Why do older Asian women pick acorns outside our house?

I’m guessing you might not be able to tell your Asians apart;
but were they Korean women you think?

Acorn flour is used in Korean cuisine.

they’re depriving the squirrels of their winter rations.

Supergirl – I believe we both live in Seattle, and I’ve noticed the same thing! Blackberries too. It gets very competitive out there, and there are kids picking too. I’ve always wondered why.

isnt the powder derived from the crunching of acorns poisonous? ive heard of cultures that grind the acorn in a certain way, and mix it with a certain plant boiled in water and that is the only way someone could eat it without getting poisoned. however, this could be something specific to the trees they grow in.

How odd…

@Mtl zack, they aren’t

“No matter how many mothers have told their children otherwise, acorns are not poisonous; they are one of the oldest foods known to man. Evidence of their consumption has been found amid the debris in Paleolithic cave dwellings…
...There are more than 60 species of oak trees in North America, and every one of them produces edible acorns.”

Those are not Asian women, as you suppose. They are ninja squirrels!

With all this talk of economic recession it’s a sad thing that the truth that we are in an acorn crisis is being suppressed. Spread the word!

Weirder is Albertson’s charging $4 for 8oz. of blackberries.

I hadn’t noticed a competitive acorn frenzy. Maybe a warlock is polymorphing squirrels into humans. Where are you seeing this exactly?

It is quite prevalent in the Queen Anne area of Seattle. It is one of life’s unsolved mysteries apparently. For some reason, we are really obsessed with finding out why they do it. I tried asking, but got totally shut down.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/deputy’s/hort/consumer/poison/Quercsp.htm
Not too poisonous but slightly. You can fix that by boiling them. They can be poisonous to cattle, though.

“Some, however, are more edible than others. Oaks are broadly divided into two groups: red (or black) oaks, and white. Generally, nuts from trees in the red-oak group have a bitter taste, thanks to their high content of tannin, an astringent substance. White oaks, however, contain less tannin and produce acorns that are considerably sweeter.” Mother Earth news (link below)
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1988–09-01/A-Fall-Field-Guide-to-Nuts.aspx?page=2

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1988–09-01/A-Fall-Field-Guide-to-Nuts.aspx
sorry the link above didn’t work correctly it is a good one about nuts in case you are interested in what kind of oaks have the best acorns to eat.

@greylady thats the exact link i posted above when i explained how they arent poisonous ;)

Well, good for us! Kind of hard to tell from looking at them, though.

The same reason the Maidu Indians harvested them, to make acorn flour.
Very bitter, BTW.