Kat High Talks about Acorns

KAT HIGH SHARES HER KNOWLEDGE

OF TRADITIONAL (AND MODERN) USES OF ACORNS

[Nyerges is the author of "How to Survive Anywhere," "Guide to Wild Foods," "Foraging California," and other books.  He can be reached at  www.ChristopherNyerges.com.]

In early October, Kat High, Native American of Hupa descent, shared her knowledge of the diverse use of acorns in native American culture at a lunchtime talk at nearby Eaton Canyon Nature Center.

Los Angeles residents might remember the few hundred shows on Native American culture that High produced for public access TV, usually filmed at Highland Park’s Southwest Museum.  Over the years she conducted many programs for the Southwest Museum, and was a consultant for their California Room, among other things. More recently, she has been a consultant at the nearby Autry Museum in Griffith Park for their  native plants garden at Autry, and the California Continued exhibit.

High, who recently retired after many decades as a physical and occupational therapist, has been active in local native American education and training for decades.  Her presentation to the docents could have been titled, “Everything you ever wanted to know about acorns.”

She began by showing a few examples of the many diverse acorns produced on the various native oak trees.  Native people would go to the higher elevations in the old days to collect the larger canyon live oaks, even though the coast live oaks were abundant in the valleys.  The reason is that the canyon live oak is about four times bigger than the tiny bullet-shaped coast live oak.  “If you had a family to feed,” asks High, “what would you pick?”

High demonstrated the proper way to crack an acorn. She placed one on the table, and with the little end pointing up, she whacked it with a flat rock, splitting the shell.  She also shared that, once the acorns are collected, most are stored for future use.  In order to prevent molding, they had to be dried out first.  She demonstrated that  you know the acorn is ready to crack open when you can shake the acorn and hear the nutmeat inside rattling around.  However, if the acorn sat on the ground too long, it sometimes gets soft and moldy, and no longer edible.

For all food uses of the acorn, the acorn is first shelled, and then the tannic acid must be removed. The traditional way is to grind the acorns to a flour, and then put the flour into a container akin to a coffee filter, where water can be poured over it to wash out the bitter tannic acid.   Or, the whole acorns can be boiled, changing the water at least three times, or until they acorns are no longer bitter.

Before she continued, she had everyone try some of the acorn foods she brought. There was acorn “coffee,” a brewed beverage made from leached and roasted acorns.  I found it tasty plain, though others added sweeteners to the hot drink.

She also served some “wii-wish,” which is a traditional mush made from the finely ground acorns.  Wii-wish is an old food, made by many Native Americans, and is somewhat plain.  Many times others nuts and dried fruits are added to it.

“Think of it as a ‘cream of wheat’ breakfast dish,” said High, “to which you can add milk, or honey, or raisins, or whatever you like.”  Though High didn’t think her wii-wish had turned out well, in part because she tried preparing it in a microwave, I found it tasty and satisfying.

She also served a large loaf of acorn bread, made mostly from acorn flour.  This was delicious plain, and it seemed that everyone enjoyed this semi-traditional food from the acorn.  High had some cream cheese that could be added as a topping. I tried some plain, and with topping, and both were good.

Kat High pointed out that acorns were often eaten with meat in the old days, because the high fat content of acorns was a good supplement to the low fat content of game meat. 

She described the granaries that were constructed by native people of the past for storing acorns.  Since acorns could only be collected in the fall, anytime between October and December, depending on the season, families would collect all they could during this time. A single family might collect up to a ton of acorns for the year, and store them in containers that looked like silos or large baskets, made from the willow branches. The salicin in the willow was a pest-repellant, said High, and the bay leaves used to line the silos also helped to repel insects and rodents.

High also shared some of the many uses of acorns and acorn caps, besides food.

She showed acorns which had a short skewer inserted into the narrow end, and they were spun as tops by children.  Another game was made from acorn caps, where the caps were cut so that they were rings.  These acorn rings were then all tied onto a string, which was tied to a long stick, and one would try to flip the acorn rings onto the stick.

High also showed a variety of modern acorn crafts, such as acorn earrings, and small acorn cap candles.

HISTORY
“When the Spanish came here,” High told the group, “they described Southern California as looking like a well-tended garden.  That’s because it was,” she told he crowd.  The land had been managed for millennia by a series of practices that only-recently have been more studied and described in such books as “Tending the Wild” (by M. Kat Anderson).

When the Spanish came here, says High, they saw this land as a park-like paradise, and then recruited the local Indians to build the missions and run the farms, which destroyed the Native way of life.  Cattle-raising was most destructive to land and waterways, and the land soon became unable to support the tradition Native lifestyle.

What now? Asks High.  How do we regain our balance with the land? 

Her advice is to learn about the Native uses of plants, and to use them with respect.  “Always offer a prayer when you gather,” says High.  “Ask permission from the plant, don’t deplete an area, and give the plant your intent for picking it.” 

Kat High now teaches classes and workshop on Native skills and caring for the land. She can be reached at katcalls@aol.com.