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You can eat them but they are extremely bitter and tannic although white acorns are better than red. The need to be soaked to leach out the tannic acid (or boiled repeatedly) and then can be roasted and eaten or ground into meal. I tried it once and found it to be a lot of work and the nuts unpleasant although I believe I may have picked unusually bitter acorns so I may try again.
The Koreans still eat them and they were a big food source for Native Americans.
Save them to feed the squirrels.
Old timers tell me that Acorns can be used in processing leather.
If you try eating them you must wash and drain them several
times before human consumption. I have eaten fry bread made
with Acorn flour but I didn't think it was that great.
You must leach them. Acorns contain water soluble tannins that may be removed.
There are two ways of doing this:
Hot leaching: Boil in several changes of water until the bitterness is gone. Use halves and quarters. It will take several changes.
Cold leaching: Grind into a meal and change water daily. Simply pour off the top with a ratio of water six to one. It will take about a week to more than two weeks depending on the acorn with red oaks typically taking longer. Be sure to save the fine particles suspended in the liquid when you wring it out the last time with a cloth. Boiling it up will yield a jelly or tufu. In Korea it is called muk. Its really a perfect stable that does not jack with your blood sugar like modern wheat.
I cold leach due to the energy involved. The eastern Indians used hot leech while western Indians used a quick cold leech.
When you are done, you can use it like a flour, but more like a gluten free flour like corn. You will need to add wheat flour to have it rise.
Save them to feed the squirrels.
Old timers tell me that Acorns can be used in processing leather.
If you try eating them you must wash and drain them several
times before human consumption. I have eaten fry bread made
with Acorn flour but I didn't think it was that great.
GL2
Hi Gunluvver2,
Yep, tannins to tan leather, the Tanoak in particular. If it was not good, it depends on the acorn and was likely not leached enough.
I used to rake them up and put them in a big clear glass urn with a plaid bow for a really nice rustic holiday decoration.
Other than that, it depends on where you live. If you live in a rural area, you can leave them out or gather them to dump where wild animals live. You'll be able to give some squirrel the bounty of a lifetime.
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