Food falling from above

The other day I decided to take a walk in the woods because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was shining in a perfectly blue sky, a gentle breeze was blowing, crickets were singing, and ... acorns were falling. To be honest, I was nervous that one would crash onto my head because there were so many of them dropping. Whenever I heard an acorn start falling through the leaves above me, I would swiftly place my hands on my head in a feeble attempt to protect it from possible harm. Any onlookers would have probably thought I looked like a marionette... with my arms being controlled by some unseen force :)

Then the thought came to me, "why not collect acorns to make acorn flour," something I've been wanting to try for a long time. So that's exactly what I did... I started collecting right then and there. 

This was just one spot along a trail full of acorns

I believe the acorns I picked where from the White Oak tree. The acorns from the White Oak have very little tannins, which is good when wanting to make acorn flour. Check out more info on the White Oak

When I got home I began the process of shelling them. Here was my work station. The shelling process took a lot longer than I expected.

Look at the beautiful acorn "meat"

It's a good idea to gather more acorns then you think you will need because you may find that some are infested by worms or other insects.

At this stage you may be tempted to take a bite out of the delicious looking nut, but don't! It will taste bitter! Though White Oak acorns are not as bitter as Red Oak for example.

I ended up shelling about 2.5 cups of acorns. Notice how the water I placed the acorns in is turning yellow/brown. This is the tannic acid starting to leach out. (The 2.5 cups of whole acorns made about 1.5 cups of acorn meal)

Once I had the desired amount of acorns, I drained the water and replaced it with clean water. Then I blenderized the whole thing until the acorns were ground up. I poured the milky looking mixture into a pot and cooked it until it had boiled for a couple of minutes, stirring continuously. (As a side note, though I stirred continuously, the bottom of my pot still burned... not sure why.) Also, I found out that I should have put the acorns into already boiling water.

After the mixture had boiled, I drained it into a "cheese cloth" which I had placed in a colander. I then ran cold water through it several times to make sure it was cool enough to handle and to supposedly rinse out any residual tannic acid. (WARNING: I found out later that normally you do not want to rinse your acorns with cold water after boiling because it will bind the tannins to the acorn, the opposite of what I was trying to do.) The boiling process also removes some of the oils, so if you want to keep that, you may choose another method of leaching your acorns. You can taste the acorn meal at this point and if it still tastes a little bitter, just rinse a few more times. Thankfully, the White Oak acorns have less tannins and my acorn meal did not turn out bitter despite my mistake.

After squeezing out all the liquid, I was left with this lovely acorn meal. I ended up blenderizing it one more time to make it a bit more fine. If you decide to use it right away, no need to do anything further, it's ready for use. However, if you want to store it for later, it's best to dry it in an oven or food dehydrator until all moisture is gone.

And here is my finished acorn bread

I have to say, it sure tasted good, but I hardly noticed any acorn flavor, which was kind of disappointing.

For those interested in the acorn bread recipe, here it is:
1 cup of acorn meal (with as much liquid squeezed out as possible)
1 cup white flour
2 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbs sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup of milk
2 Tbs olive oil

pout into greased loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes at 400F.

In my excitement to prepare acorn flour I failed to do as thorough research as I should have into how best to prepare them. There are many sites with various ways of processing acorns, but I found out that traditionally there are two main ways of leaching out the tannins: the cold water leaching (best for making flour and will thicken when cooked) and the hot water leaching (best when using them for their nutty flavor). I think I accidentally did a mixture of both and thus probably removed some of the flavor from my acorns. Though I know I made some mistakes in the processing of my acorns, I was thrilled to have finally attempted the process of preparing the acorns and actually tasting them. I will have to try again sometime and be more careful about the steps :)

Here are a few sites with more information on acorns and other ways to process them.
Acorns: the inside story
Acorns: from mush to candy
Acorn processing and recipes  - this site is awesome, with quite a few recipes

Butterfly Eclosion

I've been monitoring about eight chrysalises for the past several days. With great anticipation I make my rounds every morning, hoping that today will be the day I will see one hatch. Usually I'm too late and all I see is an empty chrysalis. But today... I noticed one particular chrysalis that looked almost see-through. I knew it could eclose at any minute and I didn't want to miss it. So, I settled down to watch and wait.

