Making Flour out of Acorns

At Jean Craighead George's encouragement, I am attempting to make flour out of acorns. On Thursday, my two year old and I gathered acorns that had fallen from a majestic oak at my daughter's preschool. We filled two lunch sized paper bags, brought them home, poured them into my large colander and gave them a thorough rinsing. My little guy was so proud of his accomplishments and I was proud of my resolve to live more sustainably and try new things to provide for my family. I had a long stare down with them on the kitchen counter realizing what work laid ahead for me.




Well the acorns and I continued our stand off until SP stepped in and took control of the situation. Thanks to his ingenuity, kitchen scissors work best to cut the tough acorn shells open and into quarters.

Then to pick the inner meat out of the remaining shell is reminiscent of those pesky filberts at Christmas time. Not the easiest process, but after trial and error, a corn cob holder seemed to be the perfect tool.

SP tells me there is such a thing as a nut pick, but I don't have one. So when using the corn cob pick, the best location to place it is between the shell and the meat. The movement is to try and lift the meat out of the shell. If you can stab the meat with the pick and lift it out easily, you are one lucky acorn picker. Please excuse the left over Halloween nail polish on my thumbs.

At the end of our Friday night efforts, this is how far we got on the colander of acorns. I pledge to get through these all of these acorns!


Well we got a fresh start on the process this morning, and even got the kids to help! They loved it! Our daughter is so proud that these acorns came from her preschool.


If any one wants to come over and help pick, you are more than welcome and we can use some help! It's a fantastic fine motor activity to boot! I'm taking a break from the process right now because we need SP to cut up the rest of the colander! Back to work!