Oak trees, Acorn flour & dye

[@yetanotherentity]

"...it amuses me and it keeps me out of mischief." You are the witchiest witch ever. The real-life Goodie Whemper (maysherestinpeace)! ❤

[@paintedwings74]

If you have an oak whose acorns you're particularly fond of, the way to avoid dealing with those curculio grubs that drill escape holes is to gather up ALL the acorns from beneath the tree when you harvest, and dispose of the infested ones well away from the oak. (Freeze them, drown them, or roast them prior to composting.) We do this with our favorite trees, and some that started out with grub damage to 70% to 90% of the acorns were down to just 20% spoilage within three years. (And then, because I live in a city that needs to be smacked alongside the head, they cut down the two best acorn-yielding trees I've ever known.) Deer eat acorns; turkeys and sometimes ducks eat them; and in the arid West, the First Nations people ate them routinely. But the complete clean-up crews, the vacuum-cleaner of oak woodlands, were passenger pigeons. When passenger pigeons were driven extinct in the USA, curculio grub populations skyrocketed. If the grubs don't make it into the soil, they can't grow up to become weevils which fly back up to lay eggs in their oak. They don't tend to fly very far, so an isolated oak may end up with virtually no curculios over time. Because we do everything to excess in the US, I make three or four gallons of acorn flour every year. It's fun. It makes great bread, cookies, and a thickener in stews and soups.

[@theCosmicQueen]

stop apologizing! you haven't done anything wrong.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

didn't know that, well I guess dropping the curculio infested ones in a bag for collecting "dry" compost for months on end will actually help the oaks they came from. good to know.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

also it could be worse, you could have an oak tree that produces chicken of the woods and maitake mushrooms when the conditions are right, have it be on public land so you don't have to worry about tresspassing, harvest a couple of pounds of chicken mushrooms, and then not have enough energy to fully dehydrate all of them, have to compost about half of them, and come back ten days later to see what happened only to discover they cut that tree and a neighboring one that may or may not have shown signs of being infected with them. I was so upset and angry. Turns out the trees were rotten from the inside out, so the town's response was to cut them down and dig the stumps.

[@varde42]

As a kid I got curious about people eating acorns in fairy tales and such, and collected some to make flour. Had no idea what tannins were and how to deal with them, ended up with incredibly bitter pancakes that had to be thrown away :D

[@fairwitness7473]

Lol! I did something like that too! I was always wondering why no one ate them because there was always so many on the ground. I tried it onceand discovered that tannins are incredibly unappetizing! In my case I was trying to make Native American Pemmican so I could run away and live off the land like the First Nation's People did. It was a dismal failure. But I did learn a lot. Namely, I needed to find a teacher. 😆

[@Hippiechick11]

My brother and I tried to eat the raw ones. We just peeled them and bit into the acorn meat. It was horrible! Still have to laugh.

[@IQzminus2]

Oh I can just tell this is close to the perfect KZbin channel for me. History, a bit of experimenting, good in depth explanations, folklore, and also about food that is a foraged ingredient. Loots of cool and interesting ways of utilising many different parts of a plant. This is exactly the video I wanted to find when I looked for what for types of fun things I could try using the oak tree in the yard for. (Though still leaving plenty of acorns for the animals and insects in the yard as well) Because I was after some fun project and try something new, and learn a bit more about a tree that even though it’s familiar to me, I didn’t know that much about.

[@markc1234golf]

I gotta say these colours are friggin' GORGEOUS 😍😍🥰🥰😘😘 thanks for showing us this xx

[@volvacations2186]

This is so neat. Our local National Park offered a class on making acorn flor but i missed it. Glad for this video.

[@catherinewalks1207]

Wanted to thank you belatedly for your video showing horse chestnut ‘soap’. At our outdoor kindergarten we have been collecting conkers and the children have been delighted at being able to turn these into an impressive, milky froth in their mud kitchen, with lots of experimenting and processing along the way. I can’t tell you how particularly nice it has been to make this natural cleansing substance during Covid, where even in the woods we now have a lot of government guidance and alcoholic sanitiser. We may need to think about a quern next.