A light mist was falling... a hummingbird buzzed by and hovered for a second to look at me... cardinals, blue jays, and chickadees hopped around in the branches and sang their morning songs... and still I waited. An ant crawled up my leg... a spider caught my attention as it hung on its sparkling web... the hummingbird came back, puzzled that I hadn't moved... still nothing. I was about to go inside, when a slight movement caught my eye. I looked closely, and sure enough, a crack had formed along the tip of the chrysalis. It was eclosing (hatching, for those not sure what eclosing means). I was so excited!


I was glad I took the time to watch and wait, because it was over in about 40 seconds. Here's the proof:

 

About 10 minutes before it eclosed

After, when it was still drying its wings

Here's another one that also hatched this morning

Change is not comfortable

Come see! Come see! I called to my housemate's kids, and they came running. Slowly I turned around and revealed a beautiful orange Passion butterfly (also known as Gulf fritillary) hanging from the underside of my hand. It had hatched moments before and was still drying its wings. They gazed in amazement and excitement at seeing a butterfly so close and so still. A dozen questions poured forth, and their curiosity and wonder mingled with mine. All too soon the butterfly flew away, but I suspected that where there was one chrysalis, there might be others and so we started looking.

Next to where I park my car, there's a beautiful Purple Passionflower vine. The long tendrils of the vine have slowly crept over the fence, the bushes, and even a small tree, but I've enjoyed seeing the large, intricate flowers in bloom. As we were walking along the fence looking for possible chrysalises, I noticed some bright orange caterpillars with rows of black spines munching away on the Passionflower leaves. We saw one... two... five... ten caterpillars... There were so many!

Looking around some more, I spotted a chrysalis hanging from the fence, then another and another. While I was intently examining the vine, a Passion butterfly landed on a Passionflower leaf in front of me and deposited a tiny yellow egg. I was thrilled! We are studying insects this week with the kids and I wanted to discuss the butterfly life cycle. However, I had not expected to be able to SHOW them the life cycle...this was so much better than just talking about it.

We found one of the caterpillars climbing up the side of the house and I decided it would be the perfect specimen for observation. The kids and I carefully placed the caterpillar in a large container with some twigs for it to climb on. By the evening, it had selected a spot on the twig to begin spinning a white, silk-like spot. I was sure that by the next day it would have transformed into a chrysalis, but the next morning it was still there, hanging upside down on the white silk anchor. By noon, the caterpillar's color had changed from bright orange to a grayish color. At various intervals throughout the day we observed its skin contracting as it slowly prepared itself for its transformation into a chrysalis. It seemed to be taking forever. Finally, about 24 hours after it had created its silk anchor point, the caterpillar metamorphosed into a chrysalis. The change happened within the span of about 1 minute and I was so excited to be able to watch the whole process. (I apologize for the poor quality of the video. I was taking pictures through a plastic jar full of scratches).

Metamorphosis means change or transformation. Did you know that the Bible also talks about metamorphosis? In Romans 12:2 it says, "And be not conformed to this world, but be ye TRANSFORMED (the Greek says metamorphose) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Also in 2 Corinthians 3:18 it says, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are CHANGED into the same image from glory to glory..."

Observing the caterpillar's complete transformation process has really made me wonder at the transformation God wants for us to go through. While the caterpillar changed into a chrysalis, it struggled and squirmed from side to side; as the butterfly emerged from the chrysalis, it too struggled to push itself out. It appears that change is not a comfortable process. But once the old self has been done away with, what joy and beauty will we experience? That is something I can only wonder at!