Quercus kelloggii

Description

Cooked seeds were traditionally used as a staple food by various indigenous North American Indian tribes due to their high nutritional value. They have a bitter taste and can be dried and ground into powder for use as a thickening agent in stews or mixed with grain for bread. The seeds contain bitter tannins that can be washed out by thoroughly rinsing them in running water, although this may also result in the loss of many minerals. The seeds can be used whole or dried and ground into powder. Preparing whole seeds can take several days to weeks; one method is to place them in a cloth bag in a stream to speed up the leaching process. A simple taste test can indicate when the tannins have been washed out. A traditional method was to bury the seeds in muddy ground during the winter, after which the germinated seeds were dug up in the spring when most of the bitterness had been lost. Roasted seeds can serve as a coffee substitute due to their flavor.

Guilds