Sculpted oak leaves and acorns on the spandrel of an entrance arch to the former tannery building on Saint Andrew's Square in the East End of Glasgow. It was built in the 1870s for John Inglis and Company. Love the quality of this stonework.
#glasgow #architecture #sculpture #stonework #glasgowbuildings #architecturephotography
#acorns #oakleaves
Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) with acorns in Norman, Oklahoma, United States on October 17, 2024
Some of the camera settings I used to make this photo are at: https://www.rsok.com/~jrm/2024Oct20_birds_and_cats/2024oct17_squirrel_IMG_1877c.html
Meanwhile, here in #Maine...
Students explore nature and sustainability with #MaineLocalLivingSchool
Kingfield Elementary School students participated in an immersive day of place-based learning, guided by the Maine Local Living School, which focuses on practical skills and ecological #stewardship, and Arbor Mountain Tree Service, exploring #sustainable forestry, acorn ecology, and bridge construction.
By Rebecca Richard, December 5, 2024
KINGFIELD — "There was a whirlwind of activity last month at Kingfield Elementary School [KES] as students immersed themselves in a day of place-based learning with Maine Local Living School and Arbor Mountain Tree Service. Tailored for each grade level, the lessons highlighted ecological connections, sustainable practices and community engagement through hands-on projects.
"The Maine Local Living School, dedicated to teaching practical skills and fostering ecological stewardship, partnered with Arbor Mountain Tree Service to guide students in exploring sustainable forestry, acorn ecology and hands-on bridge construction.
"Kindergarten and first grade students worked with Chris Knapp of Maine Local Living School to explore the seasonal abundance of acorns. 'This fall was a tremendous acorn harvest,' Knapp said, explaining how the lessons tied to the season. Students acted out the germination process of an acorn and identified oak leaves using compare-and-contrast exercises.
"Knapp also emphasized the cultural significance of acorns. 'We honored the long history of peoples for whom acorn has been and is a staple crop,' he said. The day ended with students playing a food web game, simulating predator and prey roles while gathering acorns and enjoying freshly baked acorn biscuits.
"Second and fourth grade students collaborated with Knapp on constructing a community footbridge to cross a stream in the biodiversity field at the front of the school. “The footbridge project reflects Maine Local Living School’s and KES’s shared goals to engage in project-based learning,” Knapp said.
"The students began by identifying cedar trees, prized for their rot-resistant properties and thinned over 20 saplings from a dense stand. 'Students were asked to consider which trees were the best candidates for the future forest based on crown health, upright habit, and space,' Knapp explained."
Original article:
https://www.sunjournal.com/2024/12/05/students-explore-nature-and-sustainability-with-maine-local-living-school/
@loren and here’s a different grackle that appears to be gracking about something… and I see an acorn near him in the background. Gotta love em!
@loren
Here it is. The grackle trying to swallow a fat acorn on the mountain of yard waste at the recycling center. 
After the tannins rinsed out, then toasted.
Perfectly ok nut meat, though rather on the bland side. I read someone said they had a slight maple taste, which I didn't detect; seemed closer to walnuts but blander.
So that's live oak acorn experiment 1. I'll try again sometime next month, see if the nuts are easier to open after more time setting to dry out.
So what to do with the nut fragments already open?
Leach the tannins out... since it's just a small quantity, a tea ball should do.
After 5 cups of hot water, water with the acorn meat was clear.
Tried cracking some acorns open after 5 days.
Most of the nut meat only came out in pieces (right). Only one intact, but I'm not sure that looks ok (left), put it aside and will research more.
The rest of the acorns I'm going to let dry another week or 2, see if they're easier to open after that.
Acorns in bowl, photographed before I did my 2nd sorting to get rid of any cracked or with holes.
Next I did the "float test" - put them in water, discard any that float.
Now I'm drying them out.
(Several more steps to go, will update in coming days.)
At present I'm more interested in this as an experiment - seems like an abundant resource going to waste. Just want to try a little snack to start with.
Looking at more websites and YouTube videos, the "caps still attached" doesn't seem a hard rule, some even say *don't* go for ones with caps still attached.
So first step I gathered some (about half a go-cup full) looking for the brown and shiny ones with no cracks or holes.
@mpotter
Oh yeah, lots of stuff online about leeching the tannins. That'll be the third step, after drying them out and removing the shells.
Big highlight from October is the relationship of Blue Jays and Oaks.
Blue Jays routinely carry acorns a mile away from the parent oak. A single blue jay can bury up to 4,500 acorns each fall, and typically only remembers where 25% were buried. Each jay will plant ~3,360 oaks each year of its 7-17 year lifetime.
Thanks.
I got got that they need to be rinsed repeatedly etc from links like the Old Farmers Almanac article. But I hadn't even gotten to that point. I'm stuck at the start of the initial gathering, because the caps seem to come off when they hit the ground, and I'm trying to see if that means they're unsuitable.
Anyone had experience using US oak acorns for food?
My home in New Orleans is partly shaded by a Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) and this is a year it's been producing a prodigious crop of acorns covering the yard.
Pages on a quick websearch say "Look for fully mature, brown acorns with the caps still attached." Well, from many hundreds of acorns on the ground around the tree I found only one with the cap still attached. Does this mean the rest are bad?
I've never seen so many #acorns from the #oaktrees in our neighborhood in #Monterey (or anywhere else for that matter) ever before. All of the animals that eat acorns are getting ridiculously fat. This has to be at least 10x the amount we've had the last few years
I wonder why we've got so many acorns this year.
This striking gold necklace was made over 2,400 years ago. In ancient Greece, acorns were symbols of abundance and fertility, and used as decoration on gold objects.
The necklace in the Ashmolean Museum collection was excavated over 150 years ago from the necropolis of Nymphaion in the Crimea, previously an ancient Greek colony.
@AshmoleanMuseum #AncientGreek #Greece #necklace #acorns #golf #Jewellery
Acorns: From an Ancient Food to a Modern Sustainable Resource
