the next installment I'll show and discuss getting the acorns ground and made into meal for leaching and a few recipes for using the finished product.

Gathering and processing acorns for food part 1

Its that time of the year when the acorn crop starts to fall. This is looking to be a very good year for valley oak, Quercus lobata, acorns. My wife and I were sitting at a local park yesterday and the acorns were falling all around us. These are big acorns on the average of two inches long. The first photo shows the first ones that started to fall about a week or so ago. Notice they are mostly still green. This is okay. They are still good. The ones falling now are brown and fully ripe.

My only competition is the ground squirrel's Spermophilus beecheyi, western scrub jay's Aphelocoma californica and acorn woodpeckers Melanerpes formicivorus. The squirrels store their acorns in their underground nests, the jay buries his in loose soil(this is why oak trees are found growing in the oddest places out here) and the acorn woodpecker beats them all for technique. He hammers a hole in tree's, phone and power poles and even the sides of wooden buildings and stuffs the acorns into the hole. He usually only puts one acorn per hole. The local tribes such as the Miwok would use a tool made of deer antler to pry the stored acorns from trees during a poor acorn harvest year (Miwok Material Culture, Barrett & Gifford).

To tell the difference from a good and bad acorn is simple. The good ones will be heavy and solid. The bad ones will be a bit lighter and spongy feeling. These spongy ones are usually black and moldy inside. It takes a bit of experience to get good at this but you will learn quick. As for grubs in the acorns, the best way is to look for holes in the hull. I have found a few where there was no sign of a hole at all but Mr. grub was home eating away. There are tiny grubs and there are large grubs. These would make great fish bait! I have cut out the areas where the grub has done minor damage, especially if its a big acorn.




This next photo shows how I make a cut along the side of the acorn to hull it. I make a shallow cut from tip to bottom.


Note how easily it comes off.


This is the left over hull. These are good for a very hot fire per the Miwok (see Miwok Material Culture, Barrett & Gifford). The hull on the valley oak is somewhat soft and flexible where as some other species are very hard and need to be cracked to hull them. The Miwok had difficulty with the valley oak acorn because they usually opened their acorns with an anvil stone and hammer stone. The flexible hull would crush along with the meat and add work to cleaning out the resulting meal. They overcame this problem by biting through the hull with their teeth. In modern times they used steel blades such as pen knives and small fixed blades.



This is a nice little batch of hulled acorns. These will be ground and leached. I'll cover this in the next installment.