[@magnoliaweathershield443]

It makes me really happy to hear what you are doing with your kindergarten children. It’s lovely to hear they are having this experience

[@SocksnGreys]

“Everyone needs a pet kitchen rock.” This has definitely been a missing tool in my kitchen that needs to be remedied.

[@Cellottia]

That's a lovely shade of blue- grey; so far I've avoided dyeing my yarns as it could lead to another source of unfinished projects (!), but this is tempting me to go out and collect acorns! Oh dear!! (I have a batch of wool I've just washed which would be delightful made into a pretty jumper in just that shade of grey!)

[@SallyPointer]

Go for it! Just use only as much iron as tips the colour over, the least bit, the better!

[@Hanaconda_Aquaponics]

That grey is actually pretty nice!

[@theCosmicQueen]

thanks for showing how easy it is to crack acorns! that is encouraging. we have lots of native oaks here in Oregon on the West Coast of the US. and far too many pesky invasive Gray Squirrels as a result ( imported from the East coast)

[@melissamoore521]

One of the tastiest muffins I have ever had was an acorn muffin. I just discovered your channel and it's enchanting!

[@seaweedeater3104]

Ooh would love to try that soda bread! The yarns are looking great. Thanks Sally

[@rachelboersma-plug9482]

I love your kitchen rock. I've got one of my own but I call it a handstone.

[@melissamoore521]

Reading this, I initially thought you called your rock 'handsome!' LOL! Anything that makes my life easier ( I'm 60) is likely to be called handsome from now on! XxX

[@acebilbo]

Great videos!! Sourdough is not dead! Just needs a couple of days to restart. Give it its food and let it go. I helped a friend pick acorns last year. Downtown Vancouver, Washington state. USA. Tragically, 3 weeks ago they took them down. Not sure why. Probably development. But I have many babies growing in my back field.

[@SallyPointer]

Sadly even after feeding and a few days, it didn't revive. Not to worry, I can always make another starter.

[@EvatheDiva00]

This is so cool! Thank you for sharing this knowledge

[@theoutdoortraditionalist]

An arborist told me that an Oak lives for 300 years, rests for 300 years and dies for 300 years.

[@paintedwings74]

That's a brilliant thought! I've got a real love for several deceased oak trees in my woods, they're such life-filled bodies. Sulfur-shelf and maitake mushrooms grow from the decaying insides, turkey-tails and purple-tooth bloom near the surface, and a great many other mushrooms come and go along through the years. They're beautiful, sometimes edible, always fascinating. The arthropods, birds, and mammals that come to live inside oak logs are just as incredible when the tree is laying on the ground as when they're young and standing tall. I look at a fallen oak and think Monty Python thoughts: "It's not dead yet."

[@cmcmillan7987]

Thank you for this. Cannot wait to collect and process some later in the year 👍

[@jennywren2395]

Sally, you may be interested in a vlog by Cabinboyknits, on dyeing with leaves, bark and acorns from a white oak, in Canada. It is quite comprehensive and the results are very interesting. He naturally dyes yarns for a living. As an adolescent I read a book about someone who lived in the woods in a hollow oak tree and made acorn flour. I have no idea what that story was called or which book but it has stayed with me ever since. Thank you for your podcast, Sally. Jenny(NZ)

[@SallyPointer]

How fascinating, I'll check both those out, thank you!

[@jameshays381]

Was the book my side of the mountain?

[@roysuggs3635]

where I live, we have 28 different native spesies of Oak. Some have acorns the size of golf balls.

[@jiniyogini364]

What a find! Thank you Sally for all your videos.

[@JustIsold]

You make turning the quern look so easy! I got to try turning a prehistoric one and found it super heavy and then got stubborn because I wanted to turn the darn thing!

[@170185able]

Thank you for the wonderful video! I learnt so much watching it. the yarn came out beautiful and this is inspiring me to go forage for acorns this fall, hopefully I can find some oaks here in Nova Scotia, Canada. I was surprised at how brown the acorn flour ended-up being, I assumed it would be light like the acorn nuts as they came out of their husks. I have never had acorn flour but looing forward to giving it a try!

