Nut Wizard

The Nut Wizard

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I have recently written about growing oak trees and using acorns as food. I have also written in the past about chestnuts, hazelnuts/filberts, and walnuts. My only complaint with nut trees is actually having to harvest the nuts themselves. There have been a number of techniques developed to help harvest nuts, but I don't think I have come across anything as simple and effective as the Nut Wizard. I must be honest and state that I have never tried the Nut Wizard myself... yet. The moment I am able to harvest nuts on more than an occasional basis, then I will be buying one (or more). But when an icon in forest gardening, like Martin Crawford, endorses the Nut Wizard, then I have to believe it is a good product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq4XcMNaixs

The Nut Wizard was invented by Cecil Holt who said that the idea for this nut collector came to him in a dream. He created it initially for pecans, but in a short time the Nut Wizard was being used for all types of nuts as well as other items like golf and tennis balls. There are a number of sizes available for the desired nut to be harvested.

You can order the Nut Wizard from Holt's website: http://www.holtsnutwizard.biz/  This is not a great website, but it is functional. I have also put links up to Amazon to make it easier:

• Nut Wizard - 11", Extra Small: Acorns (small) from most Oaks, or other nuts 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) to 1 inch (25 mm) in diameter.
• Nut Wizard - 12", Small: Pecans (small to large), Acorns from White Oak, or other nuts 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) to 1.5 inches (38 mm) in diameter, will also work for many crabapple varieties.
• Nut Wizard - 14", Medium: Pecans (very large), English Walnuts, Hazelnuts/Filberts, Acorns from Red Oak, Chestnut Oak, Hickory Nuts, Chestnuts, or other nuts 1 inch (25 mm) to 2 inches (50 mm) in diameter, will also work with medium-sized fruits.
• Nut Wizard - 17", Large: Black Walnuts, Sweet Gum Balls (ouch!), Apples, Citrus, Osage Orange, or other fruits and nuts 1.5 inches (38 mm) to 4 inches (100 mm) in diameter.

How to Eat Acorns

Acorns can be great food

Red Oak (Quercus rubra) 

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Acorns are the nut (fruit) of the Oak (Quercus species). I wrote a more extensive article on Oak trees yesterday. Acorns are very high in carbohydrates and good fats, but very few Oaks have nuts that taste very good without processing. So which ones taste good? How do you process acorns? Is it easy, hard, time-consuming? Is it worth the trouble?

I will answer some of these questions myself, but I am going to provide a lot of links to really good articles on the subject. There are others who have a lot more experience that have written a lot on the subject. So instead of re-inventing the wheel, I will just give links to some reallygood articles.

Every tree is different. Every location produces different flavors and nuances (this is the Terrior of Food). One White Oak may produce acorns that are bitter and need to be processed, while another White Oak a quarter mile (0.4 km) away may be "sweet" enough to be eaten raw. Local growing
conditions and varieties play a large role. So experiment and see what is out there!

With that said, here is a list of the best tasting acorns:

• White Oak (Quercus alba) 
• Boz-Pimal Oak (Quercus aucheri)
• Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor)
• Emory or Black or Bellota Oak (Quercus emoryi) 
• Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) 
• Holly Oak (Quercus ilex)
• Holm Oak (Quercus ilex ballota)
• Chestnut Oak (Quercus prinus)
• Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii) 
• Burr Oak (Quercus macrocarpa) 
• Cork Oak (Quercus suber) 
• English or Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur)

If you read these articles, you will see that there are a number of ways to process the acorns. The big decision is hot vs. cold water leaching of tannins. If you want to use acorn flour for cooking anything that requires the flour to stick together (i.e. breads) then you need to use the cold water method or mix the acorn flour with another flour, like wheat. This was Hank Shaw's mistake when trying to make an acorn flour flatbread.

Three articles on acorns written by Hank Shaw author of Hunt, Gather, Cook:

• Collecting and Processing Acorns to produce Acorn Flour: http://honest-food.net/2010/01/14/acorn-pasta-and-the-mechanics-of-eating-acorns/
• Acorn Coffee and Piandina (Italian torilla): http://honest-food.net/2009/12/26/acorns-and-the-foragers-dilemma/ 
• Acorn Cake and Traditional Uses of Acorns: http://honest-food.net/2010/01/03/acorn-cake-and-acorns-around-the-world/

A fantastic, detailed article on using acorns by Green Deane, of the Eat the Weeds website:

• http://www.eattheweeds.com/nuts-for-acorns/

A great overview of harvesting, processing, and cooking with acorns from Jackie Clay, a well known homesteader and writer for Backwoods Home Magazine:

• http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/clay79.html