Internet version [Naruhodo no Mori] Vol.33

by Yumiko Mori

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Vol. 33     October 15th, 1997

Eat acorns

Home science experiments for mothers of elementary school children

 Tae: "No!"
Mom: "No!"
Tae and Mom rush to get a tissue paper.
Tae & Mom: "This is no good!"
Tae: "Oh, Toshi! You cheated! He didn't eat!"
Toshi: "Calm down! I'll eat the next one."
Next we eat uncooked chestnuts. They are pretty hard and no good either.
Next, we decide to roast acorns.
Tae: "This smells nice."
Mom: "Again we'll all eat at once. OK?"
Toshi: "Does this taste good?"
Mom: "It's good. Don't worry!"
We start eating roasted nuts from Japanese False Oak.
Toshi: "This tastes like acorns."
Mom: "What? What do you mean by taste like acorn?
Tae: "This tastes good! This is the same acorn we regurgitated, isn't it?"
Mom: "It's so strange the same acorn tastes so differently before and after roasting. Chestnuts also tastes very different."
Tae: I love chestnuts!"
Mom: "Shall we have chestnuts rice dinner tonight?"
Tae: "Great!"

   We tried to eat 4 kinds of acorns we found in our nearby park and chestnuts we bought from a shop. We checked the names of those oak trees by our book. But some of them were difficult to identify, although each kind of acorn had distinct taste. Nuts from Chinquapin oak were very good to eat uncooked or roasted.

Materials

Plastic bags	Several	(Keep each kind of acorn in a plastic bag)
Acorns	Several for each kind	(Any kind of acorn is OK. Choose acorns without worm-eaten sign.)
Keep each acorn cup and leaf for acorns you collected.    They are useful when you want to find out their tree names.    Also try to remember their tree skin surface.
A pair of pliers	Or	Nutcrackers
A frying pan
Plates
An Illustrated plants book

How to eat acorns

• Preparation: Wash acorns very well. Remove any floating acorns, since they are worm-eaten.

1. Eat raw nuts. Crack nutshells with a pair of pliers and take nuts out of the shells.
2. Roast nuts on a frying pan for a few minutes. Roll nuts occasionally.
   If you see shells starting to crack, you turn off heat. If you roast too much, nuts will get burnt.

• There are other ways to eat acorns. You can make acorn flour and cook cookies from acorn flour.
  Harsh tasting acorn can be eaten by removing harsh taste.
  I cooked cookies from Japanese False Oak acorns. They tasted natural and delicious.

• A large number of acorns fall every year, and most of them are eaten by insects or animals.

• In prehistoric Japan, acorns were main diet for people. Their primitive eathern vessels were used to cook or store acorns.

   It is in the midst of fall season. A lot of new crops, such as rice, potato, chestnuts, pears, and oranges, are all coming out. Fall is my favorite season. There is nothing more satisfactory than eating something very delicious. But recent mothers emphasize to give their children nutritious food and sometimes force them to eat food. I feel today's children have lost eagerness for eating. Eating is source for living. I think it more important for children to eager to eat food.

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