The solar powered lantern is pretty at night.
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one of my favorite things to make with collected acorns.
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How does one get from off-the-tree tannic acorns to the acorn jelly powder? The presenter said the acorn jelly powder is tasteless, so there must be quite the process to leach the tannins out.
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i sort out any obviously bad ones and give them a quick wash while still in the shell.
Then i dry them in the oven for a bit on medium heat, which drys them back out and makes the shells easier to crack.
After they have been shelled i split them and rinse them well until the water is clear, then soak them for a day or two in a bucket with warm water with some baking soda and a touch of salt, changing the water and rinsing them, whenever it becomes too cloudy.
i’ll give them a quick parboil in fresh water when done.
Then back on cookie sheets and into the oven on super low to dry them out.
Finally, mill to flour in the grain mill, if you don’t have one food processor can work in a pinch.
(that makes it sound way harder than it actually is)
i also collect black walnuts, walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts and beechnuts every year, as well as many kinds of berries and mushrooms. foraged or home grown food is the best food. 
best of luck!
An alternate more common method with blender and bag straining:
foraging food is for me a way to connect with the seasons, the food seasons are just as big a deal as the holidays. morels are out! asparagus shoots are fresh! blueberries and huckleberries are filling the woods!
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Lucky! In most places, the twin blights of chestnut blight and urban expansion have doomed chestnuts to a thing of the past.
If someone hasn’t done one already, there’s probably a doctoral thesis on the arboreal ecological differences between pre-Columbian and present day North American forests due to the removal of various nut-bearing tree species. Bears eat chestnuts, right? Apparently yes:
The American chestnut was a very important tree for wildlife, providing much of the fall mast for species such as white-tailed deer and wild turkey and, formerly, the passenger pigeon. Black bears were also known to eat the nuts to fatten up for the winter.
Sometimes we don’t see all the holes punched in the forest ecology for the trees.
Luckily black walnuts are in no danger of disappearing locally, since the squirrels re-plant them every year.
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i can attest, yes they do.
that’s really a shame about chestnuts, they are delicious and a great food. easy to store. great in stews, kinda in between most other nuts and a potato. fantastic roasted. fantastic mashed. the flowers are quite stunning as well, like mini orchids.
squirrels around here gather a certain mushroom and hang them on the ends of branches until they are dry then bring them back and make stacks of mushroom jerky for the winter. if they brought the fresh ones in they’d mold, quite industrious and clever little critters.
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OMG… that’s… Wow.
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Picture at a gas station. I had to get close before I realized the sign said “aha!” and not something rude.
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From last week:
L-R: Larry Appelbaum; Benny Golson; Jonathan Kane (son of photographer Art Kane, whose “Harlem 1958” photo was the subject of this event)
Spotted after taking several wrong turns on the way home:
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About a week ago I saw the most amazing rainbow I’ve ever seen. The conditions were perfect. It happened right at sunset. The whole sky was covered by a low gray cloud layer, except for a narrow clear strip at the western horizon. There was a light rainfall and the sun shining through the break. So it was almost a complete half circle.
Photoshop enhancement showing the double rainbow and the darker Alexander’s band between the arcs:
The other end (too big to get it all in one pic):
Super-enhanced showing those “supernumerary bands” – the extra bands inside the main ring, making this a “stacker” rainbow:
Gorgeous!
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Thanks! I wish I had my camera with me instead of only the phone. I was in the hardware store parking lot and other customers and cashiers were coming outside to snap photos too.
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Today’s phones can take surprisingly decent pics… it’s true that a pro camera is still better, but still. These are excellent pics and thanks for sharing with us!
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These are spec.tacular. Really beautiful. Your @Ratel’s sunsets are off the chain too. seriosuly, thank you folks for bringing these here.
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Thanks, although the sunset pics aren’t mine, they are from @Ratel
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