Acorn Eating Fun Facts

Some fast facts from "Use of Acorns for Food in California: Past, Present, Future," by David A. Bainbridge (another hero!)...

... In Spain and Italy acorns provided 20 percent of the diet of many people just before the turn of the 20th Century

... For native Californians acorns made of half of the diet and the annual acorn harvest likely exceeded 60,000 tons

... The yield of acorns per acre compares well with grains, with yields of 6,000 lbs/acre (and that is from wild grown trees; yields would be even higher in orchards of trees selectively bred for high yield - in other words if oaks had been given the benefit of 1/100th of the breeding work devoted to grain crops)

... Oaks can be highly productive on steep slopes where cultivation of grain crops would cause severe environmental degradation