Alameda’s acorn revival is reconnecting the community with the harvest, processing, and culinary celebration of this local nut. This all began last July, when the Alameda Native History Project invited neighbors to take part in the first-ever “granary challenge.” Participants ranged from second- and third-graders to college undergraduates, parents, and grandparents—all from diverse social, cultural, and economic backgrounds.
Our youngest participants built our granary’s framework. We are amazed, grateful, and humbled by their instinctive expertise and boundless enthusiasm.
We are storing the acorns over the winter around the island. In March, we will begin processing our harvested acorns to produce acorn flour and acorn meal. We invite you to come and witness this on Sunday March 9 and Sunday, March 23, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.. at the Mastick Senior Center,1155 Santa Clara Avenue. Learn more about the event and get tickets online.
Then, every Sunday in April, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., we will host “ACORNS! Culinary Series,” also at the Mastick Senior Center. Our April events will feature traditional and contemporary indigenous and international cuisine. We will continue our culinary journey celebrating Native American heritage in the universal language of food. Come discover the rich flavors and traditions of Indigenous cuisine, featuring acorns as a staple ingredient.
Learn how to harvest, process, and cook acorns into delicious dishes like acorn pumpkin muffins and acorn rabbit tamales. Learn more about our April events and sign up online.
We will share the acorns we do not use for food with 100K Trees For Humanity, which will germinate and plant new oak trees. This will help an effort to increase our urban forest canopies, restore natural habitats, increase urban carbon sequestration capacity to help cities meet carbon reduction goals and for greater equity for cooler healthier communities.
The Alameda Recreation and Parks Department is hosting the series, which was made possible in part by a grant from the Alameda County Arts Commission’s ARTSFUND.
Alameda Native History Project was founded in 2019 to research the history of what is now known as Alameda, California. Through a multi-disciplinary analysis of the historical record, the project has produced a series of educational materials that redefined the standard for the 21st century. Among the Alameda Native History Project’s achievements are the creation of a three-dimensional model of a shellmound in augmented reality, an interactive shellmound map of the Bay Area, and a historical ecology map of the place now known as Alameda. Read more about the organization’s mission, vision, and goal at the Alameda Native History Project website. Click on “Projects,” “Maps,” and then “Articles” for an in-depth look.
Gabriel Duncan is the founder and principal researcher of the Alameda Native History Project. A recognized descendant of the Utu Utu Gwaitu Benton Hot Springs Paiute Tribe, a Federally Recognized Native American Tribe in Benton Hot Springs, California, he was adopted out of the tribe, and was born and raised in Alameda.
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