Once the acorn flour is leached it can be eaten as a mush or soup or formed into patties and fried. The Maidu were able to prepare mush and soup in baskets that were woven so tightly that they could hold water. Hot rocks were dropped into the baskets and stirred into the mixture until it was cooked and ready to eat. Today you can use your acorn flour in any recipe where you would use flour or corn meal. You may bake cakes, bread or muffins and enjoy the food that supported generations of Native Americans.
Acorns are very nutritious.
The acorns from the Valley Oak are the largest and also the sweetest, requiring less leaching and preparation time than our other local oaks, the Live Oak and Blue Oak. If you try gathering your own acorns and hull, grind and leach them to make flour, you will experience some of the tasks that the Maidu performed each day. These peaceful people, found a bountiful harvest of acorns, bulbs, seeds, fish, waterfowl and deer, here along the American River.