[@itzakpoelzig330]

What we have in my area (California) is the Coast Live Oak. It has hard prickly leaves, a bit like holly leaves but smaller and rounder. When you see these trees in the landscape, they look perfect for lying down under or having a picnic, but unfortunately the whole ground beneath them is very stabby because of these leaves. One year we tried harvesting the acorns. We cold leached the nuts in a jar of water in the fridge. Every time we changed the water, I was amazed at how good it smelled. Not mapley or nutty at all, but like a truly posh high-end shampoo. I wanted to bathe in it. The flour we ended up with was absolutely without flavor. I don't know if other types of acorns taste like something, but ours did not. We didn't find it to be worth the labor, so we never did it again.

[@ZyonSigil]

my son and myself (who is 4) love to gather mulberries, acorns, juniper, black walnuts and pine nuts. we even have a wild pear tree growing down the hill from us its almost ready for picking and i cant wait for them this year. we are also going to be making dye for shirts from the husks of the black walnut and pokeberries this year. Thankfully my son knows not to put his hands in his mouth after messing with the pokeberries dye or otherwise. We've also made Mulberry wine and jam this summer so we've been having fun so far.

[@dawsie]

I planted an Oak tree acorn the day that me Mom died as she loved the Oak tree, it’s now the height of a two story house it’s only 11 years old, it’s now producing a lot of acorns in the past 3 years I have been picking them up and placing in a bucket never thought of using them for making a dye some of them are really dark in colour now so I might give it a try to dye some wool I have as well as my embroidery thread 🤗🤗

[@yougkuan9198]

Woww...much thnx for this presentation. Information I should have received when I was a child. There used to be massive oak-tree forests all over n quite a lot of tribal communities were enjoying n living from them. Now mostly wild animals like boars, black pigs n deer are having a lot of fun with them no!? Thnx for the share n God bless ; D

[@SallyPointer]

Acorns are well worth using more than we currently do.

[@karenradcliff9163]

Sally, thank you so much for this. I have been so curious as to what acorn flour looks like and what it would be like to work with it. I don't have access to acorns right now, sadly, but I'm originally from Southern California and many of the native tribes of that area would use acorn meal and flour in their dishes. I'm still hoping to scavenge a few horse chestnuts from a tree down our street for some dyeing and washing experiments. Much luck with your soda bread!

[@crystaledwards9878]

Been looking at the acorns out front since I moved here (Riverside) maybe this is the year.

[@Just_Sara]

If either of you guys need any, I'm sure I could find some - I'm in Washington State.

[@karenradcliff9163]

@@Just_Sara That's very kind of you! I'm also in Washington (in Kent), but oak trees seem thin on the ground (so to speak) compared to other trees.

[@GrannyReplica]

So fascinating. I had no idea these were edible. 😀

[@nealthomson9505]

We are going to need to know thus stuff again. . . . .sooner than what we think. TGC Blessings P.S. dont forget to keep a lot of brass screws and nails in your preps. . . . .

[@magnoliaweathershield443]

I have found acorn flour in a Korean grocery shop, so that’s another cuisine that uses the acorn. It made a very interesting pancake, but I’d love to know what else it’s used for in Korean cooking. Thank you once again, Sally. I hope Gareth is feeling better now.

[@julieheath6335]

There's an acorn jelly. See Replies in this vid I just watched. Eating ACORNS 🌰: How to Forage, Store, & Cook Acorns" on KZbin kzbin.info/www/bejne/p33SZIiNnZJ1hJY

[@itzakpoelzig330]

I've had a sort of Korean acorn jelly. It tastes like nothing, but they put flavorful sauces on it.

[@alphalunamare]

How absolutely fascinating :-) Well Done!

[@whatabouttheearth]

Renaissance Fair's are people who's hobby is reinacting this womans life.

[@windmaze8735]

Oak Tannin Dye is my favorite christmas song!

[@PinAViolet]

What an enjoyable video! Thank you so much

[@the_eternal_student]

Speaking of Angleland oaks, there is a great book about English wooden ship building called "Building the Wooden Fighting Ship" by James Moore I believe, and it is not about the military, surprisingly, but general ship building.

[@bonniehyden962]

Ms. Sally, once you have Acorn Flour, how do you store it? ...how long does it keep? Have you ever found that one species of oak makes better flour than others? Here in the woods of Deep, East Texas we have White Oak, Red Oak, Black Oak and Pin Oak. If there are more, I'm not aware. The "Old Timers" say while deer and hogs love to munch on acorns in the Fall, a side benefit to them is the acorns worm them.

