Feeding Wild Squirrels

[Friend]

Hello,

This question pertains to squirrels in the wild only.

We are having a massive acorn season and expecting a harsh winter, possibly harsher than the last. I am very annoyed at walking over the acorns and almost falling on them everyday and want to clean them up. The squirrels have been gathering them and burying them in the ground but last year we had so much snow that they couldn't get to them and if they could the ground was quite frozen. They end up eating out of the bird feeder and suet feeder. I don't want anyone to go hungry, birds nor squirrels. Can I collect the acorns from the ground and store them to feed to the squirrels during the harsh winter? I'm assuming the wild squirrels will know which ones are bad since they make the same decision on their own. Has anyone tried this before? Suggestions?

Thank you!

[stosh2010]

Collection: Acorns fall to the ground in the fall. Usually Sept. thru November as a rule of thumb. It is important when collecting acorns to not waste your time collecting bad ones. Not all acorns are created equal. It would be a shame to spend hours gathering acorns only to find most of them are already rotten.

Be sure to break open a few acorns when gathering them and you will soon be able to recognize which ones are healthy and full. It is best to move to a tree that has produced a healthy full crop instead of trying to weed out the bad acorns.

The bad acorns will be black, moldy, half full sometimes. The meat of a healthy acorn looks orangish or yellowish consistently. After or during collection discard any acorns that have an defect such as signs of mold, or a tiny hole because that indicates it contains a grub or grub poop. The acorns should be firm between your fingers. Discard any that are soft. Don't worry you don't need a masters degree in forestry to figure this out. Break open a few and if they are bad you will immediately know it without any training at all.

Now on to the consumption part! How do I remove the tannin from acorns (both red or white)? The first step after collection is to dry the acorns. There are three ways to dry your acorns.

House drying allows the acorns to dry gradually inside your home at normal room temperatures. The acorns should not be stacked but spread out one layer thick on trays. This drying method takes between two to four weeks.

Sun Drying is placing the tray of acorns in direct sunlight for two to five consecutive days. More days of drying are needed if the temps are cold or if the days are not completely sunny. It is important to dry your acorns completely are they will very soon be covered in mold. Dry until the acorns turn brown.

Oven Drying is the fastest and surest way to dry your acorns. Place trays of acorns in a warm oven with a temp. of about 175�F for about 20 minutes.

Inspection round two! Inspect after drying and discard any acorns that don't have a good solid exterior shell. Acorns with a cracked outer shell will dry out quickly on the inside, and the nutmeat will be lost unless used immediately.

Do not make the mistake of trying to save questionable acorns. It isn't worth it.

IMPORTANT: If the acorns are not going to be used immediately inspect them again in a week and discard any acorns that have developed mold. Mold will spread quickly and trying to save an extra acorn can caue you to lose the entire batch.

Repeat the following week.

Now store the acorns in small airtight containers. Ziplock bags or jars work well. The dried acorns still in their original shell will remain edible for many months and can help you feed yourself into the winter months. The smaller the container the better. Why? Because if one acorn is bad it will spread throughout the container it is in. Multiple containers helps prevent the loss of the entire batch which is what would likely happen if you stored them all together for a couple of months.

Please not that storing acorns is not very reliable and the palatability of the acorns will continue to go down with storage. It is best to eat the acorns quickly, storage is only advisable because sometimes large quantities of acorns can be collected. So storage might extend the usefullness of the years crop for a short period of time.

Freezing if available is a better way to store the acorns but freezers aren't likely to be around after the shtf. But just incase, you should shell out the meat of the acorn and freeze in ziplock bags. Acorn meat will last much longer this way.