I have set a personal goal for Halloween: all of the food to be served will be local and I will wildcraft as much as possible. So, I have started making acorn flour for cookies, muffins, cakes, and coffee beverages. I will be using local venison, chicken, and eggs for the meat dishes, I will forage my own nuts (black walnuts are everywhere!) All of the vegetables will be grown locally, and I will be making alcohols and garnishes based on local wildcrafted herbs.

The acorn flour is my current project, and it's very easy!

-Go collect a BUNCH of acorns. I mean, a full bucket.

-Fill a pan or bucket with water, slowly pour acorns in. Those which are bad will float, so take them out. The ones that sink are good to use, generally.

-Crack them open with a hammer, take out the nut meat. If the meat is not fairly uniform in color, it is bad. Any brown? Bad, don't use it.

-Once all the nut meat is removed, put it in a blender by the cupful. Fill blender with water and blend for 3-5 minutes.

- Strain the blended mix through panty hose or cheesecloth to collect the pulverized nut. You can save the liquid for later crafts and cooking.

-Squeeze the nut mass until its as dry as you can get it. Squeeze hard, hard, hard.

- Run water through the nut mass until it runs fairly clear, should only take a few minutes. When rinsing is done, squeeze water out again.

- Put the ball of nut mass into a bowl, repeat the last 4 steps until all the nut meat is pulverized and strained.

- Sift the nut meat onto a cookie sheet, dry/cook it on a very low setting for a few hours, until it smells nutty and looks a little darker brown.

-Sift it again, store it in the freezer until you're ready to use it.

Acorn flour is a gluten free flour, but other can be used like normal flour. It has a more dense texture and rich flavor but otherwise is quite delightful!