[@SallyPointer]

I just keep mine in a jar in the pantry, and I usually use it up before the next harvest. I've only so far used the oaks common in the UK, so you may need to seek local knowledge for the varieties you have.

[@paintedwings74]

If you dry acorn flour thoroughly, "pasteurize it" at a low temp (I set the oven to 200F and leave it in for about an hour) to kill any existing mold spores or bacteria, and store it in a cool, dry place, it can keep for years. The most common issue I've had is the fat going "off", but even then it hasn't gone rancid. I generally make about 3 gallons a year, but have sometimes ended up giving away a gallon here or there if I don't finish it off before the next harvest, just to clear space. One batch of white-oak flour stored in a glass jar hung around for three years, and a red-oak four years, until I finally worked my way through them. The best tasting after processing into flour is our red oak, because its higher fat content also holds the flavor in; but if you do a batch of unground acorns, the whites are probably going to leach tannins faster. Our red oaks make me kinda crazy the first few days as the highest tannin content leaks out; because that's when the sugars leach out, too, and for a while the whole house smells like maple syrup, but better. I wish I could figure out how to keep the sugar but discard the tannin! One of these days, perhaps!

[@bonniehyden962]

@@paintedwings74 , we have so many different oaks here, but I think white oak might be most prevalent. With all the Spring rain we had the crop was looking good. But now, with such high heat and little rain, acorns are dropping. Along with hickory nuts and beech mash.

[@paintedwings74]

@@bonniehyden962 too bad! If you're an oak, you have to cut your losses. I love that about them, even though it means years when the crop is terrible. There's that fable of the grasshopper and the ant, about planning ahead for lean times, but an oak would illustrate the concept just as well. I love watching the oaks "decide" to have a lean year sometimes; other years a mast year, where you have to wonder where they've got all that energy from, to give it away so prodigiously. Our oaks are taking a break this year, too. It has interesting effects on the cycles of all the rest of the wildlife; last year was not a big acorn year, which knocked the squirrel population down a little bit, but this spring, there was still a high enough population to sustain an outbreak of mange. If the oaks have as few acorns this year as it looks like they will, it should help to cut the transmission of mange. The sick squirrels will lose out in the competition for acorns, and won't make it through the winter; and the remaining squirrels will get a nice, healthy reset next spring. I love how elegant all of these interplays are between oaks and everything else.

[@bonniehyden962]

@@paintedwings74 , yes! I love how nature manages itself! I believe us humans could take some serious lessons. Who knows? ....we might be in the midst of such a cycle now. 🤔

[@Felix.Wingfield]

I knew one person who put them in a cloth bag and hung them inside their toilet tank (the top part) for a week.

[@SallyPointer]

Clever!

[@uribove]

It's fun to see how different common names of trees can be in other languages. In Dutch it is Summeroak (Q robur), Winteroak (Q petrea) and American oak (Q rubra)

[@crystaledwards9878]

Always wonderful. Do you have a good remedy for tannin stains on ones hands? I’ve been on a banana fiber bent it’s terrible for brown fingers.

[@juliewholohan2415]

Another great hedging around 🧙‍♀️

[@ZippedUpKitz]

My acorns are no where near that big!!! Holy Moly! Those are huge! The acorns on my trees are literally HALF that size!

[@deannastatler7712]

She reminds me of Julia Child in this video :)

[@teresacabellospanades9605]

Hi Sally, I have just discovered your KZbin channel & I am enjoying it so much! I am watching your videos one after the other one. I was wondering if you are part of the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinner and Dyers? Thanks for all the information you share!

[@SallyPointer]

Not an official member, but I've overlapped with local guilds for years doing talks etc

[@moors710]

I put my acorns in a basket in a spring in continuous running cold water It is much less work, but you do not recover the tannin.

[@moors710]

I generally use bur oak as that is what grows in this part of North America

[@SallyPointer]

I envy you your spring!

[@lianelinner9594]

Fabulous video! Thank you very much for sharing with us ❤️

[@ymrelang]

We have lots of acorns this year in Michigan! I can try your experiment! Thanks for your video!!!

