Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In years that oaks produced many acorns, Native Americans sometimes collected enough acorns to store for two years as insurance against poor acorn production years. After drying in the sun to discourage mould and germination, acorns could be cached in hollow trees or structures on poles to keep them safe from mice and squirrels. Stored acorns ...
Acorns were gathered in the fall before the rain came. To harvest the acorns, Californian Natives would crack open the shell and pull out the inner part of the acorn. This part of the acorn was then smashed with a mortar and pestle until it was a flour-like consistency. This flour-like substance was then leached several times with water until ...
Historically, this acorn was a staple food for many Native American groups, [4] [10] who usually leached out the bitter tannin. [2] Native Americans recognized the importance of fire to this oak, and purposely lit fires in oak woodlands to promote its health and ensure their food source. [3]
The acorns are 10–20 millimetres (3 ⁄ 8 – 3 ⁄ 4 in) long and about one-third to one-half enclosed by a cap or cup ; they mature in September, turning from green to golden brown. The plant reproduces from acorns, but also spreads from root sprouts that grow from vast underground structures called lignotubers. These reproductive ...
European-American contact began after 1833. In 1850 a settler named James D. Savage set up a mining camp down below the valley, and spent most of his time mining for gold and trading with the few other white men in the area. He took several Indian wives and developed influential relations with the nearby Native people.
Above-ground acorn granaries were created by the weavers. Besides acorns, which provided dietary starch and fat, the Maidu supplemented their acorn diet with edible roots or tubers (for which they were nicknamed "Digger Indians" by European immigrants), and other plants and tubers. The women and children also collected seeds from the many ...
The mildly sweet (but perhaps unpalatable) acorns are edible, ideally after leaching. [6] [29] The bitterness of the toxic tannic acid would likely prevent anyone from eating enough to become ill. [29] Native Americans ate the acorns raw and roasted, also using them to make a kind of flour. [5] The hardwood is hard and heavily ring-porous.
When complete, the list below will include all food plants native to the Americas (genera marked with a dagger † are endemic), regardless of when or where they were first used as a food source. For a list of food plants and other crops which were only introduced to Old World cultures as a result of the Columbian Exchange touched off by the ...