[@landrylee6207]

U also can make tofu

[@grinninggoat5369]

Your liquid should be fine for concentrating tannic acid for leather and dyeing... for black ink, it is the gallic acid that you're after in higher concentrations from oak galls over the leeched water and shell husks anyway.

[@SallyPointer]

I have a whole video on oak gall ink, it's lovely stuff to work with.

[@snazzypazzy]

Wonderful! What does the acorn flour taste like, once cooked?

[@grinninggoat5369]

Have you tried putting red ochre in vinegar, letting it settle and decanting, to make an additive to your water to get your iron additive variations with tannic acid and gallic acid?

[@theCosmicQueen]

so red ochre has rust in it? well that sounds easy. just find some red soil or clay then, it's not hard to find.

[@CleoHarperReturns]

14:32 Sounds like the Tardis!

[@landrylee6207]

Oaks are good hardwood and acorns are good food,the acorn can use to make tofu

[@SallyPointer]

I've never tried making tofu from acorns! What's your method for that?

[@johnlynch575]

14:56 I LIKE THE FACT THAT YOU'VE MISPLACED THE CAMERA TRI-POD BUT YOU TROOP FORTH ANYWAY, MAKING THE VIDEO. SALLY, I AM VERY SERIOUS WHEN I SAY I HAVE WONDERED ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR SUBJECT {EDIBILITY OF ACORNS.} FOR DECADES. THANK YOU FOR TEACHING US.

[@marleenverhulst]

tnx for your clear step by step instruction! I've processed a batch myself. I dried the roughly chopped bits after the leaching. Now they've become so extremely hard - can I still use them? (leaching end of Oct last year, now it's March)

[@SallyPointer]

Try grinding them and see how it goes!

[@kitingmare]

I'd be curious if I could use the oak tannins to dye/tone a cyanotype print....

[@Blackfox_Kitsune]

yeast eat Glutton. so if you don't give them a glutton boost after a while of inactivity in say a fridge they remain inactive.

[@nigelgregory4777]

Great stuff Sally, really interested in doing acorn flour, I've seen it done before but the acorns were roasted on fire embers, would this make any difference to the flour? Love watching your craft videos as you make them so interesting. Take care, Nige 👍👍❤☕

[@SallyPointer]

If you toast the acorns first you'll get a different flavour but you'll also cook the starch, so it will behave slightly differently in use. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different

[@nigelgregory4777]

@@SallyPointer thank you for your reply Sally, great information as always, I know if you don't process acorns properly you can get into a heap load of problems so have stayed away but, as you have shown I don't have to roast them I am looking forward to giving them a go, many thanks for the reply 💕💕👍☕☕

[@miekeharinck500]

do you have beechnut-husks in your area? they can add a soft pinkish tone to your pallet. you need a lot (1kg for 100 gr wool, in a bucket with water and some soda (to give the pink), let it steep for 2 weeks (at least till the pH is neutral).

[@SallyPointer]

Lovely idea, I haven't seen a good crop of beech mast locally, though we had loads when we were in Wales, but that would be a great addition. Alder cones are also on my list, and birch bark.

[@miekeharinck500]

@@SallyPointer do you call blackthorn a tree? the bark can give a nice red-brown, but it is a hell to get the bark off a branch.(but maybe you have better tools and tricks to do this) what I have done is throw some smaller branches in a gardenchopper (if that is the right word?), they give a far lighter pinkish tone, it was nice. I have read this recipe in the book 'the colour cauldron' by Su Grielson

[@SallyPointer]

@@miekeharinck500 that's a lovely book isn't it! Lots of blackthorn locally, I usually just make pins from the thorns and of course various things with sloes, I'll try the bark, that would be a nice addition. Great idea!

[@Амин-т4х]

Definitely should grind and then leach , it will be faster

[@stephengent9974]

Although oaks can live a long time, typically they reach maturity at 150 years old and will last 300 years before succumbing. 400 species can be found on oak trees.

[@LitoGeorge]

Sally, hi. You seem like a lovely person. And just the right person to ask a question of. I recently gathered Garry Oak (BC, Canada) which had been felled to make way for more developments. Not wanting to see this tree go to waste, I took some of the fallen leaves (ok, a bucket full) and filled it with water, leaving it now for 3 weeks. It smells a bit rotten - which I guess makes sense. But I have died some stained kitchen cloths and they became a dank grey colour. Not brown. I believe the tree was felled in autumn. How do I use the mighty Oak constituents to get a lovely brown or dark beige or anything like that? When is a good time to pick the products of the oak to get the brown I am after? Tx!

[@SallyPointer]

Fallen leaves may have already had a lot of the tannins leached out by the winter, might that be it?

[@LitoGeorge]

@@SallyPointer haha, you're asking me? I have no idea to be frank. Unfortunately all the leaves are well fallen now (even the higher tannin leaves like Maple, on the coast of Canada), so I would say that they're most leached now. I read that the bark and twigs and even sawdust of the oak can be used to make a dye. Does the dye always turn brown on those? I added some Arbutus tree bark that my children whittled for me from a branch that we managed to get and the water turned purple black - from being black to begin with. And it became a soup, bubbling away on its own. I have no idea what I am doing, so I am asking those who have much more experience than I.

[@YMB203]

Sally, would lightly roasting the acorns before processing speed up the process?

[@SallyPointer]

Would certainly give a different flavour

[@viccw2366]

Thanks a lot for this video! I didn't know about the stone crushing technique to open up the bark. I have one question: until now all videos I have seen say we should remove the inner skin. In your video I was under the impression that you leave it. Have you checked from scientific sources that this skin is edible? It would be great news, since removing it takes a lot of time. Thanks again very much for your videos, and for sharing great knowledge!

[@SallyPointer]

I think a lot depends on your local acorns, mine are fairly mild and after leaching the residual skin is fine, but if your acorns locally are very astringent you may do better to remove

[@viccw2366]

@@SallyPointer Ok thanks a lot!

[@pigcatapult]

I did not know the other meaning of sessile, and now I can't get the mental image of an oak getting up and walking away on its roots out of my head

[@karlijnvangrinsven8605]

Hi Sally, new to your videos but loving them. I picked acorns from the American oak tree in my garden. Some already show signs of new life and have sprouts coming out at the end of them. So when is an acorn too old or not desirable for flour making? XKarlijn

[@SallyPointer]

I suspect they will still work, but probably not be much good for storage. Usually once germination starts the balance of starches etc changes, but barely sprouted ones should work fine

[@karlijnvangrinsven8605]

@@SallyPointer thank you for your response! Much appreciated 🌺

[@phillipstroll7385]

Interestingly, trees are exactly why the British wanted the Americas. The first "American" flag had a white pine tree on it. Tree harvesting was the original purpose until other things were discovered. Hemp, tobacco, etc. Most Americans do not realize the vast animal life America is known for aren't original to America. They were brought over by other people's. For example: pigs, chicken, beef cattle, horses, dogs, etc. America had bison and camels. Which is funny considering when ppl think camels they think northern Africa. Camels were not original to Africa. They were brought there.

[@deborahsimpson8835]

Just come across your work Sally! I love it! Do you have a school? I'll come lol

[@SallyPointer]

I do teach at all sorts of places, depends where you are as to where might be accessible to you.

[@deborahsimpson8835]

@@SallyPointer Hi Sally. I'm in lovley Dumbarton, 6 miles from Loch Lomond, Glasgow being the nearest city of course. Some of the kids are coming for a forage tomorrow, I was showing them your videos today and they're looking for things to do in the holidays. I thought I know! haha! Thanks for getting back to me!

[@SallyPointer]

@@deborahsimpson8835 I'll be up at Kilmartin Museum in mid September, that's the closest to you this year I think

[@deborahsimpson8835]

@@SallyPointer Great stuff I'll keep an eye out! Thank you I'll need to look on the map where that is tho x

[@deborahsimpson8835]

@@SallyPointer It's on the notice board!

[@fionadowson4550]

That's part of the plot line of Perseus' journey to slay Medusa

[@AnimeShinigami13]

got some questions so i came back here, and something to share. I accidentally burned the first round of acorns I tried to toast in the oven for flour. can they still be used for flour? I also made an interesting series of discoveries that lead to a vivid blue and vivid pink that faded a little with each exhaust, but produced a lot of dye; purple majesty potatoes, and some sort of red cranberry like potato that was pink through and through. They'd sprouted and been infested with mealy bugs and weren't edible anymore. I wanted to try and kill the mealy bugs so I soaked the sprouted bits in brine made with some hawaiian black salt that smelled too much of brimstone to be appealing on food or in the bath. The potato bits permanently picked up the sulpher smell so I decided it was a good idea not to plant them, and I remembered that salt was a good dye preservative and helped absorbtion so I thought "eh, what will it hurt?" and integrated the salty sulpher smelling dark colored water and smelly sulpher potatoes. The result was a bright blue and a bright pink respectively. It was INCREDIBLE. Sally it was INCREDIBLE.

[@SallyPointer]

That sounds amazing! I'd love to hear how stable the colour is over time

[@AnimeShinigami13]

@@SallyPointer so do i, I just finished banging the potatoes a bit to try and get every last piece of color out of them and then added more alum, cream of tartar, and black salt. this stuff though Sally, don't try the black salt on food. its very strongly sulpher smelling and tasting. I wouldn't have thought of it for killing mealy bugs if I'd had another use for it.

[@Giraude]

I now have quern envy...in the US, it's hard to come by an authentic, functioning quern, or someone who can make one!

[@Just_Sara]

Maybe you could make one out of cement! Maybe I could too!!

[@SallyPointer]

Just bear in mind you will get minute particles of whatever you make it from in your food. I know some of the US based Roman reenactment groups have found stone cutters to make them querns, otherwise a saddle quern can be made with rock from suitable beach/river or garden ornament/walling supplier, overall I think a saddle quern is more useful on a wide range of materials

[@shastahill]

I hear ya! Every few years I search for new options on the market. Suppose I should just get on finding and fashioning my own saddle quern as Sally suggests...

[@dianehutchens]

Where could I find a hand grinder like you used in this video?

[@SallyPointer]

Similar ones are still used in India, and a few of the re-enactment suppliers also cut and dress quernstones.

[@moniquem783]

Can you eat the acorns from all oak species or just a select few? I’m in Australia and there are lots of drought tolerant varieties for sale, but English Oak is much harder to find.

[@SallyPointer]

I think you'd need to double check your local species, but I'm not aware of any you can't eat offhand. Some will have more tannin than others

[@moniquem783]

@@SallyPointer okay. Thank you. I think they’re so majestic. I’m about to buy a smallholding and have always dreamed of a field with a giant oak in the middle. Not a lot of chance of finding that here but I can plant it myself and watch it grow 😊

[@gracebell6361]

Where in Australia are you? I'm in Melbourne/Naarm and there's quite a few English Oaks here! My local park has a big promenade of them, and there's a street nearby that has English Oaks lining the whole length! Also worth checking out botanic gardens etc as they often have a nice selection of oaks.

[@gracebell6361]

Also I just double checked my copy of Nature's Garden, and Samuel Thayer does say every oak is edible, just not all practical or palatable!

[@moniquem783]

@@gracebell6361 I’m in Geelong. I was thinking more about buying a seedling than finding one and picking up acorns. Although I suppose that’s not a bad idea to find out if they’re palatable before planting a big tree lol. Good to know they’re all technically edible though. Thanks! I’ll see if I can find one to collect some acorns from. There used to be one at my primary school. Long long time ago. I’m sure it’s gone now. Trees usually lose to progress. No idea what variety it was anyway. We just used to piff the acorns at each other 😂😂😂

[@radhikasundareswaran7362]

How to make powder?

[@DramaTubeTv]

Subscribed

[@toicarter5525]

Is nettle the only thing you work with?. and teach on how to use. is there other fibers you use and teach on how you make things with?, do teach tutorials on how to make clothes with any fiber?

[@SallyPointer]

I have videos on quite a few different fibres and work with an ever increasing number

[@esben181]

I have not been able to find a single unspoiled acorn this year.

[@tomsawyer5678]

Portugal

[@agypsycircle]

Where can I find a kitchen mill like yours?

[@SallyPointer]

Try an Indian import shop, they are still in daily use in Indian cuisine and are exported worldwide, but a saddle quern is also easy to make